0:00:03 > 0:00:07Emmy Award-winning actress and producer Lisa Kudrow
0:00:07 > 0:00:10first shot to fame in 1994,
0:00:10 > 0:00:15playing the eccentric Phoebe Buffay on the hit sitcom friends.
0:00:15 > 0:00:20She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Michel, and son, Julian.
0:00:20 > 0:00:23I was raised Jewish, but not religiously.
0:00:23 > 0:00:26We didn't belong to a synagogue...and, you know.
0:00:26 > 0:00:31My parents, brother, sister, and I are very close,
0:00:31 > 0:00:34and still live within a few miles of each other.
0:00:35 > 0:00:38I have, like, snippets of story.
0:00:38 > 0:00:44As far as I know, my family during the Holocaust were rounded up and shot.
0:00:45 > 0:00:48I'm a little anxious, I have to be honest,
0:00:48 > 0:00:53because I just have a feeling that there's some...
0:00:53 > 0:00:56powerful emotion coming my way.
0:01:10 > 0:01:13We're going to my parent's house.
0:01:13 > 0:01:17We're going to see my father who has the genealogy scroll,
0:01:17 > 0:01:19the family tree.
0:01:19 > 0:01:22What I feel is a lot of this is for my father
0:01:22 > 0:01:26because he's worked so hard on the family tree
0:01:26 > 0:01:28and it's his passion, so...
0:01:28 > 0:01:30There's some incomplete information,
0:01:30 > 0:01:35so it would be nice to fill that in for him.
0:01:35 > 0:01:40My father was...kind of this thug from Brooklyn.
0:01:40 > 0:01:44He met my mother and they got married and then he was drafted
0:01:44 > 0:01:48and that's where he decided he could become a doctor.
0:01:48 > 0:01:51You know, he got it in his head that he could become a doctor,
0:01:51 > 0:01:56and after he got out of the army, put himself through college,
0:01:56 > 0:01:58and then put himself through medical school.
0:01:58 > 0:02:01He worked one and two jobs while he was in school.
0:02:01 > 0:02:09He is the one who pulled the family out of...hard times.
0:02:09 > 0:02:12- Hi.- Hi, how are you?
0:02:12 > 0:02:13- Hi, Dad. Hi, Mom.- Hi, sweetheart.
0:02:15 > 0:02:19'My dad's parents were both Eastern European Jews.
0:02:19 > 0:02:25My grandmother, Gert, she came in 1921 for a better life,
0:02:25 > 0:02:28but it was never easy for her.
0:02:28 > 0:02:33Well, it's her family's history that my father and I want to look into further.
0:02:33 > 0:02:39My Grandma, Gert, had a lot of horrible things happen to her.
0:02:39 > 0:02:43A very sad life.
0:02:43 > 0:02:47The first child that was born was my brother.
0:02:47 > 0:02:50This is him. He died when he was four-years-old.
0:02:50 > 0:02:56My mother was pregnant with my sister at the time that he died.
0:02:56 > 0:03:00And my sister was born in 1929.
0:03:00 > 0:03:04I was born in 33, my father died in 1936.
0:03:04 > 0:03:07So I was three-years-old and here's what I remember.
0:03:07 > 0:03:11Believe me, I remember all our belongings were in the street.
0:03:11 > 0:03:15And I remember, my sister and I were holding on to each other,
0:03:15 > 0:03:20and we were both very frightened as we saw my mother in tears
0:03:20 > 0:03:22and screaming and all that stuff.
0:03:22 > 0:03:27And that was about the time my father died, so we were thrown out of our apartment.
0:03:27 > 0:03:29And then we moved to a tenement.
0:03:29 > 0:03:31It was a very difficult time, it was very hard.
0:03:31 > 0:03:36For my mother, can you imagine? My mother, what she must have gone through.
0:03:36 > 0:03:39And she loses her daughter when her daughter was 18-years-old.
0:03:39 > 0:03:44We were the only two left in our immediate family.
0:03:46 > 0:03:49When I was very young, she was babysitting me, and we were playing cards,
0:03:49 > 0:03:52and I asked her, you know, "Don't you miss your parents?"
0:03:52 > 0:03:54Cos I was little, and she started crying.
0:03:54 > 0:03:57It was, like, you know, 40 years later, right?
0:03:57 > 0:04:00And she's crying, and she's saying, "Yes."
0:04:00 > 0:04:03She said, "my mother was killed by Hitler With a knife in the back."
0:04:03 > 0:04:06- And, uh...- Oh, oh. I know what she's talking about.
0:04:06 > 0:04:09I'll tell you. I'll tell you what she was talking about.
0:04:09 > 0:04:13It was the story that we heard from a cousin.
0:04:13 > 0:04:16It was 1947 or 1948.
0:04:16 > 0:04:19Knock on the door, and the door opens.
0:04:19 > 0:04:21I was there. I remember it like it was yesterday.
0:04:21 > 0:04:24I'm looking at the door opening,
0:04:24 > 0:04:26and there's this guy standing there,
0:04:26 > 0:04:30young guy in a uniform that I had never seen before.
0:04:30 > 0:04:35It turns out it was a Polish Navy uniform
0:04:35 > 0:04:37and his name was Yuri Barudin.
0:04:37 > 0:04:43Yuri told our family that he was playing in the woods near their shtetl,
0:04:43 > 0:04:45and the shtetl was called Ilya.
0:04:45 > 0:04:47And he came to the edge of the forest,
0:04:47 > 0:04:51and he could see that they were shooting,
0:04:51 > 0:04:55and he was watching his family being cut down by the Nazis.
