Remembering the Holocaust

Today, on Holocaust Remembrance Day, alumna Alexandra B. talks about how her experience on a Taglit-Birthright Israel trip with Israel Outdoors this past winter helped her connect with her ancestors who were victims of the Holocaust.

I grew up knowing nothing about my Jewish ancestors, which was one of the main reasons I wanted to go to Israel.

Being raised by divorced parents – one Jewish and one Christian – definitely had its challenges.

I did not have the opportunity to meet my Jewish grandparents, who were on my father’s side. All I knew about them were the stories my father would tell me. The tale of my grandfather, Jaime Blasser, began in Poland in 1939 when the Nazis invaded. He was a forward thinker and did all he could to be granted a visa to Cuba, leaving behind his entire family. The family didn’t suspect their fate, and decided to remain in their homes, hoping for the war to end. Their lives ended at Auschwitz; no one in the immediate family survived the Holocaust. Read more of Alexandra’s story on the Jerusalem Post.