Family Story Finder

The sweep of family history across the generations

Escape from Berlin—last good chance to get out
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Our reconstructed timeline: How Elly and Helga Ringel were smuggled with SS escort out of Germany and across the Belgian border in October 1938

Ghosts of Weißensee—the cemetery played on
  • 1929 - 1942

How did Betty Katz meet her end in February 1942?

Mel Brenner
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Mel accomplished many things in life, but his life’s greatest moments happened during the Battle of the Bulge

Motives for mercy—the consuls of Toulouse
  • October 24 1968 - December 8 1940

In July 1940, consular officials from three nations conspired to open an escape route for Jews out of occupied France. Why did they do it?

Rosa’s fateful choice
  • 1936 - 1940

Rosa Feidt was the only Lewi sibling who got out, to her everlasting remorse

The peculiar case of Pinkas Twiasschor
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The estranged husband of Betty Ringel was one of the 1000 war evacuees who found safe haven in the only U.S refugee camp 

The problem with anti-ballistic missiles
  • October 6 1968 - March 10 1969

Stanley Ruby entered the public debate over nuclear missile technology in 1968-69.

The Stetsons of Sumner, Maine
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Militiaman Hezekiah Stetson homesteaded in Oxford County, Maine, in the years after the American Revolution

Ze'ev and Penina Sharon of Kibbutz Afeq
  • 1935 - 2009

A pioneer to Palestine in 1936, Ze’ev married Penina and they did their part to build the state of Israel as founders of Kibbutz Afek.