Harnessing the Power of Genetic Genealogy to Help Holocaust Survivors Find Family

We know the power and potential of DNA testing to find family and solve family mysteries. Learn about an innovative application of that power to help Holocaust survivors and their families reconstruct their shattered trees. This presentation will cover some of the basics and challenges of Jewish genetic genealogy and Holocaust research, and then will detail some of the incredible reunions Jennifer Mendelsohn and Adina Newman, co-founders and lead genealogists of the nonprofit Holocaust Reunion Project, have helped orchestrate. Those include identifying the unknown biological father of a child survivor of Theresienstadt concentration camp and finding the families of two Polish orphans who were shocked to learn in their 80s that they were full sisters and Jewish.