0:04:55 > 0:04:57They killed all the Jews in town.
0:04:57 > 0:04:59My grandmother was one of them,
0:04:59 > 0:05:03Your grandmother's mother, your great-grandmother.
0:05:03 > 0:05:04Bah.
0:05:14 > 0:05:17This is tough, huh?
0:05:20 > 0:05:24- So that's the story that Yuri told? - That's the story that Yuri told.
0:05:24 > 0:05:26- That's...- Oh, my gosh.
0:05:26 > 0:05:29Is that that name he took? Is that a different name?
0:05:29 > 0:05:32- I don't know. I don't know. - Is it a Jewish name? Barudin?
0:05:32 > 0:05:34I don't know that either. Barudin? I don't know.
0:05:34 > 0:05:36He smiled. He patted me on the head
0:05:36 > 0:05:39and that was the last I ever saw of him.
0:05:39 > 0:05:43He disappeared and then somehow we heard that he died.
0:05:43 > 0:05:45Died doing what?
0:05:45 > 0:05:49- Honey, I don't... I don't remember.- OK. Oh, God.
0:05:49 > 0:05:52'That story still haunts my father.
0:05:52 > 0:05:56'I want to find out exactly what happened to my great-grandmother's family.
0:05:56 > 0:05:59'and if possible, if there is a final resting place,
0:05:59 > 0:06:02'pay my respects to those who were lost.'
0:06:06 > 0:06:12Lisa's heading to New York to see if she can find out anything about Yuri's visit there in the 1940s.
0:06:14 > 0:06:17She's meeting her father's cousin Gerry Meister
0:06:17 > 0:06:22at the Tenement Museum in Manhattan. Gerry was with Lisa's father
0:06:22 > 0:06:25and grandmother when Yuri visited New York.
0:06:25 > 0:06:30She's hoping her remembers some more details about this mysterious distant cousin.
0:06:33 > 0:06:34Ah!
0:06:34 > 0:06:37- Home sweet home.- No!
0:06:37 > 0:06:42- No, this is...- This is...? - This is common.
0:06:42 > 0:06:46The window in between rooms to get some light.
0:06:46 > 0:06:50Is this like how my father grew up, by the way?
0:06:50 > 0:06:54- Do you remember his apartment? - It wasn't quite this regal...
0:06:54 > 0:06:56- Oh.- ..your father's apartment. - Are you serious?
0:06:56 > 0:07:01- It was like a black hole a third the size.- OK.
0:07:02 > 0:07:07So it sounds like things were really very hard for my grandmother,
0:07:07 > 0:07:09which is an understatement.
0:07:09 > 0:07:16I would say that...she wasn't quite as poor as a church mouse.
0:07:16 > 0:07:18Church mouse had it better.
0:07:18 > 0:07:21She had the... She was the poorest person I knew.
0:07:21 > 0:07:25We were poor, but we were well-off compared to her.
0:07:25 > 0:07:27She must have been pretty strong.
0:07:27 > 0:07:29Huh!
0:07:29 > 0:07:34To live her life, she lost a husband, a son, a daughter.
0:07:34 > 0:07:40My mother and I came into the house and Gertrude was eating
0:07:40 > 0:07:44a slice of bread and an onion.
0:07:44 > 0:07:51And she was somewhat embarrassed and she said to my mother,
0:07:51 > 0:07:54"You won't believe how sweet this onion is, it's delicious."
0:07:54 > 0:08:00She was covering up that all she had was a crust of bread and an onion,
0:08:00 > 0:08:02that I saw with my own eyes.
0:08:05 > 0:08:09Gertrude's life in America had been marred by tragedy,
0:08:09 > 0:08:11ever since her arrival.
0:08:11 > 0:08:14Her mother was called Meri Mordejovich,
0:08:14 > 0:08:19and as far as the family know, she and most of the other Jews in Ilya
0:08:19 > 0:08:21were murdered in the Holocaust.
0:08:23 > 0:08:26This is your great-grandmother.
0:08:26 > 0:08:29This is my grandmother. This is Meri.
0:08:29 > 0:08:30Oh, really?
0:08:30 > 0:08:36- Doesn't it look like Gertie? - Oh, yes!
0:08:36 > 0:08:39Oh, my gosh!
0:08:39 > 0:08:45Look, she's little. So was Gertie, too. Little!
0:08:45 > 0:08:48- And thin and... - Not one of them five feet tall.
0:08:48 > 0:08:52Oh gosh, there's so many people they lost.
0:08:52 > 0:08:56And what do you remember about Yuri who told you what happened in Ilya?
0:08:56 > 0:08:58I remember...
0:08:58 > 0:09:04Yuri was on the flagship of the Polish merchant marine, the Batory.
0:09:04 > 0:09:07- The Polish merchant marine? - Polish merchant marine.
0:09:07 > 0:09:10- It sailed out of Gdinya.- Oh.
0:09:10 > 0:09:12And do you know what happened to him?
0:09:12 > 0:09:16Disappeared off the face of the earth. Never heard from him again.
0:09:16 > 0:09:19- I don't know what happened. - All right.
0:09:19 > 0:09:24Maybe some anti-Semite found out he was a Jew and finished the job, we don't know.
0:09:29 > 0:09:34To try and find out what happened to Yuri and her great-grandmother Meri
0:09:34 > 0:09:37Lisa's travelling to Belarus.
0:09:37 > 0:09:41I bet it's really pretty. I'm excited on one hand to see
0:09:41 > 0:09:46where my grandmother lived cos she spoke really fondly of it.
