Forensic Genetic Genealogy Pioneers

Who Am I? What is My Name? Part V – Gertrude and Sonia’s Escape

Gertrude & Sonia Preiss-Spiro’s names are listed on the transport to Auschwitz of 141 women from Pawiak prison in Warsaw on 24 August 1943.  Pawiak prison was originally used by the Polish judicial to incarcerate criminals, but after the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939, it was converted into a German Gestapo prison.  Approximately 100,000 […]

Who Am I? What is My Name? Part IV – Wolfgang and Adele’s Eyewitness Account

Charlotte Schössow Rebhun was the oldest of four children of Emil and Margarete Schössow from Berlin.  Charlotte, like her friend Gertrude Spiro, was a Christian woman who had married a Jew.  Charlotte’s husband Max Rebhun had moved from Poland to Germany and settled in Berlin, probably right after WWI.  Max was arrested on Kristalnacht in 1938, and sent to Poland. His wife […]

"The Mascot" – Truth or Fiction

The Mascot is the international best-selling Holocaust biography of Alex Kurzem…After an exhaustive international three-year search for evidence, my colleague Dr. Barry Resnick and I have discovered no proof that Mr. Kurzem’s story is true, nor has it been established that he is Jewish.