BBC Breakfast’s Sally Nugent found herself solo on the red couch this Monday morning as her colleague Jon Kay was notably absent from his usual spot beside her.
The BBC studio camera swept over to reveal Sally greeting viewers on her own, the iconic red sofa unusually hosting a party of one.
Jon, aged 55, was away on assignment, broadcasting live from Auschwitz during a poignant programme. This special broadcast comes as about 50 survivors of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau plan their return to the site, commemorating the day it was liberated on January 27, 1945.
Addressing audiences from Auschwitz in Poland, Jon stated: “Hello there, you join us from Auschwitz in Poland this morning as the world marks Holocaust Memorial Day.”
He elaborated further: “80 years ago this notorious Nazi death-camp was liberated and at eight o’clock this morning, commemoration events will start with Holocaust survivors lighting candles at the wall of death, as it’s known. That’s where thousands were murdered by a firing squad.”
Conversations shifted to honour the memory of Zigi Shipper, who was deported to Auschwitz in 1944 at the tender age of 14 but survived post-war to build a family, reports the Express.
Speaking to viewers, Jon highlighted: “On this day five years ago at breakfast, we told the story of Zigi Shipper. He was only 14 when he was rounded up by the Nazi and brought here to Auschwitz simply because he was Jewish.
“Now many of those who arrived were taken straight to the gas chambers and systematically murdered but because Zigi was young and healthy, he was forced to work in brutal conditions but that meant that he was one of a small minority who survived.”
He continued: “At the end of the war Zigi escaped to the UK where he got married and had children. For many years he didn’t say a word about the unbelievable horrors he had witnessed here because it was just too painful, but later in life Zigi decided that he must speak out so that the Holocaust is not forgotten. Sadly, Zigi died two years ago at the age of 93, but on this anniversary we wanted to return to his story.”
BBC Breakfast airs from 6am on BBC One and BBC iPlayer