I Discovered That the Family I Thought Had Perished in the Holocaust — and Their Shoe Store — Are Still Thriving

I Discovered That the Family I Thought Had Perished in the Holocaust — and Their Shoe Store — Are Still Thriving

I’ve always known that my father’s family escaped Nazi Germany when he was just a boy — and that they left behind an extended family that they never heard from again. Growing up, the stories of their escape and resilience shaped my understanding of where I came from. For decades, I collected fragments of our family history: scattered memories from reunions, old photographs in crumbling albums, and stories passed down from uncles and aunts. But I never imagined how much more I would discover when I turned to MyHeritage. What started as an effort to answer lingering questions about my past led to some incredible revelations — and an emotional reunion across the Atlantic. 

Escaping Nazi Germany

I grew up knowing that my father’s family had escaped from Nazi Germany. My father, Klaus Walter, was born in 1930 in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, the youngest of four brothers. His father, Wilhelm, was a decorated World War I veteran who had been wounded 3 times and even awarded the Iron Cross. Wilhelm owned a clothing store that was forcibly closed by the Nazis when Jewish people were barred from owning businesses. During Kristallnacht, he was arrested but released by a Nazi officer Wilhelm had saved during WWI! The officer, Alfred Meyer, urged the family to leave Germany immediately. Wilhelm and his family managed to escape to Panama in the summer of 1939. As for the officer — he ended his own life at the end of the war.

The family’s departure was harrowing, with the Gestapo watching their packing and a tense quarantine at the Dutch border before finally leaving Europe. Life in Panama was difficult; the family lived in a wooden shack up on 8-foot poles without electricity and struggled as farmers despite little knowledge of agriculture. In 1940, they arrived in New York City, then moved to Baltimore to join Wilhelm’s sister Rika and her family, who had settled there in the mid-1930s. Wilhelm started a small hat shop there.

Piecing together the past

Since the 50-year anniversary of their escape, the Cohen family had hosted family reunions in Baltimore, Maryland, where the family had eventually settled. In 2020, when my mother passed away, I was left with a treasure trove of photographs and documents. Most were unlabeled, leaving me with countless unanswered questions about the people in them. Though I had documented much of my father’s family history in a book called My Father’s Family, I realized there were still gaps. I decided to dig deeper. My partner, Dennis, and I loved watching Finding Your Roots on TV, so I thought genealogy might hold the key to filling in the blanks.

Walter, Suzanne’s father, with his parents and his older brothers in 1939. Front: Trude, Walter, Wilhelm. Back: Rudy, Henry, Victor. 1939. Photo enhanced and colorized by MyHeritage.
Walter, Suzanne’s father, with his parents and his older brothers in 1939. Front: Trude, Walter, Wilhelm. Back: Rudy, Henry, Victor. 1939. Photo enhanced and colorized by MyHeritage.
Walter, Suzanne’s father, with his parents and his older brothers in 1939. Front: Trude, Walter, Wilhelm. Back: Rudy, Henry, Victor. 1939. Photo enhanced and colorized by MyHeritage.

The shoe store is still running

With guidance from a friend, Brenda Lanoue, in my local community in Greenwich, New York, I began exploring online genealogy tools. While researching my family history for me on MyHeritage, Brenda came across the tree of someone named Dagmar Bassarak from Germany who seemed to be related. I connected with Dagmar, who had already spent years researching our shared family history. It turned out that her husband is the nephew of my great-uncle Fritz Grünebaum’s wife, Wally Bassarak.

Though Dagmar didn’t speak English, her son graciously translated, allowing her to share an incredible collection of documentation and photographs. She was able to reveal to me that my grandmother’s brother Fritz had not, in fact, perished in the Holocaust: he survived the war and reclaimed the family shoe store, which he’d been forced to sell to an “Aryan” in 1938. That shoe store is still being run by our relatives, 150 years after it was first established.

This news was astonishing: I hadn’t known that anyone from our European branch had survived.

Another branch that survived

Following this incredible discovery, I decided to sign up for MyHeritage myself. Shortly after, I received a message from a man called Peter Gerritsen from Lelystad in the Netherlands. Our trees matched, and when I learned how, I was blown away: his grandmother Jeannette Cohen, who perished in the Holocaust, was a sister of my paternal grandfather.

I couldn’t believe it — another branch of my family had survived!

He was ecstatic to connect with me, and the feeling was mutual.

Peter, as a boy, with his mother Lotte in 1952. Photo enhanced and colorized by MyHeritage.
Peter, as a boy, with his mother Lotte in 1952. Photo enhanced and colorized by MyHeritage.
Peter, as a boy, with his mother Lotte in 1952. Photo enhanced and colorized by MyHeritage.

I decided I must travel to Europe to meet my newfound family.

This past March, my older son Taylor and I embarked on a journey to meet Peter and our cousins in Germany. Peter and his wife, Hilly, welcomed us warmly in Amsterdam and Lelystad, showing us their home and the Netherlands’ beautiful sights. Then, Peter drove us to Witten in Germany to meet my Grünebaum family — the cousins still running the shoe store.

Britta, Suzanne, Peter, Kirsten, Werner, Taylor, and Dagmar reunited in front of the Grünebaum shoe store 

Britta, Suzanne, Peter, Kirsten, Werner, Taylor, and Dagmar reunited in front of the Grünebaum shoe store

A profound sense of connection

In Witten, we were welcomed with open arms by the family of Werner Grünebaum. Werner — the son of my great-uncle Fritz — was celebrating his 82nd birthday, and he hosted a brunch that turned into a heartwarming family reunion.

Werner as a boy, with his parents Wally Bassarak Grünebaum, and Fritz Werner Grünebaum. Photo enhanced and colorized by MyHeritage
Werner as a boy, with his parents Wally Bassarak Grünebaum, and Fritz Werner Grünebaum. Photo enhanced and colorized by MyHeritage
Werner as a boy, with his parents Wally Bassarak Grünebaum, and Fritz Werner Grünebaum. Photo enhanced and colorized by MyHeritage

The icing on the cake was that Dagmar and her daughter Britta made the 3-hour journey to join us. It was perfect. The laughter, the shared stories, and the profound sense of connection were unforgettable.

Suzanne's father's boyhood home in Gelsenkirchen, Germany.

Suzanne’s father’s boyhood home in Gelsenkirchen, Germany.

On our way back to Lelystad, we stopped by my father’s boyhood home in Gelsenkirchen, Germany.

Preserving the past for future generations

Back home, I’ve continued to use MyHeritage to fill in the gaps in our family history. I’ve been working on the third addendum to my family history book, incorporating the stories and photographs I’ve gathered. I’m also researching the Stolpersteine (stumbling stones) memorials for family members who perished during the Holocaust. These markers, embedded in streets throughout Europe, commemorate the lives and fates of victims of Nazi persecution.

My Father’s Family, the book Suzanne wrote

My Father’s Family, the book Suzanne wrote

Through it all, MyHeritage has enriched my life in ways I never imagined. It has connected me with relatives I didn’t know existed, brought our shared history to light, and given me the tools to preserve it for future generations. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Many thanks to Suzanne Cohen for sharing her incredible story with us, which was also recently published in The Washington Post. If you have also made a discovery with MyHeritage, we’d love to hear about it! Please send it to us via this form or email it to us at stories@myheritage.com.