A remarkable discovery

A year ago our family made a remarkable discovery. You might be familiar with our mother’s book, Secret Holocaust Diaries. Well it just so happened that my nephew Zach, while on a mission of discovery throughout eastern Europe, made contact with a Newspaper publisher named Vladimir Berezin in a tiny Ukrainian village called Konstantinovka. This just happens to be the town our mother and grandmother left when they were taken to German concentration camps and separated for the rest of their lives. Mom endured unspeakable horrors, but survived and found her way to America, assuming that her family was consumed in the Holocaust. Vladimir was intrigued by this story that unfolded in his town so many years ago, and decided to do a story on it complete with a picture of mom as she was when she lived there. When the story ran, my mother’s first cousin Lydia saw the picture and said “Oh my God that’s my cousin!” As a result of this revelation, we have discovered that a few of mom’s relatives indeed did survive what was called there “the great patriotic war”. They raised families and lived parallel lives in the Soviet Union all these years, and now through mom’s book, we have found them and them us. Recently My sister Elizabeth and I joined her son  (my nephew) Zachary Golden for an emotional reunion with our Ukrainian family. This is the story of our amazing journey through what can best be described as the richest experience of our lives.
Bill Bannister