My parents were German Jews who arrived in Australia in 1939-1940, but not by choice. They never really talked about their lives in Germany, and I didn't even know the names of half my grandparents.
Combining genealogical and family history research, I discovered ancestors from dozens of towns from East Prussia to Wuppertal and living cousins across four continents.
I retraced the footsteps of my family with a research road trip around 34 towns and cities across Germany, unearthing 20 relatives who served in the German Army in WW1, one who fought in the American Civil War, and over 110 relatives who were murdered in the Holocaust.
My family's history reflects a 300-year history of Jews in German-speaking lands, finding stories about amazing individuals, Jewish village life, Protected Jews, urbanization and assimilation, antisemitism, Kristallnacht experiences, the Kindertransports, the deportation process and the Dunera story.
The story of my ancestors takes us from the Lithuanian border, through East Prussia to Hamburg, Berlin, Hannover, Hildesheim, Wuppertal, Magdeburg, Leipzig, and many small German towns and villages. I also discovered family from towns in what is now western Poland but were once German-speaking lands.
I found relatives like writer and librarian Dr Werner Kraft, banker and philanthropist Dr Max Steinthal, philologist Prof Dr Heymann Steinthal, soldier and theatre director Captain George Isenstein, and Pauline Löwenhardt nee Lennhoff whose nine sons fought in WW1.