Sir Ben Kingsley says his grandmother's anti-Semitic comments "planted a seed" in him to want to speak out.
Sir Ben Kingsley was left deeply horrified by his grandmother's remarks
The Hollywood legend, 79, has revealed his grandparent being "inexplicably but quite vigorously anti-Semitic" disturbed him and he went into "deep shock" as a child after watching a docuseries about the liberation of the Nazi camp Belsen, which is why he has taken on roles in films about the Holocaust.
Those movies include 'Schindler's List', 'Murderers Among Us: The Simon Wiesenthal Story', 'Bugsy' and 'Anne Frank: The Whole Story'.
Asked why he's done so many movies about the genocide of Jews during World War II between 1941 and 1945, he told Parade magazine: "I must answer very candidly, and it's an answer that disturbs me but it's the truth. I remember as a schoolboy watching a wonderful television documentary series, which examined World War Il. And as a schoolboy, alone in the house, I watched the liberation of Belsen [a Nazi concentration camp] on film. And I do remember as a young adolescent, I think I was maybe 11 or 12 - this was way after World War Il, of course, it was a retrospective - but I think my heart stopped beating for a little while. I went into deep shock as a child [watching that documentary].
"The disturbing part of this story is that I remember within the same few days having a conversation with my maternal grandmother, who was inexplicably but quite vigorously anti-Semitic. So, the two impressions came to me almost simultaneously, and as a child, it was very difficult for me, impossible for me to counter my grandmother's outburst, but I think a seed was planted in me that said to me,
"One day I will speak."
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