northern today 11 News northern The family Newman’s family supported his effort. “I can’t talk to Opa, but Oma has assured me he would be very proud of me and my dad and his sisters have done the same. I’m very close with Oma, and that’s a big piece in why it’s so important. I’d like to tell this story for her as well as for him,” Newman said. “My goal is to write story in a way that I think would make (Opa) proud of it. If do end up publishing it, the vast majority of any profit at all would go to Alzheimer’s research, because if not for Alzheimer’s, I could have had this discussion with him.” The trip From May 6 to June 2, Newman journeyed through five countries: The Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Belgium and France. The most immediate challenge he faced during his travels was language. “I have a functional knowledge of French and German … but it was definitely tested by the material I was reading in the archives,” he said. Fortunately, he got a great deal of help from friendly archivists, who loved that he was taking an interest in history. He has also struggled to find the words to describe his experience. “Incredible” is how Newman describes the feeling of standing at the place his grandfather lived in Vienna... Holocaust memorial at Drancy, the main transit camp in France, just north of Paris. Chana Najman was deported from Drancy to Auschwitz. “It’s very hard to share the immense personal aspects of this work,” he said. “Incredible” is how Newman describes the feeling of standing at the place his grandfather lived in Vienna until, at age 9, he and his family were forced out by the Nazis. Every place he visited that his grandfather had also visited was moving, he said, but the most amazing discovery came in an archive in Paris. There, using the names of his great-greatgrandparents (which he had obtained at the Belgian National Archives), he discovered the names of eight family members killed in the Holocaust that his family had never known existed. Even more astounding: he found photographs. “One, a child, looked remarkably like my own father,” he said. “It was one of the most powerful moments of my life.” Presentation in February Newman is now working to turn these amazing experiences into his honors thesis. While a book might be in the distant future, he is currently focused on defending his thesis in December. He will also give a presentation on his European journey and research at 7 p.m. Feb. 12 in the Johnson Fine Arts Center Red Room. The event is free and open to the public. Before his trip, Newman said, he was unsure what to expect. “I wanted to see what Europe was like today in the hopes that I could better visualize it in my Opa’s time,” he said. “I think that that part was successful.” But he came back with much more. “I learned an incredible amount about my family in particular; Judaism and the Holocaust in general; and, though it seems cliche, about myself,” he said. “I was somehow different on June 2 than I was on May 6.” To learn more about Newman’s journey, visit his blog: http://heinzproject.blogspot.com/
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