Scarlett Johansson Uncovers A Lost Family Tragedy | Finding Your Roots | Sponsored by Ancestry®

and i promised myself i wouldn't go around but it's hard not to it's hard not to now i know why you put the tissues [Music] actor scarlett johansson knew that her mother's roots stretch back to jewish communities in eastern europe but the story of those roots had been lost we set out to recover those stories and focused on scarlet's great-grandfather a man named saul schlomberg saul immigrated to america in 1910 when he was just 24 years old he arrived alone with almost no money soon he found himself on new york's lower east side working in a grocery where he sold bananas leading scarlett to wonder about the world her great-grandfather had left behind i can only imagine that he was coming from a place where he could not continue to survive i mean i think he must have come from some broken place which would have caused him to go on a journey like this by himself with no no security on the other side nothing nothing i mean that's the real immigrant story it is you know just the promise of some opportunity and and the faith that you're gonna make it on the other side arrival record indicated he was born in a town called gruyetz which is now part of poland scarlett had never heard of the town but her family has a deep and tragic connection to it because when saul left his brother moshe stayed behind a decision that would have disastrous consequences on september 1st 1939 hitler's armies invaded poland by late february 1942 almost all of gruyetz's jewish residents had been killed or transported to the infamous warsaw ghetto moshek was about 60 years old at the time he and his wife had 10 children the youngest zlata was about 14. wow that's crazy what do you think that must have been like for them to be loaded onto trains like cattle and not knowing where they were going and losing each other and everything hmm i mean you hear stories about men and women and children all being separated and that was it you know never see the other person again i cannot imagine what you must be feeling just hell must have been hell at its height over 400 000 people were forced to live in the warsaw ghetto an area less than two square miles dozens of people died each day of starvation and disease those who endured face deportation to extermination camps he wondered what happened to scarlet's family [Music] we found the answer in a testament submitted to israel's holocaust museum by a woman named miriam margolith miriam was one of mosheck's daughters family name zlamberg first name moisia wartime location warsaw ghetto circumstance time and place of death unknown children's names under the age of 18 that perished zlata age 15 time and place of death warsaw ghetto mondel age 17 time and place of death warsaw ghetto wow that's sad sorry that is crazy crazy to imagine that saul would be on the other side selling bananas oh yeah on ludlow street yep and how different it would be being in america at that time the fate of one brother versus the other yeah it makes me feel more deeply connected to that side of myself outside of my family i didn't expect that retrieving lost stories can be an act of restoration not only of our ancestors resilience but of the resilience of the entire human community [Music] to see more incredible stories click here and watch the next video [Music]

Channel: Ancestry

Views: 4,485,110

Keywords: ancestrydna, ancestry, finding your roots, family tree now, surname, family tree, ancestors, family search, dna discovery, dna tests, dna test kits, dna analysis, ancestry com, family connections, ancestry.com, family history, heritage, ethnic heritage, history, family, adoption stories, relatives, family members

Id: P1YcvOMm_y4

Length: 5min 12sec (312 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 06 2021