Photo: Hanna Ehrenreich. Audio: Listen Here.
Thomas Edelman was born in Germany more than 25 years after the Allies defeated Hitler. Through his genealogy research, he confirmed that his grandfather, a Nazi, had bought his store FROM a Jewish family during WWII. MyHeritage, a family tree website, helped Edelman learn that the Jewish family had emigrated to Israel and connected him with the living relative of the person forced to sell the property, Hanna Ehrenreich. Edelman reached out to Ehrenreich with a letter explaining his desire to listen and learn about the impact of his grandfather’s actions. His intention was to gather information to share with his son and family `member`s to help them see that decisions they make impact the lives of others. "I want to make sure that at least my family will never again be responsible for injustice experienced by others," he wrote her. Edelman and Ehrenreich had an emotional conversation during which Edelman learned that his grandfather provided life-saving information to Hanna’s family about the Nazis' plans to act against the Jews.
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