There is a news story today about Ed Miliband, one of Britain’s fairly young cabinet ministers. He was in Moscow yesterday giving an interview about the environment and a woman phoned in.
She said she was his relative, Sofia Davidovna Miliband. The telephone operator thought it was a hoax.
But she really is a relative about whom Ed and his entire family in Britain were unaware. Ed’s grandfather left the Warsaw Jewish ghetto in the 1920’s and during World War II, escaped the Nazis by getting into Britain on forged papers. Sofia’s wing of the family went to Russia. She is now 87 years old.
The Milibands, both in Russia or England, are an interesting family. Sofia Miliband was a leading academic on the faculty Moscow School ofOriental Studies and is recognized expert on Iran. Her latest book was published last year. Ed’s father was a sociologist and political scientist at the London School of Economics, and now both of his sons are members of the current UK government.
So much for Hitler’s vision of a pure society. Thank God he failed.
