Harnessing the Power of Genetic Genealogy to Help Holocaust Survivors Find Family

The Holocaust Reunion Project is a non-profit initiative that harnesses 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.

The Holocaust devastated the Jewish community in countless lamentable ways. But its deepest cut was the literal rending of families: the loss of millions of irreplaceable parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins. Genealogical research, specifically commercial DNA testing, can help bring families back together. DNA can unlock mysteries and make crucial connections, often linking survivors to living relatives they did not know they had due to severed lines of communication. DNA matches can also open the door to help survivors reconstruct their shattered trees and reclaim their lost history.

Co-Founders and Lead Genealogists Jennifer Mendelsohn and Dr. Adina Newman specialize in using DNA to solve the most complex cases, such as hidden children, unknown parentage, or cases where people are first learning of hidden Jewish heritage from DNA testing. They will detail some of their most memorable cases, including that of Vilunya Diskin. Vilunya, a hidden child from Lviv, had never known who her biological parents were or how she had been saved. The HRP was able to answer both questions, finding Vilunya's true identity via DNA and connecting her to her rescuers.

They'll be joined by local daughter of Survivors Mary Weinberg, with whom they worked to unravel a complex family mystery and provide a tree going back four and five generations in Poland.