On the first Seder night, my daughter presented me with a picture I thought I would never see.
Using a facial recognition app which is still being developed, a picture of my father and his first wife was found. I immediately started crying; I never saw pictures of my father at such a young age. Like many of you, my parents did not discuss previous marriages or murdered children. If only by some miracle I had a half sibling. I am an only child, a miracle of two Holocaust survivors.
Previously, we found an entire family on my mother's side who survived in Israel, including my mother's sister-in-law (now deceased), her two children and their extended families now thriving in Israel. They are my first cousins; one of them died during the COVID-19 pandemic, but my male first cousin is still alive in Israel.
Have hope. Never give up searching. Like me, born in a displaced persons camp, many of us are only a few years younger than the youngest Holocaust survivors. The time to search is now.
Finding these cousins was very complicated and difficult and took cooperation and help from numerous sources around the world and many years.
Rabbi Dr. Bernhard Rosenberg grew up in Kansas City and now resides in Edison, New Jersey. He has authored multiple books about the Holocaust.
