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Clip: Season 9 Episode 7 | 5m 34s | Video has closed captioning.
Actor Richard Kind had always considered himself fortunate that he didn't have relatives who were in the Holocaust. But in this clip, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. reveals that the actor had a number of ancestors who were killed in the Holocaust, and one who survived.
Aired: 02/14/23
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-[Henry] Did you ever wonder if you had any relatives in Europe during World War II?
-Yes, and I sort of threw my arms up and said, "I haven't got anybody.
Nobody."
-[Henry] Mm-hm.
-It's like I was very lucky, I know a lot of people, I knew nobody who was in the 9/11 buildings, the Trade Towers, and I never knew anybody who was related who might have gone to the camps.
-Could you please turn the page?
-I'm gonna cry, aren't I?
Oh, wow.
-[Henry] That's Warsaw, the capital of Poland, and those are Nazi troops.
Richard, this is the brother that went back.
-Yeah.
-Three stayed and one went back.
-And one went back; luck of the draw.
-[Henry VO] In June of 1941, the German army entered Narew.
Avram Wacht and his wife and children were among the town's roughly 300 Jewish residents.
They were soon forced into an area of less than five acres, effectively establishing a closed ghetto.
Incredibly, the only known account of this ghetto was written by Avram's son, a man named Leibel Wacht.
Leibel was roughly 28 years old at the time, and his words are dreadful to read.
-"On the 28th of July, 1941, the Gestapo came and demanded that the shtetl pay tribute -- one kilo of gold, 10 kilo of silver, and 100,000 rubles.
My father, Avraham Wacht, was told to collect the money.
The Germans took the money and then beat him badly.
On October 8th, 1941, the Germans surrounded the shtetl and all non-skilled men were taken.
Those who tried to run were shot.
They were beaten badly, and all their last possessions taken."
-So what's it like to learn that you had relatives who experienced this?
-Well, any time I hear about the Holocaust, of course, I'm gonna have this reaction.
It's one of those things where I... where I hold the Holocaust as the Great Inhumanity, it's awful, and yet, to try and find the personal place -- other than being a Jew -- I never could.
-Mm-hm.
-Again, I can.
-[Henry VO] In November of 1942, the Germans liquidated the Narew ghetto.
Most of its population ended up in the gas chambers of the Treblinka death camp.
Miraculously, Leibel managed to escape, but his family was not so fortunate.
In the archives of Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, we found over 20 testimonials written by Leibel documenting the fates of people whom he knew.
Among these symbolic tombstones, we saw that his father Avram, his three siblings, and his five-year-old nephew had all perished at the hands of the Nazis.
-So these were all my relatives?
-[Henry] These are your family.
So you never though you had such a tangible connection to the Holocaust?
-No, I didn't.
-[Henry] Yeah.
And you've heard-- -But again... forgive me, I have...
It's not a tangible, but I always felt it.
-[Henry] Right.
-I always have.
-Sure, it's your people.
-It's my people, right.
It's my people, it's-- you know, it's everything, it's Man, it's-- you know, it's... -[Henry] Yeah.
-Because of somebody's race or religion or whatever it is.
-Mm-hm.
-It's just horrible.
-[Henry VO] There is a grace note to this story.
Following the war, Leibel married and had children of his own.
He was one of only a handful who survived the Narew ghetto, and in the archives of Yad Vashem, he described how he did it: in a way that's truly heartwarming.
It seems that Leibel was saved due to his relationship with a Polish farmer name Andrzej Iwaniuk.
who, together with his family, chanced everything to help his Jewish friend.
-"In 1942, Iwaniuk helped me escape the liquidation of the ghetto and took me in.
He prepared a hiding spot for me in his barn, provided me with food and warm clothing in the winter, and once a week prepared a hot bath for me.
In this hiding spot" -- oh my God -- "I survived until May 28th, 1944, when the Germans evacuated.
By helping me, the Iwaniuks were aware that they risked their lives."
Aww!
"It's to them that I owe my life."
-[Henry] Mm.
-And then the family.
-[Henry] Yeah.
-Wow.
-He survived because a local farmer and his family hid Leibel in their barn for two years.
What do you make of that?
-Everything's right about that story.
Everything is right.
-[Henry] Yeah.
-It fills in all the blanks -- the bravery of the family that hid him... -[Henry] Yeah.
-This guy having to live there under a barn... -[Henry] Mm-hm.
-Those nightmares, having to survive that.
A bath once a week and food... -Yeah.
-That's fantastic.
Finding Your Roots.
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Episode Guide
A new season of Finding Your Roots premieres January 3, 2023 8/7c! Tune in for all-new episodes as renowned scholar Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. guides influential guests into their roots, uncovering deep secrets, hidden identities and lost ancestors.
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