Zack Polanski Said his Family “Fled the Nazis”. But All Four of His Grandparents Were Born in Britain – Long Before the War

Zack Polanski has repeatedly said that his family “fled the Nazis”, but it’s now emerged that all four of his grandparents were born in Britain, long before the war. The Mail has the story.

When Zack Polanski told the heart-rending tale of his ancestors fleeing the Nazis, it earned him applause at last year’s Green Party conference.

But the Holocaust story has raised questions after family history research found his grandparents were all born in Britain long before the Second World War.

On Thursday, Polanski did nothing to clear up the mystery when the Greens declined to answer a request to explain the powerful yet puzzling line in his keynote speech.

Speaking on the podium in Bournemouth one year ago, the newly-installed party leader spoke proudly of his Jewish heritage, saying: “I am literally the product of migration. It’s why defending migrants matters so much to me.”

His Jewish ancestry was “confusing and muddling” because “we were constantly on the run”, he said, but went on: “From what I can gather, my ancestors started in Latvia in a Jewish town, but they fled because of Pogroms.

“They fled to Ukraine where they faced more Pogroms. Then they ended up in Poland where they faced the Nazis. Then they arrived in England and met antisemitism here too.”

Public records of births, marriages and deaths confirm Polanski’s great and great-great-grandparents came from Latvia and Russia.

But historical Census records from 1891, 1901 and other public sources suggest they settled in the UK in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

His recent ancestors were all in Britain years before the Second World War, raising the question of which of them fled the Nazis.

His parents were born in Manchester, and his four grandparents all come from the north of England too.

On his father’s side, Benny was born in 1916 in Manchester and Ethel in 1925 in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria. On his mother’s side, grandfather Maurice was born in 1931 in Manchester and grandmother Shirley in 1934 in nearby Heywood.

After the success of his 2025 conference speech, Polanski repeated his Holocaust story in numerous media interviews.

He told podcast The Rest Is Politics on December 1st last year that “my ancestry” involved fleeing to Ukraine, “then fleeing the Nazis and then end up in the UK”. The narrative was also repeated in newspaper interviews with Polanski.

Appearing on the panel of a BBC Question Time immigration special on December 4th, he told the studio audience: “This is personal to me,” adding: “My great-grandparents lived in Latvia. They’re Jewish and we fled because of Pogroms.

“We ended up in Ukraine. We fled again; more Pogroms. Then in Nazi-occupied Poland. Then fled again. And this is what people have done throughout history.”

The story about the Pogroms makes sense, but the Holocaust element is confusing because it is unclear why his ancestors would have fled Nazi-occupied Poland if they had been born in Britain before Germany invaded Poland in 1939.

When the Daily Mail asked the Green Party if there was some explanation, it declined to answer, saying the question itself was “an attempt to discredit him”.

Last month, Polanski stated in a podcast with political interviewer Iain Dale that “my great-grandparents actually came here way before the Second World War”, deepening the mystery of why he said his ancestors had fled the Nazis.

Almost certainly, in common with all Jewish families, there will have been members of Polanski’s wider family who were persecuted in the Holocaust. But it is unclear who he was referring to when he told the story of his ancestors fleeing the Nazis.

Worth reading in full.