Looking at other forums and blogs there has been a mixed reaction to the format used by Who Do You Think You Are? of just concentrating on a few members of the family of a celebrity. However, last night's programme, despite the lack of parish records and the 'ready made' family trees given straight to the celebrity, was still very interesting- simply due to the fact on Marianne Faithfull's maternal Austro-Hungarian side they lived in a time of firstly, artistic freedom and decadence, then political upheavals and then the Nazi persecution of Jews and Russian reprisals.
The story was one of drama and often danger, but one filled with determination and human resilience to survive. It added another dimension to many peoples' views of Marianne Faithfull and maybe explains the problems she has faced in her life. What did you think of last night's show?
The penultimate episode of 'Who Do You Think You Are? features iconic 60s singer, songwriter and actress Marianne Faithfull.
60s iconic star Marianne Faithfull
The programme looks to be concentrating on her maternal side who were of Austro-Hungarian aristocratic descent. The 'von Sacher-Masoch' family contained a number of writers and literary experts and Marianne's grandfather was also a war hero for Germany in the First World War. This partly kept them from Nazi persecution as they had some Jewish forebears in the family but their existence in Vienna in the 1940s was precarious as they quietly opposed the regime, distributing anti-Nazi leaflets.
It promises to be another interesting episode and is on BBC1 tonight at 9pm. If you'd like a preview, there's an interesting article on TheGenealogist at http://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/wdytya2013_faithfull.php
