Jerry Springer Gets Serious

Jerry himself sure takes it all with a grain of salt, but the talk show host got serious when he told our own JANN CARL about his plans to visit Auschwitz, the site where many of his relatives perished during the Holocaust.

"Much of my family was exterminated in Auschwitz," said Jerry. "My grandparents, they're all gone; they all died there, and also my dad's brother -- so my uncle, and three cousins, an aunt -- [the Nazis] got the family shoe store and took them all away."

Jerry's trip is part of a show airing in England called "Who Do You Think You Are?" A three-hour primetime special on the BBC, the show's producers pick a well-known person and go back as many centuries as possible to discover their roots.

"I think they have me back to the 1700s to find my family," said Jerry, who will travel around for 10 days along with his sister to trace his family tree. "I show up in England with my passport and they take me around the world. They've already arranged it, but I don't know where they're taking me.

"I know I'm going to Germany," he continued, "because that's where my parents are from, and that's where the rest of my family was killed. That'll be tough. Yeah, going to Auschwitz, that'll be horrible. But before then, I don't know [where they'll take me]."

Still, Jerry maintained his trademark sense of humor, declaring, "I think in the end, what we'll find out is I'm black. On the last day of the show, I want to be dancing around a campfire in Uganda with a grass skirt with the tribal chieftain turning out to be my great, great, great, great [grandfather]."

2826 hcarroll Published 11/14/07   Message Add to Friends