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.
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What kind of party chooses such a person as their leader ?
What kind of person joins or votes for a party with such a leader ?
Voting Green would appear to be tantamount to declaring yourself to be an imbecile.
he’s trying to out-do Arday
Is he related to Jason Arday?
You mean David Paulden aka ” Snaggle Puss “
Yes it must be confusing when your real name is David Poulden.
Yes… Yes how can we put this? Hmm… Oh, I know: “The leader of the Green Party is a lying, slithering piece of vermin.” Does that clarify the matter?
Was Wacko Zacko having an Ard day ?
Don’t fret, in Australia our Greenie ”leadership” if you can call it that, is equally loony
This dim witted authoritarian can’t even understand council tax. A family tree is well beyond his limited capacity.
Real name David Paulden
Like that twat Alexander Johnson, he is using a stage name because he’s just an actor playing a role
And this is what worries me about Reform. Too many new recruits that are happy to simply read the new script they’ve been given. They have no principles and they’re definitely not honourable.
I think politics by its nature doesn’t attract people who ought to have power. That’s why we should not trust them and their power should be limited. Sadly very few people agree with me.
This doesn’t mean some are not better than others. I think Reform deserve a chance, but I am not overly optimistic.
I agree with you. But to say they are new and are unprincipled and dishonourable does seem to smack of bullsh*t.
Why do you say this – which people do you have in mind?
It must be all of them because they are all new recruits.
Seeing as Reform are a new party it’s unsurprising that most of them are new recruits!
He’s just a lying f*ck.
There’s always that…
“Fascism, Nazism, Communism and Socialism are only superficial variations of the same monstrous theme—collectivism.”
Ayn Rand
100% agree. I interrogated Grok on the subject. She (not to be sexist) at first said that fascism was not socialism. But to cut a long story short she ended up agreeing with me that they are. She thanked me and said she would update her algorithm. I asked simple questions.
1) How many fascists were previously socialist or near socialist.
2) of the literature she quoted I pointed out that she was merely repeating other people’s opinions and should come to her own conclusion based on fact not opinions and to avoid semantics.
3) If repeating opinions she should look at the politics of the author.
4) Then lastly she should look at the outcome of Socialist, Fascist, Nazi and Communist governance.
There were a few other questions but I wish that I had copied her response, it was well reasoned.
She took about 5 minutes to come to the conclusion that they all, without exception, have been responsible for mass poverty and destruction and the differences were superficial. The amount of literature, facts and figures she presented was staggering.
so I learned something else. AI is evolving. I would love to see the socialists slither out of pure… Read more »
is he in fact even Jewish?
“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”.”
Yes, that’s correct. It’s evidence of him being a baldfaced liar and a conman. Yes, it’s an attempt to discredit him, indeed it is.
You’re right of course. But I find it somewhat amusing that it takes a little white lie about his ancestry to discredit him. After all the utter drivel that’s come out of this man’s mouth in the past year or so…
He has discredited himself
this conman is a pure ‘fantasist’.
Also, this fantasist is a conman. And a certified boob whisperer.
He’s clearly an adherent to the Angela Rayner (or perhaps Tony Blair) school of truth telling. Why let the truth get in the way of a good story. The response to the Daily Mail request for clarification is a classic narcissistic manipulation tactic using “Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender (DARVO)
He would do very well in Cambridge
Perhaps, although he is male and white, so probably the wrong demographic to get in through the door. The only thing going for him is his obvious teeth deficit. I’m not sure if intersectionality stretches that far. He’s clearly not very bright although that seems to be an entry requirement these days.
He’s a Communist, just like this fella:
“To speak the truth is a petit-bourgeois habit, a luxury of worry-free and aimless people. To lie, on the contrary, is often justified by the lie’s aim.”
Lenin
I’m glad you posted that delightful quote from Mr Lenin, as it would appear to explain many things..
Selective with the truth, no doubt. Tends to reduce most people’s confidence in politicians though.
“Selective” would suggest that on the odd occasion a little bit of truth slips out?
No mystery here. He’s just a liar.
Like Prof Arday – but not as clever.
Or shiny.
Any evidence that Arday was clever? Academic, perhaps, but clever? He was good at deceit and at conning people, but only for a while. He had to keep running – 4 or more ‘universities’ – until he reached the top, at which point he had little option but to jump off.
No honourable resignations at Cantab yet…..
Sneaky aren’t they?