0:09:48 > 0:09:50But then also just, um... Oh!
0:09:50 > 0:09:53..how they all met their end is making me...
0:09:57 > 0:10:00..a little nervous.
0:10:02 > 0:10:05She's flying to Minsk, the capital of Belarus.
0:10:05 > 0:10:09She's being met by Jewish historian Tamara Vershitskaya,
0:10:14 > 0:10:15- Lisa?- Yes.
0:10:15 > 0:10:18Nice to meet you. My name is Tamara.
0:10:18 > 0:10:20- Tamara, Hi.- Hi.- Thank you.
0:10:24 > 0:10:28Minsk is about 40 miles southeast of Ilya,
0:10:28 > 0:10:31where Lisa's grandmother and great-grandmother lived.
0:10:34 > 0:10:36Before World War II, communities like Ilya
0:10:36 > 0:10:41had strong Jewish roots going back hundreds of years,
0:10:41 > 0:10:45But the war changed the culture of Eastern Europe forever.
0:10:47 > 0:10:51Before the war Yiddish was one of the four national languages.
0:10:51 > 0:10:52What?
0:10:52 > 0:10:56Yiddish was one of the four national languages.
0:10:56 > 0:10:58- Yes!- Wow!
0:10:58 > 0:11:01- That's a presence! - There was a Jewish Institute here,
0:11:01 > 0:11:04there was a Jewish Institute at the Academy of Sciences.
0:11:04 > 0:11:07Jewish culture was flourishing in Belarus.
0:11:07 > 0:11:12- Yes, that's a surprise, I understand.- Wow!
0:11:12 > 0:11:16But after the war, after 1945,
0:11:16 > 0:11:24the situation was different and Jews didn't feel very safe, even, here.
0:11:24 > 0:11:28- Well, sure.- And that's why many changed their names.
0:11:28 > 0:11:32Many registered themselves as Russians or Belarusians or Poles
0:11:32 > 0:11:36- or anybody else.- Wow. I thought most of them were killed?
0:11:36 > 0:11:40Most of them, yes. Most of them, yes, that's true.
0:11:40 > 0:11:46After the war Jewish communities were reduced to...
0:11:46 > 0:11:495% were left alive from the total community,
0:11:49 > 0:11:5210% at most.
0:11:52 > 0:11:54- Yeah.- Oh, my gosh.
0:12:02 > 0:12:06Lisa has come to the state archives outside Minsk
0:12:06 > 0:12:09to see if she can find out what happened to
0:12:09 > 0:12:11her great-grandmother, Meri Mordejovich.
0:12:11 > 0:12:13Hello.
0:12:13 > 0:12:19You can see the lists of electoral board.
0:12:19 > 0:12:22- So, voters list. - Oh, that's a voters list!
0:12:22 > 0:12:29- Voters list from what year? - 1935 and 1938.
0:12:29 > 0:12:35- So, on that list we can see Meri Mordejovich.- Meri Mordejovich!
0:12:35 > 0:12:37- Yes.- That's my great-grandmother.
0:12:37 > 0:12:42She lived in Ilya since her birth,
0:12:42 > 0:12:48- all her life.- Wow. 1938. That makes her pretty old.
0:12:48 > 0:12:52- 76-years-old.- Elderly. OK.
0:12:52 > 0:12:56Is it possible to know, are there any documents
0:12:56 > 0:12:59if she were killed in Ilya, in that massacre?
0:12:59 > 0:13:02- Yes, yes.- Oh, there are documents?
0:13:02 > 0:13:08We have some documents which we took from Moscow.
0:13:08 > 0:13:15They are copies of documents. The originals of them are kept in Moscow.
0:13:15 > 0:13:16Wow.
0:13:16 > 0:13:20It's terrible documents.
0:13:20 > 0:13:25It is a list of people who were killed, hung and tortured
0:13:25 > 0:13:30during the Second World War in Ilya.
0:13:30 > 0:13:36- And in that document we can see your relative.- Oh.
0:13:37 > 0:13:41On that list you can see Mordejovich, Meri.
0:13:41 > 0:13:45It is stated here that she was Jewish and she was a housewife,
0:13:45 > 0:13:48and she was from Ilya and the last column is
0:13:48 > 0:13:53killed and burnt.
0:13:53 > 0:13:56Oh, my God.
0:13:57 > 0:14:00'I knew my great-grandmother was murdered,
0:14:00 > 0:14:03'But to hear the words "killed and burned,"
0:14:03 > 0:14:06'That's worse than I thought.'
0:14:09 > 0:14:13Lisa's on her way to Ilya where her grandmother Gertrude lived.
0:14:13 > 0:14:17And where her great-grandmother Meri was killed.
0:14:17 > 0:14:21She wants to know if there are any other details about Meri's fate
0:14:22 > 0:14:23that were missing from Yuri's story.
0:14:23 > 0:14:27- That's the place...- Wow.
0:14:27 > 0:14:31..where the Mordejovich family lived.
0:14:31 > 0:14:34That's where Gertie grew up.
0:14:38 > 0:14:41This is the view that she saw.
0:14:44 > 0:14:46This is what I pictured.
0:14:46 > 0:14:48This is exactly what I pictured.
0:14:48 > 0:14:52It's unbelievable.
0:14:52 > 0:14:57I feel connected to the smile that would come across her face
0:14:57 > 0:15:00when she'd say, "It was so beautiful."
0:15:00 > 0:15:04And I'm so happy that she got to grow up here,
0:15:04 > 0:15:07and it's so pretty, and I'm also so...
