Andrew Sachs begins a new four-part examination of the United Kingdom's extraordinary Jewish history. In 1938 he escaped as a child from Nazi Germany and entered Britain as a refugee. Had the Sachs family not been allowed into the country it is unlikely that they would have survived the Holocaust. But Britain has been taking Jewish refugees for over 800 years; they are the oldest minority in the country.
The Jews of Medieval England. William the Conqueror brought Jews from Rouen in northern France to help revive English trade. But Church-inspired anxieties led to the introduction of the Jew badge - to separate Jews from Christians - and "houses of conversion". Attacks on Jews followed, especially during the Crusades, culminating in the York Massacre and, in Lincoln, the notorious Blood Libel case which put many innocent Jews in the Tower of London.
Programme of the Week: page 109