The Repair Shop viewers tearful over moving World War II story
The latest episode of the BBC favourite touched fans
What did you miss?
The Repair Shop viewers were emotional as a woman took in a ring that had been gifted to her mum in the Jewish ghetto when she was child.
The BBC series starring Jay Blades sees experts restoring precious family heirlooms that have become worn or damaged. The moving stories behind the items often strike a chord with viewers and the ring featured on Wednesday's instalment on 28 August was no different.
Some fans were in tears as they watched Halina Eves recount how her mother was given the ring during World War II as a thank you for sneaking food into the ghetto for other people.
What, how and why?
Eves was the first into the shop, where she showed her broken ring to jewellery expert Richard Talman. "My mother was Polish and that has come from the Jewish ghetto in Warsaw," she said.
"She wasn’t Jewish... My mother was 13 and came home from school and her street was bombed. She saw her mum on the floor dead. She was terrified. Her father had gone off to war and she never knew what happened to him."
With no close relatives, the young girl fled to the church and was sent to a convent right behind the ghetto. The church also hid the Jewish resistance, who encouraged the orphans to take food into the ghetto, which is what she did. One day a woman there gave her the ring as a thank you for sneaking in bits and pieces of food.
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After one of the orphans was shot dead, the girl had to move on and she ended up in a labour camp until the end of the war. However, she managed to hang onto her ring throughout it all.
She has since passed away and sadly the piece of jewellery snapped not long after she died. Eves had gone on to The Repair Shop in the hope of having it turned into a pendant.
"My daughter loves necklaces and it's close to our hearts isn’t it?" she said. Her own daughter, who was with her, added: "It’s a piece of our family history and it represents for both of us just how brave, courageous, how resilient, and really a model for being such a strong woman. It will always always stay in our hearts. It will be passed down from generation to generation with the story and the history behind it.”
Talman worked his magic and turned the ring into a stunning pendant, which left both women gasping when they saw it for the first time.
Clearly moved himself, Talman said it had been a "great honour" to work on it. "To risk her life to feed others is incredibly admirable for anyone, let alone a young girl," he added.
What did viewers say?
Viewers were also emotional over the story, with one saying on X: "What a moving story on The Repair Shop. As always." "Crying at The Repair Shop again," another person said.
"Gorgeous pendant. Richard did an amazing job as always," someone else remarked. One viewer said: "What a brave, amazing woman her mum was. To survive the Warsaw ghetto is truly remarkable."
The Repair Shop airs on BBC One and streams on BBC iPlayer.
