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I've posted a few email messages to various forums that have become well-known throughout the world. Those that appear on this page relate to my research and voluntary efforts for the Missing Identity Project. I'm re-posting them here in chronological order.
I posted this first message to the JewishGen Discussion Group, two weeks after my original post on the topic of the Missing Identity Project.
Subject: Israel TV 1 & Polish TV 2 Sat. link
LIVE>Search Jew. Roots in Poland
Newsgroups:
soc.genealogy.jewish
Date: 1997/04/16
I wish that I could have piped this through to all of you via the WWW!
However JewishGen on the web is fabulous...this
was even more spectacular!
These 2 stations linked LIVE to search for the identities of Jews who were
separated from
their families, for various reasons & in various ways, during the
Nazi reign of terror in Poland. Very little was known, to
them, about
their past. One woman knew no more than her first name, Mirele.
NOTHING ELSE!
Much ground work had gone into the preparation of this simulcast.
Promos ran for 5 minutes a slot following the prime
time news, showing "as if
they were" identity cards of individuals (kids) with whatever was known about
them & their
pictures (as kids, & then dissolving into the adults they are
today) on full screen.
Last night, they were in the studio in Israel. Hot line numbers were
screened constantly, in both countries, so that
anyone could relate to anything
they recognized &/or knew of these individuals. We watched, as tears
gushed out of our
hearts (that crying didn't originate in our eyes), while a
woman went to Jerusalem to visit her newly discovered Aunt for
the first time.
The ITV people didn't tell her that her "baby" brother was located in Canada, &
brought for the "reunion."
We weren't prepared for it either. As the woman greets her Aunt with a
distant, yet sincere, warmth & respect that one
would expect from such a
meeting...she moves on to politely shake the hand of a 50+ year old man whom,
she is told, is
her brother. The view is from behind the back of the man,
as he stoops & bends to get a 3D view of this "sister" he
could have only seen
as a baby. Suddenly, the two lunge into each others' arms & there wasn't a
dry eye in the scene, nor
throughout the audience in two countries. Only
when things nearly calmed down did they get to make a phone call to their
M O T
H E R, in her 80's & living in Copenhagen, too ill to make the journey.
This was only one of many stories told & researched last evening. The
follow-up will be broadcast on the eve of
Holocaust Remembrance Day. The
impact of Jewish genealogy research was raised to a new level of technology &,
possibly more important, public awareness.
One woman, whose identity was still unknown, responded to the host's blessing
& desire that she should succeed & find
her roots by wishing ALL of the
"unidentified" survivors of the Holocaust such success.
SHALOM V'CHAG PESACH SAMEACH,
Moshe Chertoff
I posted this message to the JewishGen Discussion Group, two weeks after my original post on the topic of the Missing Identity Project.
Subject: Attn: Southern California
JewishGenners
Newsgroups:
soc.genealogy.jewish
Date: 1998/04/20
This is an announcement to people in the Southern California area. Apologies to everybody else.
I've been told that on the Tuesday evening, April 21st, airing of "Life & Times" on KCET TV Channel 28 (in Los Angeles), my interview on the MISSING IDENTITY PROJECT will be shown. It's only about seven minutes long, but includes some exceptional footage of a reunion between an Israeli woman Holocaust survivor and her younger brother after 50 years of separation.
The unique angle to this reunion is that until that meeting, in Jerusalem, she didn't know who she really was. Rosa had no hope of even looking for surviving relatives, until our researchers found her missing identity.
There are two reunions that will be shown involving Rosa. The first, which you just read about, was with her brother who has been living in Canada. While at that meeting, she was told about her other brother living in Poland—AND HER MOTHER WHO WAS STILL ALIVE IN COPENHAGEN. You'll see their first telephone conversation, since the mother was too ill to come to Israel.
The second reunion takes place in Copenhagen, with all three "children" for their mother's 80th birthday.
The interview was recorded in Los Angeles, in February, and planned for airing just before Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day. Unfortunately, the mother passed away while I was in Los Angeles, but she lived long enough to be with her children again, before she died.
Our research continues, hoping to help the other "children" who were separated from their families, and from anything that could help them know their true identities. As you can see, their time is running out. Every day clues are going to their graves.
Please make the effort to access our website and try to recognize surnames, places, or even faces. If you can bring people of the older generations to view the website from your computer, there's a chance that something might ring a bell.
If you find the piece on the MISSING IDENTITY PROJECT as interesting and important as I think you will, please call KCET and let them know. If enough people call, or write, KCET might consider producing an in-depth program about these 35 people, and they would have a much better chance of finding their identities.
Sincerely,
Moshe Chertoff
MODERATOR NOTE: Moshe Chertoff has sent over 300 records to JewishGen's Holocaust Global Registry
which are being added to that database by a group of volunteers working under
the supervision of Kathy Altman, HGR project manager. We are pleased to be of
help in giving the widest possible exposure to the Missing Identity Project.
This site was last updated 15-02-2005
© 2003, Moshe Chertoff