75 Years After Mother and Child Separated at Auschwitz, Their Families Reunite Thanks to MyHeritage

it was like finding a needle in a haystack for as long as Dida Morris can remember her mother Dora had been on a mission my mother was captured in Warsaw Poland around 1940 with her two-year-old daughter Eva they were transported to Germany the men were separated from the women and the children were separated from the men and women and that was the last time my mother saw her daughter Dora spent more than three years in the Auschwitz concentration camp and when finally freed Eva was nowhere to be found it became an obsession and in some way you know to know whether she made it or not Dora had two more daughters Jean and Deena eventually moving to the United States but never stopping looking fighting to find her missing firstborn my mother went back to Germany to look for her daughter and searched all of the orphanages to no avail the only thing that they would allow to do when she went there was to walk around in the children's orphanages and just to see if she saw any children that she recognized to be her daughter the only thing she had to hold on to a single photo of she done everything with that boater she had one photo in a frame it sat on the mantel for as long as I can remember she slept with that photo from time to time there were times when the photo had to be turned over on its face because she was so upset she couldn't look at it the search consuming every part of Doras life it took over her life that was all my mom thought about every waking moment of her life she thought about Eva Dora searching for Eva for more than four decades but in 1996 Dora developed a brain tumor and passed away but not before asking Deana to make her a promise she asked my sister Gina and I to continue her search to look for Eva which we have taken very seriously deena welcome and it's good to see you first of all we want to acknowledge your sister Jean is battling cancer right now could not be with us she's going through chemo but we want to start by by sending our best wishes and not knowing what happened to your sister Eva I got imagine it was torturous it was difficult it was a huge part of our life Dina that must have been really difficult for you Ballu and Jean to watch and then your mom asked you to continue the search what was that like at one point we weren't sure that she made it through the concentration camp so we were confused about what we should do and then earlier this year you and your sister Jean take a MyHeritage DNA test and and it's it's a bit of a breakthrough shows that you've got a close family relative a nice you didn't know existed in the UK how did that feel it felt amazing we didn't know who it could be we could have hoped it would be our sister's daughter which it turned out to be all three of us um Claire's mother myself and Jean all had the same mother so we were positive at that point well it must have been a real mix of emotions because you get to talk to you you're nice and what did she tell you happened to your sister she was also in a concentration camp a family took her and took her to Israel and put her in an orphanage she was there until she was 6 or 8 years old and then she was adopted by a family and Israel and they moved to the you a bad and she got to the UK she spent a lot of her life looking for who she was also and it was really sad for me that we had these two women that were searching for each other and were never able to achieve that before they both passed away it's got to be bittersweet for you and Angie very bittersweet and I mean it would have given them both so much peace of mind but in turn it's wonderful for us because we have the privilege of knowing her family Oh Dena I know you haven't gotten a chance to meet Claire physically but what we're going to do is bring you guys together virtually when the third hour of today continues don't go what you now have this nice Claire she's in the UK you're gonna make arrangements to meet and then the pandemic it we're hoping that it's over soon and we can make some arrangements to meet her it's very exhilarating to know that we have the family Dina and Klara phone they're itching to meet each other and it's about to happen now joining us from Newcastle in the UK is Claire Claire good morning it's the first time I've seen your life you do look like honey by the way how are you Claire I've got to say looking at the two of you I can see the resemblance I know it's fertility it Ria's it's amazing Claire what's it like to see your auntie for the first time it's really surreal but fantastic they've time it it is really surreal and you do not like my mum yeah there's no doubt about it you know I've only really seen one photo of you so it was really hard to see what you look like this is so wonderful to watch Claire your mom died with with so many unanswered questions about her identity does this help you in a sense get some closure oh it does she always thought that she had known in the world she was alone right from the start so we never really went any further with that it was always a closed door so this is just it's just unbelievable Dena how does this feel pretty overwhelming at this we felt like our door was closed although it is just incredible I only wish I had her right now soon yeah your mom never gave up hope how do you think she would feel right now she would feel amazing she would feel overwhelmed I'm hoping that they're both in heaven their souls together and made enough Clare I can't imagine what this must feel like after you take as my heritage tests and you discover a whole family you you never knew existed no test was a present a bit of present and all the only thing we expected to get back from it was a good breakdown of our origins where we came from it never ever appeared to me or Merson that there will be DNA matching just it not in our wildest imagination to think something like this but come at it have you already imagined what this is going to be like when you're face to face it's gonna be emotional yes Claire looks like my sister Jean well this is beautiful guys thank you so much we're so happy to see you together we're gonna jump off and let you continue your reunion

Channel: MyHeritage

Views: 571,383

Rating: 4.8963661 out of 5

Keywords: MyHeritage, MyHeritage DNA, Family History, Genealogy

Id: mdOyHwD39Gk

Length: 8min 25sec (505 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 07 2020