Personal Stories

What can happen when you write about your family history After you leave, I will count the silver. I often hear this joke at celebrations and parties. The jokers have…

My mother was born in Munich in 1926, but neither she nor I learned Bavarian. At the age of three, she had to leave her hometown. Her parents were Jewish…

When she turned 18, Julia Gilfert dreamed of her grandfather Walter for the first time – a man she never met and who wasn’t talked about in her family. In…

Balbina Rebollar, president of the Spanish Amical Neuengamme, tells the story of her father, Evaristo Rebollar. Evaristo was born on June 30, 1917, in the fishing village of Tazones in…

My beautiful mother, Lily Ruttner, was born on 29 November 1925 to Berta and Avraham Ruttner. She had three older brothers, Julius, Josef and Markus, and one younger sister, Elza. The family…

I have been researching my family history for years and in this context I have spent many hours in various archives and immersed myself in all kinds of documents and…

I could write a lot. I could recount the grey stories of the concentration camps and the post-war period, which are still incredibly distressing and painful today. I could mention…

My name is Margit Grome, and I am the daughter of Erik Holger Grome. He was a member of the resistance movement in Denmark and a prisoner in the Neuengamme…

I found Monika in autumn 2020. She has lived in the UK for many years and was born in Poland. She is a qualified English teacher and works now in…

We spoke to some of the descendants that are active members of the national organizations of the AIN to find out more about their family history, how it has shaped them and their commitment to a lasting culture of remembrance.