Historian Simon Schama has been nominated for a Royal Television Society award for his film The Road to Auschwitz.
Described as his “most personal and unflinching film” yet with the BBC, the documentary studies the events of the Holocaust as not only Nazi atrocities but a European “crime of complicity”.
The film, which aired in April last year, sees the historian looks at the accumulation of antisemitism over centuries and the global dismissal of the Jewish plight.
Schama has written several leading history books such as The Story of the Jews and presented educational television programmes for the BBC, including 2007 BAFTA-winner The Power of Art.
The author told the JC last year that he sought to “restore some extraordinary Jewish voices from the anonymity of victimhood” with the RTS-nominated documentary. He has since set to writing his final volume on Jewish history, in the hope of revising the narrative of the perpetual Jewish victim.
“The RTS Programme Awards celebrate the extraordinary depth of creative talent that defines the UK television industry,” said Kenton Allen, chair of the RTS programme awards.
“On behalf of the Royal Television Society, I would like to congratulate all of this year’s nominees and thank them for the imagination, skill and sheer hard work that keeps our industry at the very forefront of global television.”
Elsewhere, the BBC’s coverage of Holocaust Memorial Day 2025 is nominated for best live event; Martin Lewis with his ITV1 programme The Martin Lewis Money Show Live is in the running for best presenter; and Claudia Winkleman has been shortlisted for best entertainment performance, in the hit BBC series Celebrity Traitors.
The Road to Auschwitz will be up against with Drum Studios’ Flight 149: Hostage of War and Acme’s Unforgotten: The Bradford City Fire.
To get more news, click here to sign up for our free daily newsletter.