Posted on January 7, 2026
The BBC has issued an apology after facing criticism for a December 26 episode of its popular program The Repair Shop, which discussed the Kindertransport without mentioning Jews, despite the operation’s central role in rescuing Jewish children from Nazi persecution during the Holocaust, i24NEWS reported.
The episode centered on the restoration of a 19th‑century cello belonging to theater producer Martin Landau, who fled Nazi Germany for Britain at age 14 aboard a Kindertransport convoy. The cello had been smashed by Nazi guards shortly before his departure and remained unrepaired for decades.
The Repair Shop, known for featuring expert craftspeople restoring items of deep personal significance, devoted nearly a quarter of the hour‑long episode to the cello’s history and the broader context of the Kindertransport. British actress Helen Mirren presented the instrument to the team, and luthier Becky Houghton restored it before it was played on screen by Jewish cellist Raphael Wallfisch.
However, the program never stated that Landau was Jewish or that the Kindertransport was primarily a rescue operation for Jewish children fleeing Nazi persecution. Historically, the Kindertransport enabled the evacuation of approximately 10,000 Jewish children from Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia between 1938 and 1939, with support from Jewish and humanitarian organizations.
The Jewish Chronicle reported that the word “Jew” was allegedly removed during editing from a sentence spoken by Mirren, which aired simply as, “…children were sent by the Kindertransport,” without further explanation.