The star of ITV’s Judge Rinder has been recognised for his services to Holocaust education and awareness with a MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours list.

Robert Rinder, 43, of Barnsbury, has been a stalwart supporter of the Holocaust Educational Trust for over 20 years, and is passionate about making sure the Holocaust is remembered as well as encouraging people to confront contemporary antisemitism, racism and hatred.

The barrister traced his Jewish family's tragic history on the BBC documentary Who Do You Think You Are? and made new discoveries about his grandfather, Morris Malenicky, a survivor of both Schlieben and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps.

%image(15075009, type="article-full", alt="The exhibit showing Moishe Malenicky, grandfather to Robert Rinder, ITV's 'Judge Rinder, and one of the young Holocaust survivors known as 'The Boys' at Newcastle's City Library for the exhibition opening of "A Picture, A Life, A Future" as part of Holocaust Memorial Day 2018")

Robert's mother Angela Cohen, who accompanied him to Treblinka extermination camp during the filming, is also getting a MBE on the same day for her work as chairman of the '45 Aid Society since 2015.

The charitable foundation was set up in 1963 and its founders - who included her father Morris - were a group of child Holocaust survivors, known as The Boys, who were brought to the UK as refugees after the end of the Second World War.

Robert told the Gazette: "The work I do is about making documentaries and above all else going into communities alongside organisations like the Holocaust Survivors Trust to talk to young people and to everybody about the Holocaust and how it emerged and why, so that we never become complacent, and so that we understand that our democracy is fragile.

"It's our personal responsibility to understand and know our history so that it is never repeated. It's now more important than ever."

Robert said he is "really delighted" to be awarded the MBE.

"In a year when there are literally millions of people infinitely more deserving than me - frontline workers spring to mind, for example - there's a sense of feeling really humbled by it," he said.

"I don't really trust anybody that doesn't have any kind of imposter syndrome feeling around it. It's very nice."

%image(15075010, type="article-full", alt="Arek Hersh, one of the young Holocaust survivors known as 'The Boys' was joined by Robert Rinder, ITV's 'Judge Rinder, at Newcastle's City Library for the exhibition opening of "A Picture, A Life, A Future" as part of Holocaust Memorial Day 2018.")