My great grandma and grandpa lived in Poland before the Holocaust. They were poor, but happy because they had each other. My great grandpa was a shoemaker, and he saved up for 6 years just so he could get his wife the Jewish star necklace she wanted for her birthday. She wore it every day, but in 1947, the Nazi’s came for them, and right before they were sent to Auschwitz, she hid the necklace in the attic, praying she would somehow survive in the camps and come back for it one day. After spending a year in the camps, enduring torture, and watching their extended family and friends be killed every day, they were finally able to escape. It was too dangerous to go back for the necklace, so they went to America to escape the Nazis and start a new life. They had to pretend they weren’t Jewish so that they could go on trains and boats to come to the U.S. Almost immediately after they arrived in New York, they had my grandma, and a few years later, my great uncle. Then, in the late 50s, my great great uncle, who never got caught by the Nazis because he was hiding in a stranger’s basement, got the necklace and came to New York to give it to my great grandma. Since then, the necklace has been passed down through the generations. 

– Hanna Kessler-Karp

Relationship:  Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more