A few years ago, I received a phone call from a person by the name of Peter Vanlaw, who claimed his uncle had been a prisoner in Bergen-Belsen at the same time as my family and me. And that he was also on the same horrible "death" train that took 2500 of us from Bergen-Belsen bound for yet another Hell. Where? We could only guess....
I don't recall exactly what happened next, but Nathaniel and I began to exchange e-mails with Pete, who was not only interested in my Holocaust story, but he also was hoping to get speaking engagements for me in the Los Angeles area, where he lives.
We learned that he was the same age as both Nathaniel and me, but he only found out that he was Jewish when he was 52 years old! His father had chosen to hide his Jewish heritage from him, probably because he felt his life would be easier as a Gentile in an extremely anti-semitic world. This is a perspective similar to that of my brother Albert, who doesn't want to bring children in to this world, fearing the possibility of yet another, God forbid, Holocaust.
Over the years we became good e-mail friends with Pete, as he began sharing new stories that came out of his family research relating to that horrific time in history. Then just this past January, when my speaking engagements took me to Redlands, California, Pete and I finally had a chance to meet in person for the first time, when I spoke at a Redlands Middle School
| Meeting Pete in person for the very first time |
His own personal story, searching for his roots, is fascinating, and I would like to share it with you in
Pete's own words. I believe you will find it equally engrossing. His story begins below:
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