Terri Lynn Hanauer-brahm

The Hanauer Family Before, During, & After the Holocaust Terri Lynn Hanauer-brahm Second edition

Before Hitler came to power, the Hanauers were prosperous and happy citizens of Germany. But as the Nazis consolidated their power, the Hanauers were systematically stripped of their belongings, their freedoms, and eventually their lives. When Terri Hanauer-Brahm's father drowned when she was still young, he left her completely unaware of her family's history. Decades later, she embarked on a journey of discovery, and now she wishes to share with the world many of the amazing documents, letters, and photographs she uncovered that combine to tell the story of her family's struggles. I have spent the past 10 years searching for the truth about my family. I was told by many people that finding answers about loved ones who perished during the Holocaust would be very difficult. As I started my journey, I wrote emails to every German agency I could find on the internet giving them names and birthdates of my relatives and asking for their help in learning what happened to them. My grandfather Hans was the first person I received documentation on. This was after a woman who worked for the American Red Cross read an article written about my search for answers in our local paper. She met with me and gave me an application for the International Tracing Service to investigate my grandfathers name. It was almost a year before I received a letter from the ITS that they had located records for Hans. He had been sent to Auschwitz where he was murdered on March 31, 1943. Eleven months later I received a note from my fathers half brother that had been written by my grandfather two years before his death as he sat on a train that was taking him to the labor camp Gut Winkel. This is where my journey really began. I was more determined to learn all about my family and this book is filled with the documentation I uncovered telling the story about who my family were, where they lived, and how they survived in Berlin during the Holocaust. There is history in the book that is not well known to the world and that is why I believe it is an important book to be shared with the world. This book was created as a means to document the lives of the Hanauer family before, during, and after the Holocaust. With the help from friends of my deceased relatives, I was able to see what my family had endured the years prior, during and after the war. It has been an amazing journey from not knowing anything about my family in Berlin to finding out where they lived, how they survived and how some sadly were murdered. This history should never be forgotten or denied. Survivors of the Holocaust are now passing on and it is up to my generation and future generations to keep this history alive.