0:15:07 > 0:15:11happy that she, um, got out,
0:15:11 > 0:15:12and her sisters got out,
0:15:12 > 0:15:16and I'm sorry for everybody else.
0:15:16 > 0:15:19My grandmother learned
0:15:19 > 0:15:22from Yuri what happened here.
0:15:22 > 0:15:27It's a huge loss. It's... it's...
0:15:27 > 0:15:28It's her whole family.
0:15:28 > 0:15:31It's her mother, who she loved, and she'll never see her again.
0:15:31 > 0:15:34She could have at least dreamt about seeing her one day
0:15:34 > 0:15:38or coming back to visit and being able to, like,
0:15:38 > 0:15:41breathe in this air and be here again, and that's gone too.
0:15:43 > 0:15:47Well, it would make sense for Yuri's story.
0:15:47 > 0:15:51He must have seen the Germans...
0:15:51 > 0:15:54take them out of the house
0:15:54 > 0:15:56and take them away.
0:16:01 > 0:16:04Tamara has tracked down an Ilya resident
0:16:04 > 0:16:08who was living in the town when the Nazi's arrived in 1941
0:16:08 > 0:16:12It's possible that she may remember Lisa's grandmother.
0:16:12 > 0:16:18SHE SPEAKS IN HER NATIVE TONGUE Oh, my gosh.
0:16:18 > 0:16:20My grandmother grew up here.
0:16:20 > 0:16:24TAMARA TRANSLATES
0:16:26 > 0:16:28- What was your grandmother's name? - Grunia.
0:16:28 > 0:16:32Grunia, Grunia, Grunia, Grunia...
0:16:32 > 0:16:35SHE SPEAKS IN HER NATIVE TONGUE
0:16:35 > 0:16:37She lived near the river.
0:16:37 > 0:16:39We went to school together.
0:16:39 > 0:16:42We were like one family.
0:16:42 > 0:16:47I must tell you, when the Germans came we went to have a look at them.
0:16:47 > 0:16:51We had never seen Germans before.
0:16:51 > 0:16:56We were afraid of everything. We knew what war meant.
0:16:56 > 0:17:01In the first days they started to loot Jewish houses.
0:17:01 > 0:17:05Later on the synagogues were burnt down
0:17:05 > 0:17:10and our house was burnt down as well.
0:17:10 > 0:17:13The Jews escaped from their houses to the forest.
0:17:13 > 0:17:21They collected all the Jews.
0:17:21 > 0:17:24I tried to hide a small girl.
0:17:24 > 0:17:28A policeman came into the house,
0:17:28 > 0:17:31searched under the bed,
0:17:31 > 0:17:37took the girl, pulled her from under the bed by the hair,
0:17:37 > 0:17:39and threw her into the fire.
0:17:39 > 0:17:44Let God, nobody see it again.
0:17:44 > 0:17:48I pray to the God that it never happens again.
0:17:51 > 0:17:54'I'm sorry that she has to remember it.
0:17:54 > 0:17:58'I feel badly coming here and asking her to remember it,
0:17:58 > 0:18:01'cos it's got to be really hard.
0:18:01 > 0:18:05'It's so...sad.'
0:18:05 > 0:18:09Ugh. I...
0:18:11 > 0:18:15HITLER SHOUTS IN GERMAN
0:18:15 > 0:18:20In 1941, two years after Hitler gave the order to invade Poland,
0:18:20 > 0:18:23the Nazis invaded Belarusian territory.
0:18:23 > 0:18:26They soon occupied towns like Ilya
0:18:26 > 0:18:29and created ghettos for the Jews.
0:18:30 > 0:18:33A program of ghetto clearances began
0:18:33 > 0:18:39and the systematic murder of Jews the Nazis called "actions".
0:18:42 > 0:18:44- So where are we now? - This is the...
0:18:44 > 0:18:46- This is the centre of Ilya.- Uh-huh.
0:18:46 > 0:18:50- It used to be a market square before the war.- Mm-hmm.
0:18:50 > 0:18:56And all the Jews were collected here in the market square.
0:18:56 > 0:18:58They were driven out of their houses,
0:18:58 > 0:19:03out of their homes in March 1942,
0:19:03 > 0:19:07- and this is the place where the selection took place.- Selection?
0:19:07 > 0:19:08Selection.
0:19:08 > 0:19:12I've got evidence translated into English.
0:19:12 > 0:19:15"As soon as the Nazis arrived in Ilya,
0:19:15 > 0:19:18"they showed extreme cruelty toward the Jewish population.
0:19:18 > 0:19:21"They soon started going from home to home,
0:19:21 > 0:19:25"searching for every man, woman, and child.
0:19:25 > 0:19:27"They removed them from their homes
0:19:27 > 0:19:29"and forced them to run
0:19:29 > 0:19:32"to the designated central locations in the market."
0:19:32 > 0:19:34- That's where we are.- Yeah.
0:19:34 > 0:19:37"The Germans started picking out from amongst the Jews
0:19:37 > 0:19:41"a few professional people that they felt were still needed at the time
0:19:41 > 0:19:44"This selection was done by a local Belarusian.
0:19:44 > 0:19:51"Everyone on the spot understood and there were no illusions of the fate of the people who were not selected.
0:19:51 > 0:19:55"During the Soviet time they had established a huge freezer
0:19:55 > 0:19:57"for fruit and meat products,
0:19:57 > 0:20:01"and next to it was a deep hole in the ground to store the ice."
