American chat show host Jerry Springer embarks on a personal and emotional journey in Who Do You Think You Are?

Jerry was born in Golders Green in 1944 after his Jewish parents had escaped to London from Nazi Germany just three days before the outbreak of the Second World War. Jerry’s grandmothers did not escape and both were murdered in the holocaust. He does not know what happened to them after his parents’ escape, or where they died, but with their death all knowledge of his family’s roots were lost.

Jerry sets out to discover if he can trace the Springer family. He discovers that his great-grandfather, Abraham Springer, came from the small town of Neustettin. Now in Poland, in the 19th century the town was in the German kingdom of Prussia. Documents reveal that Abraham, too, had to struggle against, but ultimately overcame, an anti-Semitic hate campaign.

Jerry then undertakes a painful and disturbing investigation into the fate of his grandmothers. Nazi documents provide shocking detail and Jerry traces their journeys, first to the ghettos and ultimately to their deaths.

Tonight: 9.00-10.00pm BBC ONE