On this day, remember

Make remembering matter more

Today, the 27th of January, is International Holocaust Remembrance Day.¹

And today The Legal Genealogist received an email from Jennifer Mendelsohn and Dr. Adina Newman, Co-Founders and Lead Genealogists of the Holocaust Reunion Project.

A project whose mission is to “harness the power of commercial DNA testing, combined with expert genealogical research, both to reunite Holocaust survivors and their children with living relatives and to illuminate the family history that has been lost to genocide.”²

This is a project I support 100% and have personally contributed to.

Please read their words:

Today we pause to mark the 81st anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau and recognize International Holocaust Remembrance Day. But with each year that the Holocaust gets further and further in the past, the Holocaust Reunion Project’s resolve to make family connections for survivors only grows stronger.

 

Last week, the Claims Conference reported that there are now approximately 196,600 Jewish Holocaust survivors living in 90 countries around the world. More than 23,000 survivors have passed away in just the last year.

 

We at the Holocaust Reunion Project are keenly aware of the international reach of our efforts to help survivors and their children locate missing family and rebuild their shattered family trees.

 

Just recently we have reunited:

 

• The children of survivors in Baltimore and Boston with a first cousin once removed in Australia. He, too, is the child of survivors. Neither had any idea of the other’s existence.
• The daughter of survivors in Connecticut with her first cousins once removed in Uruguay. She had a faded letter her survivor father had received from his sister in Montevideo but had no idea how to track down the family. We made it happen.
• An 89-year-old survivor in Israel with her first cousin’s son in Georgia. The survivor knew she had family somewhere in the U.S.; they were instantly connected via a DNA test provided by the Holocaust Reunion Project.
• A 95-year-old orphaned survivor in Texas with relatives in Portugal and Australia.

Today we reflect on the almost incomprehensible human tragedy of the Holocaust. We mourn those lost. We honor the courage and strength of survivors. And we renew our pledge to continue this holiest of work, helping broken families heal.

I share this email with you to ask that you join me in reflecting, mourning, honoring — and supporting this effort to help broken families heal.

The contribution link is here: https://holocaustreunions.org/donate/

Together, on this day, in a tangible way, we can remember.

Cite/link to this post: Judy G. Russell, “On this day, remember,” The Legal Genealogist (https://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog/ : posted 26 Jan 2026).

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