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My thoughts on this #HolocaustRemembranceDay 
. https://jenmen.substack.com/p/zachariah?r=22a3m&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&utm_source=twitter
. https://jenmen.substack.com/p/zachariah?r=22a3m&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&utm_source=twitter
And as we remember today, we think not only of the victims, but of the survivors, forever changed and haunted by trauma. https://twitter.com/CleverTitleTK/status/825058001694384128
Because people often ask: yes, it is often possible to know more about family members lost in the Holocaust. But it is not as simple as saying "Go here, do this." It's a process. A good first step is to join your local JGS and/or a FB Jewish genealogy group to get grounded.
One very simple place to start, if you have a surname and a location, is the Yad Vashem database. Family members often filled out testimonies with demographic information about victims. It can be a very important resource.
https://yvng.yadvashem.org/
Also: https://www.ushmm.org/online/hsv/person_advance_search.php
https://yvng.yadvashem.org/
Also: https://www.ushmm.org/online/hsv/person_advance_search.php
But I can tell you that in 2013 I knew of six relatives who died. And now the list is in the dozens. So it is definitely possible.
There is a widespread and damaging myth that the Nazis destroyed all the pre-WWII documentation for Eastern Europe Jewish communities. That is absolutely not universally true. Some was destroyed. In some places there is rich --and sometimes even easily accessible--documentation.
As I said earlier, it's a long and difficult process. But if you want more information, you can almost certainly find *something.* Remember that I was able to help a woman who was separated from her family as a child. She did not know her name or where she was from. DNA did that.
So I understand the frustration and the difficulty. I quite literally deal with it daily. But it is not an entirely lost cause.
As one small for instance, how do we know exactly when my mother's cousin Bronia died? Because there is a literally a document entitled "List of Murdered Jews from Bolechow, 1941-1943," and hers is the first name on it.
