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Avram Grant has in the past revealed elements of the remarkable story of how his late father, Meir Granat, survived the Holocaust.
But last night BBC Radio Five Live broadcast a new, chilling documentary with Grant, retracing the steps his father and grandfather took more than 70 years ago.
Football Focus presenter Dan Walker travelled with the former Chelsea manager to the Polish village where Grant’s family lived, and then continued their journey to Auschwitz, where almost the entire family was decimated during the Shoah.
Listening to him standing in the death camp, discussing his father’s nightmares, discovering the fate of family members he never even knew existed, and ultimately celebrating the fact his father lived to tell his story, is deeply moving.
Last week I wrote about how some use sport as a vehicle for their racism. Holding the European Championships in Poland and the Ukraine means that – amid all the warnings of neo-Nazism and racist abuse awaiting football fans – thousands of people will learn for the first time about the horrors of the Holocaust.
Avram Grant’s football management skills may be a target for mockery, but his bravery in appearing in this thoughtful, intelligent documentary means his family’s story – which mirrors that of hundreds of thousands of other Jewish families – will, rightly, be brought to new British audiences in primetime broadcasts during the four weeks of the Euro 2012 tournament.
Avram’s Journey is an absolute must-listen. Hear it here.