0:20:04 > 0:20:08"This ice-storage area was used that day
0:20:08 > 0:20:12"for the mass burial of 900 Jews from Ilya,
0:20:12 > 0:20:15"men, women, children, and babies alike.
0:20:15 > 0:20:18"All the Jews selected to be killed in the market
0:20:18 > 0:20:20"were taken to this site.
0:20:20 > 0:20:26"On both sides of the entrance stood SS men armed with machine guns.
0:20:26 > 0:20:27"As soon as the people arrived,
0:20:27 > 0:20:31"they were ordered to remove their clothes and run inside,
0:20:31 > 0:20:33"where they were shot from all sides,
0:20:33 > 0:20:36"and fell directly onto the frozen pit.
0:20:36 > 0:20:40"This was the last walk of most of the Jews of our town
0:20:40 > 0:20:42"on this day of slaughter.
0:20:42 > 0:20:46"The murderers then poured oil onto the walls of the building
0:20:46 > 0:20:49"and set it on fire."
0:20:51 > 0:20:55"The local Christian population later told us that,
0:20:55 > 0:21:01"for many hours, they could hear from afar the screams and anguished cries
0:21:01 > 0:21:06"of the wounded who did not die from the bullets.
0:21:06 > 0:21:08"Thus ended Ilya, a Jewish community
0:21:08 > 0:21:13"with centuries of a glorious history."
0:21:17 > 0:21:19Huh.
0:21:23 > 0:21:29Tamara has found an eye-witness, Alexander Gavrilik
0:21:29 > 0:21:31who was a child at the time of the massacre.
0:21:31 > 0:21:34HE SPEAKS IN HIS NATIVE LANGUAGE
0:21:34 > 0:21:38- TAMARA TRANSLATES: - After they were burned,
0:21:38 > 0:21:44the air here in Ilya was so heavy in the course of several months
0:21:44 > 0:21:48after the massacre, it was difficult to breath.
0:21:48 > 0:21:52Yeah.
0:21:52 > 0:21:57HE SPEAKS IN HIS NATIVE LANGUAGE
0:21:57 > 0:22:01- TAMARA TRANSLATES:- So, the Jews were marched along this street from
0:22:01 > 0:22:07the market. He remembers exactly that they were walking along
0:22:07 > 0:22:12this street and we are going exactly the same way, the same path
0:22:12 > 0:22:16and we are very close now to the place.
0:22:16 > 0:22:23So you see this place is a bit higher than the rest of the area
0:22:23 > 0:22:27- and that shed was standing right here.- Uh-huh.
0:22:27 > 0:22:32Jews were driven to this place, shot here and buried.
0:22:36 > 0:22:39They were...
0:22:39 > 0:22:44made to approach the edge of that pit
0:22:44 > 0:22:47in small groups, two or three people,
0:22:47 > 0:22:51and they were shot and fell down into the cellar.
0:22:51 > 0:22:57- The next two or three and the next, and the next.- Oh.
0:22:57 > 0:22:58Oh.
0:23:27 > 0:23:31I'm glad that I got to see, witness, acknowledge...
0:23:33 > 0:23:36..what happened to my family here
0:23:36 > 0:23:39and pay my respects at their final resting place.
0:23:39 > 0:23:43I am glad that I got to do that.
0:23:43 > 0:23:48And that...moment is worthwhile.
0:23:49 > 0:23:52OK.
0:23:55 > 0:23:58I mean, these people were no threat. They were nothing.
0:23:58 > 0:24:02It's just the ravings of a madman who decided that Jews didn't
0:24:02 > 0:24:05fit into the way he saw the human race.
0:24:06 > 0:24:08That's just his opinion.
0:24:10 > 0:24:13But it caused a genocide and...
0:24:15 > 0:24:19..everyone said, "Yeah, OK."
0:24:19 > 0:24:24Maybe I'm getting too philosophical now, but...
0:24:24 > 0:24:28that's what fear can whip people into.
0:24:28 > 0:24:32You make people afraid enough
0:24:32 > 0:24:35of something completely manufactured,
0:24:35 > 0:24:38and you can drive them to become murderers,
0:24:38 > 0:24:40cold-blooded murderers.
0:24:40 > 0:24:43And I always want to look at the...
0:24:43 > 0:24:50When there are pictures, I always want to see the faces of the people that were doing the killing.
0:24:57 > 0:24:59Lisa now knows the full story of what happened to
0:24:59 > 0:25:02her great-grandmother during the Holocaust.
0:25:02 > 0:25:05But she still wants to find out about Yuri,
0:25:05 > 0:25:08the man who sought out her family in New York
0:25:08 > 0:25:10to tell them of the massacre.
0:25:10 > 0:25:14Now I think I'm just going to look for Yuri Barudin.
0:25:14 > 0:25:19I'm going to look him up online and see if I can find anything about
0:25:19 > 0:25:21his visit who he is, anything.
0:25:21 > 0:25:26OK. I'm going to try Batory and Barudin.
0:25:29 > 0:25:30Boleslaw?
0:25:30 > 0:25:33Never heard that name before.
0:25:33 > 0:25:36Barudin, Gdynia.
0:25:36 > 0:25:38Gerry said he was from Gdynia.
0:25:39 > 0:25:44Batory. OK.
0:25:44 > 0:25:48OK, "List or manifest."
0:25:48 > 0:25:51"Employed on the vessel as members of crew."
0:25:53 > 0:25:55Barudin.
0:25:57 > 0:26:00I don't know if that's him, but it's the...
0:26:00 > 0:26:01The last name's right.
