Author Searches for Relatives Who Survived Holocaust
Daniel Mendelsohn's new book is The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million. As a child, his old Jewish relatives told stories of family members killed in the Holocaust. Mendelsohn undertook a worldwide search for surviving members of his family's town. During his investigation, Mendelsohn discovered letters from the family begging their relatives in the United States to help them get out of their Ukrainian town.
Daniel Mendelsohn, Passionately Pursuing 'The Lost'
Daniel Mendelsohn, above, and his photographer brother Matt Mendelsohn traveled the globe to document the stories of distant relatives in The Lost. Photo courtesy Matt Mendelsohn hide caption
Daniel Mendelsohn, above, and his photographer brother Matt Mendelsohn traveled the globe to document the stories of distant relatives in The Lost.
Photo courtesy Matt MendelsohnRead an Excerpt
Adam Kulberg and his granddaughter Alma, photographed in Copenhagen. Kulberg, one of Daniel Mendelsohn's distant cousins, lived in the Ukrainian town of Bolechow; he left the town and his family on his 20th birthday, essentially on instinct, thinking he'd walk to Palestine. He joined a Polish regiment in the Soviet army, fought in the Berlin offensive of April 1945, and learned much later, in a letter, that his entire family in Bolechow had perished. Photo courtesy Matt Mendelsohn hide caption
Adam Kulberg and his granddaughter Alma, photographed in Copenhagen. Kulberg, one of Daniel Mendelsohn's distant cousins, lived in the Ukrainian town of Bolechow; he left the town and his family on his 20th birthday, essentially on instinct, thinking he'd walk to Palestine. He joined a Polish regiment in the Soviet army, fought in the Berlin offensive of April 1945, and learned much later, in a letter, that his entire family in Bolechow had perished.
Photo courtesy Matt Mendelsohn
When the Mendelsohns paid their first visit to the old Jewish cemetery in Bolechow, the very first headstone they saw was the plain marker for a distant ancestor, Sima Jager. Though executions were carried out there, and many believe a mass grave exists beneath it, nowadays the cemetery doubles as a cow pasture — and a playground for local children, who "see the area mainly as a make-believe 'fort,'" Matt Mendelsohn says. Photo courtesy Matt Mendelsohn hide caption
When the Mendelsohns paid their first visit to the old Jewish cemetery in Bolechow, the very first headstone they saw was the plain marker for a distant ancestor, Sima Jager. Though executions were carried out there, and many believe a mass grave exists beneath it, nowadays the cemetery doubles as a cow pasture — and a playground for local children, who "see the area mainly as a make-believe 'fort,'" Matt Mendelsohn says.
Photo courtesy Matt Mendelsohn