Chapter I: Like An Oak Tree

"There were really two plans. One, was to become something -- somebody. Two, was to go back and see who was left."Support the show

"I was a citizen of nothing." Support the show

I always think how different it is, what is in your head and what is in your reality.Support the show

We went to the end of the world and back. We went to the site of their murder. We went to Sobibór.Support the show

“She’s 16. She should be in school. She should be with her family. Her letters shouldn’t be censored. Sentences shouldn’t be blacked out. Envelopes shouldn’t be stamped with a swastika. But I guess you can get used to anything.”Support the show

The bridge always burned or was destroyed. There was no way to go back again. Once you made another step, you couldn't step back.Support the show

In the years after her death, I uncovered an incredible archive of her life. She’d left behind boxes upon boxes of letters and photographs and diaries. There were preserved albums dating back to the 1920s and letters she’d sent to lovers. There were report cards and deportation papers and love notes from her parents censored by Nazis. Then, amidst all of these papers, I found a plain manila folder. It had a note on it, written in red ink in her shaky cursive handwriting. She’d written my name.Support the show