0:26:01 > 0:26:04Poland, the Batory.
0:26:04 > 0:26:05He's crossed out.
0:26:05 > 0:26:07What does that mean, I wonder?
0:26:07 > 0:26:12It says, "Discharged February 4, 1950, Gdynia."
0:26:12 > 0:26:14He's the only Barudin.
0:26:14 > 0:26:17Well, it's the only Barudin.
0:26:17 > 0:26:23The ship's manifest states that Yuri was discharged in Gdynia.
0:26:23 > 0:26:26So Lisa is heading there in search of more information.
0:26:26 > 0:26:30So we're going to, we're going to go to Poland.
0:26:30 > 0:26:34We'll go to Gdansk to get to Gdynia.
0:26:36 > 0:26:39I keep trying to make a joke, "Gdyn-you know!"
0:26:39 > 0:26:40SHE LAUGHS
0:26:42 > 0:26:47Yeah, so we can see if there's any information we can get
0:26:47 > 0:26:49on Yuri Barudin, or Boleslaw.
0:26:49 > 0:26:56And it would be nice to know what happened to this...to Yuri.
0:26:56 > 0:26:58I just... It's worth a shot.
0:26:58 > 0:27:01You know, like, the people we saw in Ilya,
0:27:01 > 0:27:05they're burdened with the memories of what they witnessed
0:27:05 > 0:27:07and it would be the same for Yuri,
0:27:07 > 0:27:11if he were to live a long life and I hope he did.
0:27:11 > 0:27:14I hope he got married and had a family
0:27:14 > 0:27:18and carried on. I hope... I hope that's what happened.
0:27:19 > 0:27:21But my father...
0:27:21 > 0:27:25You know, and Gerry remember thinking that he died.
0:27:30 > 0:27:33Lisa's come to the state archives in Gdynia
0:27:33 > 0:27:35to look for any records on Boleslaw Barudin.
0:27:43 > 0:27:44- Good morning.- Hello.
0:27:44 > 0:27:47My name is Chris, Krzysztof Dzieciolowski in Polish,
0:27:47 > 0:27:50- but call me Chris. It will be easier.- OK, thank you. I'm Lisa.
0:27:50 > 0:27:51- Follow me.- OK.
0:27:51 > 0:27:54'I mean, what we have found here?'
0:27:54 > 0:27:58This is, um... this is a registry card
0:27:58 > 0:28:03for the people who were coming to Gdynia and settling down.
0:28:03 > 0:28:07So as we can see, this is his surname, Barudin.
0:28:07 > 0:28:09This is his name, Boleslaw.
0:28:09 > 0:28:12Why change it to Boleslaw from Yuri?
0:28:12 > 0:28:14Or why did he...
0:28:14 > 0:28:17Why did his family in Brooklyn know him as Yuri?
0:28:17 > 0:28:19When living in Poland, you wouldn't like to be...
0:28:19 > 0:28:21- Yuri.- Yuri.- OK.
0:28:21 > 0:28:26Yuri is a typical Russian or Belarusian name.
0:28:26 > 0:28:29OK, he needs his name to be Polish if he's living in Poland.
0:28:29 > 0:28:33Yes. Then we can read this document further on
0:28:33 > 0:28:36and it says that he's married.
0:28:36 > 0:28:40SHE GASPS Where? Where?
0:28:40 > 0:28:43- This is the name of his wife. - Stefanie.
0:28:43 > 0:28:46- And we know that they had a son. - SHE GASPS
0:28:46 > 0:28:54Andrezj, who was born on May 16th of 1949, here in Gdynia.
0:28:54 > 0:28:57He'd be today, what? 59.
0:28:57 > 0:29:00Oh, my gosh.
0:29:00 > 0:29:02He could still be here.
0:29:02 > 0:29:04Yeah, he could still be here.
0:29:04 > 0:29:09Aren't there censuses or voter registration or...?
0:29:09 > 0:29:11Or look in a phone book, see if he's still here!
0:29:11 > 0:29:16- This is a nice phone book from 2002. - OK.
0:29:18 > 0:29:20Gdynia.
0:29:24 > 0:29:25Uh-oh.
0:29:25 > 0:29:27Barudin! SHE GASPS
0:29:27 > 0:29:29What? Boleslaw.
0:29:29 > 0:29:31It's him!
0:29:33 > 0:29:40In 2002! Could he still be alive? That's...he's old.
0:29:40 > 0:29:43SHE GASPS That's him. It's him.
0:29:45 > 0:29:48Oh, no.
0:29:48 > 0:29:51OK.
0:29:51 > 0:29:53YOU should call.
0:29:53 > 0:29:54I think you should call.
0:29:54 > 0:29:58- If he doesn't speak English... - But if he went to America...
0:29:58 > 0:30:00OK. All right, so I should call.
0:30:00 > 0:30:02You think it's OK for me to call?
0:30:02 > 0:30:04- Yes.- OK.
0:30:04 > 0:30:05Oh, my gosh.
0:30:14 > 0:30:16Boleslaw.
0:30:18 > 0:30:19PHONE RINGS It's ringing!
0:30:24 > 0:30:25'Hello?'
0:30:25 > 0:30:27Hello, is this Boleslaw?
0:30:30 > 0:30:32It's... it's Tomek?
0:30:34 > 0:30:36Tomek Barudin? OK.
0:30:39 > 0:30:42You're speaking with... My name is Lisa Kudrow.
0:30:48 > 0:30:50Yes, mm-hmm. Is that your...?
