Judge Rinder broke down in tears after finding out his family were murdered in just 30 minutes at Nazi death camp

JUDGE Rinder broke down in tears after finding out his family members were murdered in a Nazi death camp.

The Jewish criminal barrister, 42, travelled to Poland and Belarus with his mum Angela to find out more about his family history for a new BBC documentary which airs early next week.

During the two-part series the star, who is most well known for his role as Judge Rinder on the popular ITV reality court show of the same name, helps others try to find out more about what happened to their family members during the Holocaust.

And in doing so, he found out that some of his relatives had tragically died in an extermination camp.

Judge Rinder, who goes by the real name of Robert Rinder, also met an elderly woman who witnessed a group of Jews being buried alive in Belarus.

Speaking to , Robert explained how one conversation about her awful ordeal will stick in his mind for the rest of his life.

He said: “I was listening to the ­testimony of the 97-year-old who is the last hearing witness of the massacre and only I and the fixer could understand what she was saying in Russian.

“‘What she said landed with infinitely more power if you understood it in the Russian – ‘mound was moving for several days’.

“It was without question the most profound moment of my life and I’m certain it always will be.”

His mum Angela also explained how she had to come to terms with the fact that her own family members were murdered shortly after arriving at one of the many death camps created by the Nazis.

She added: “What would have happened to my family, my grandparents – this is where they got off the train and within 35 minutes they’d have been murdered. I thought the backs of my legs were going to give way.”

This isn’t the first time that Robert has uncovered heartbreaking news about his family history.

He took part in the BBC’s Who Do You Think You Are in 2018 and learnt that his grandfather, Morris Malenicky, was one of only eight family members to survive the holocaust.

In September 1939, German troops created their first ghetto in Nazi-occupied Europe located where Robert’s grandfather and the rest of his family lived – the city of Piotrkow.

Then in February they were moved to Nazi extermination camp Treblinka, where six million Jewish people were murdered during the massacre.

Robert’s grandfather was the only one to survive.

In April this year, the telly personality paid an emotional tribute to his grandfather on This Morning after he passed away from coronavirus.

He told hosts Ruth Langsford and Eamonn Holmes: “My grandfather, who was 92, passed away two nights ago from this terrible disease.

“The thing is he survived the Second World War, and he was a man determined and conspired to see joy in the world, and as much as there is terrible and appalling news out there we also, as community, as neighbours, as a country need to remember there are thousands of people who are recovering from this disease every single day.

“Whenever I saw him, which was very often, I loved him very much, he’d say ‘what good news is there son?’

“It’s been a challenging time, but I remember him in that positive way.

“We can choose to drown ourselves in the negativity and horror, or choose to galvanise ourselves to be at our very best and that’s the way I’m going to choose to remember him.”

My Family, the Holocaust and Me with Robert Rinder, Monday at 9pm on BBC One