0:30:53 > 0:30:57Oh, that's your grandfather. OK.
0:30:57 > 0:31:01Is he, um... Is he...here?
0:31:03 > 0:31:05He is?
0:31:10 > 0:31:14Yeah. That's his house. Right. And then you answered.
0:31:14 > 0:31:17Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh!
0:31:17 > 0:31:20Um, my father met your grandfather
0:31:20 > 0:31:22a long, long, long time ago...
0:31:23 > 0:31:26..and I think we're related.
0:31:26 > 0:31:29So I wanted to meet him, cos my father...
0:31:29 > 0:31:33The family wanted to know whatever happened to him.
0:31:38 > 0:31:39I'm in Gdynia.
0:31:39 > 0:31:41Yes.
0:31:45 > 0:31:47OK, great. All right.
0:31:47 > 0:31:48See you soon.
0:31:48 > 0:31:50All right, bye.
0:31:50 > 0:31:52What?
0:31:52 > 0:31:54Oh, my gosh. He's alive.
0:31:54 > 0:31:56That's...I can't believe it.
0:31:56 > 0:31:58I... I...
0:31:58 > 0:32:00I was actually fantasizing that,
0:32:00 > 0:32:03"Wouldn't it be great if there was finally, like,
0:32:03 > 0:32:05"A happy story in all of this, and he were alive?"
0:32:05 > 0:32:08But I thought, "It's impossible." It's so great.
0:32:08 > 0:32:09SHE GASPS
0:32:09 > 0:32:12- Thank you very much for your phone. - No problem.
0:32:19 > 0:32:22I'm so excited to meet him.
0:32:22 > 0:32:27I'm so happy I have something happy to tell my father and Gerry.
0:32:27 > 0:32:30SHE GASPS They, oh...
0:32:30 > 0:32:33They were certain he was dead.
0:32:33 > 0:32:35Now I'm going to find him
0:32:35 > 0:32:39and finally give my father a survivor's story that he didn't know anything about.
0:32:47 > 0:32:50- Hello.- Hello.
0:32:50 > 0:32:51HE LAUGHS
0:32:51 > 0:32:54- What a surprise.- I'm Lisa.
0:32:54 > 0:32:55Hi. I'm Tomek Barudin.
0:32:55 > 0:32:57Oh, my... We're related.
0:32:57 > 0:33:00- Nice to meet you. Yeah, come on.- Hi.
0:33:00 > 0:33:04- Let's have a seat. - OK.- I prepared a wonder for you.
0:33:04 > 0:33:06Oh, my gosh.
0:33:06 > 0:33:09I'm a little overwhelmed. I'm excited.
0:33:10 > 0:33:12I have to try not to get overwhelmed.
0:33:13 > 0:33:16Wow.
0:33:26 > 0:33:30And here is the... Here is the Boleslaw Barudin.
0:33:30 > 0:33:31Hello.
0:33:38 > 0:33:40Oh, it's so nice to see you.
0:33:40 > 0:33:42It's so good to meet you.
0:33:42 > 0:33:44Oh, my gosh.
0:33:58 > 0:34:00It's good to see you.
0:34:00 > 0:34:04My father remembers meeting you - him and his cousin Gerry.
0:34:04 > 0:34:06He was about 14.
0:34:06 > 0:34:09That's him.
0:34:09 > 0:34:13That's my grandmother, Grunia.
0:34:22 > 0:34:25Oh, they took pictures?
0:34:26 > 0:34:27Oh, no.
0:34:31 > 0:34:35Your mother was the sister? Half-sister?
0:34:35 > 0:34:39HE SPEAKS IN HIS NATIVE TONGUE
0:34:49 > 0:34:52Wow. He only saw them one time, right?
0:34:52 > 0:34:53- Only one time.- Yeah.
0:34:57 > 0:35:00Yeah, and then it was too dangerous to stay in contact.
0:35:05 > 0:35:08You know, my father also remembers that you came,
0:35:08 > 0:35:12and you were the one who told them what happened in Ilya,
0:35:12 > 0:35:18to Meri and the Mordejovich family.
0:35:18 > 0:35:21My father thinks that you were a witness.
0:35:21 > 0:35:24HE TRANSLATES
0:35:31 > 0:35:33Oh.
0:35:49 > 0:35:52Oh, they... they murdered everyone.
0:35:52 > 0:35:57But how did he escape or survive?
0:35:57 > 0:36:00HE SPEAKS IN HIS NATIVE TONGUE
0:36:23 > 0:36:24Mm-hmm.
0:36:32 > 0:36:34- Siberia?- Siberia, yeah.
0:36:34 > 0:36:36Awful.
0:36:36 > 0:36:39HE SPEAKS IN HIS NATIVE TONGUE
0:36:52 > 0:36:53Wow, that's risky.
0:36:55 > 0:36:58- That's very brave. - Yeah, that was...
0:37:06 > 0:37:0815?!
0:37:15 > 0:37:18I just had one more question
0:37:18 > 0:37:20which is why he wanted to find them in New York?
0:37:20 > 0:37:24HE SPEAKS IN HIS NATIVE TONGUE
0:37:28 > 0:37:31He wanted to know anything.
0:37:31 > 0:37:35- Anyone.- Yeah, anyone who... - To find any family.
0:37:46 > 0:37:50You know, my father and his cousin...
0:37:50 > 0:37:55- for some reason, thought that he died.- No!
0:37:55 > 0:37:58My father is going to be so happy.
0:37:58 > 0:38:00He won't stop crying. I know it.
0:38:03 > 0:38:05'It's finally good. It's finally happy.'
0:38:05 > 0:38:07It's so...
0:38:07 > 0:38:09SHE SIGHS It's such a relief.
0:38:09 > 0:38:11Thank you.
0:38:12 > 0:38:13Thank you.
0:38:13 > 0:38:16'It was so good to see him and his family,
0:38:16 > 0:38:17'his beautiful family!
0:38:17 > 0:38:22'His son and his son and they're all nice.'
0:38:24 > 0:38:25Thank you so much.
0:38:25 > 0:38:29Mostly, I'm just glad that he had a family
0:38:29 > 0:38:32and I got to meet him.
0:38:32 > 0:38:34And now my father can call or email,
0:38:34 > 0:38:35and they can be in touch.
0:38:38 > 0:38:42This journey's been more than worth it, even the hard parts,
0:38:42 > 0:38:46even... even before I knew that he was alive and well.
0:38:46 > 0:38:48Alive and well.
0:38:49 > 0:38:51And happy, yeah.
0:38:51 > 0:38:54It's definitely worth it.
0:38:54 > 0:38:55Yeah, I can't... I have to...
0:38:55 > 0:38:58I can't wait to tell my father about it.
0:38:58 > 0:39:02So, um, I can't wait.
0:39:02 > 0:39:04I'm sorry.
0:39:05 > 0:39:07Hi, Dad.
0:39:08 > 0:39:12Um... You'll have to check your email.
0:39:14 > 0:39:16I met Yuri.
0:39:16 > 0:39:17SHE LAUGHS
0:39:17 > 0:39:19Yeah...
0:39:19 > 0:39:22And his whole family.
0:39:23 > 0:39:25Lisa's returning to Los Angeles
0:39:25 > 0:39:29to tell her father everything she's learned on her journey.
0:39:30 > 0:39:33She's arranged for him to speak with Boleslaw
0:39:33 > 0:39:36for the first time in 60 years.
0:39:39 > 0:39:41- Hi.- Hi, my love.
0:39:41 > 0:39:45My father is about to see Boleslaw and speak to him.
0:39:45 > 0:39:47Since 1947 or 1948,
0:39:47 > 0:39:50that was the last time they laid eyes on each other,
0:39:50 > 0:39:52So this is really exciting.
0:39:54 > 0:39:57- Hello? Hello?- 'Hello?'
0:39:57 > 0:39:59- Yep. Now you see me?- 'Yeah.'
0:39:59 > 0:40:01Hello, Boleslaw.
0:40:06 > 0:40:10Tell him that I remember him very well.
0:40:10 > 0:40:13What I'd like to know is, does he remember me?
0:40:13 > 0:40:14'OK.'
0:40:14 > 0:40:17HE SPEAKS IN HIS NATIVE TONGUE
0:40:23 > 0:40:25Oh, my God, is that wonderful, wonder...
0:40:25 > 0:40:27What a wonderful man!
0:40:27 > 0:40:30You may not know the story,
0:40:30 > 0:40:32but when Boleslaw came to the house
0:40:32 > 0:40:35and he met my mother, who is his aunt,
0:40:35 > 0:40:37he felt very sorry for her,
0:40:37 > 0:40:40because, you know, we didn't have very much money,
0:40:40 > 0:40:44and he actually left 50 for my mother.
0:40:44 > 0:40:48Tomek, look how a young sailor,
0:40:48 > 0:40:53who was maybe 22-years-old, had such a good heart.
0:40:58 > 0:41:02- HE LAUGHS - That's very good.
0:41:03 > 0:41:06OK, well, this has been very wonderful,
0:41:06 > 0:41:07very touching for me.
0:41:16 > 0:41:18- And all the best from us as well.- Mwah!
0:41:18 > 0:41:20- That's right.- 'OK.'
0:41:20 > 0:41:21Bye-bye.
0:41:24 > 0:41:27How many years ago was that that you saw him?
0:41:27 > 0:41:30And then here he is, and you thought he was dead, and he's not.
0:41:30 > 0:41:31It's too good to be true.
0:41:32 > 0:41:36- That's all right, Dad. Oh! - It was tough. It was tough.
0:41:36 > 0:41:38It was tough. It's all right.
0:41:38 > 0:41:40It's OK.
0:41:40 > 0:41:42It's all right.
0:41:42 > 0:41:44I'm OK.
0:41:44 > 0:41:46I just love that.
0:41:51 > 0:41:58The kind of hardship and life-and-death struggles
0:41:58 > 0:42:02that my father, grandmother, great-grandmother had,
0:42:02 > 0:42:04it just never ended.
0:42:04 > 0:42:06In some ways, it changes me,
0:42:06 > 0:42:09cos I feel even more fortunate
0:42:09 > 0:42:14to be the recipient of all the...
0:42:16 > 0:42:19..of all the sacrifices that were made by everyone before me.
0:42:23 > 0:42:28I do feel really lucky that I got to take this trip
0:42:28 > 0:42:31and discover Boleslaw for my father.
0:42:31 > 0:42:35And the other thing is, with all the...
0:42:35 > 0:42:39tragedy and horror that I had to look at,
0:42:39 > 0:42:43then you find Boleslaw,
0:42:43 > 0:42:45who went through a lot himself
0:42:45 > 0:42:49and is smiling and enjoying his son and his grandson
0:42:49 > 0:42:54and his great-grandchildren, and...life goes on.
0:42:54 > 0:42:58I mean that's the big take-away for me from this,
0:42:58 > 0:43:02that life goes on, no matter what.