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Amazing Detective Work Reunites Best Friends Thought Murdered in the Holocaust
(Times of Israel) Matt Lebovic - In 1939, two nine-year-old Jewish girls from Berlin promised to keep in touch. One family fled to Chile, while the other made its way to the U.S. via Shanghai. For the first time after 82 years, Ana Maria Wahrenberg and Betty Grebenschikoff connected with each other again on Zoom, facilitated by Holocaust testimony indexer Ita Gordon, whose sharp memory linked the women. "In her [USC Shoah Foundation] testimony, Betty said she had been actively searching for her long-lost friend for her entire life; she even specifically mentions Ana Maria's name," said Rachael Cerrotti, a creative producer at the foundation. After hearing Wahrenberg speak at a virtual Kristallnacht event, Gordon made the connection between Grebenschikoff's testimony - given to the foundation 24 years ago - and Wahrenberg. After more than 80 years of believing the other had perished in the Holocaust, the women connected virtually in November. Lucas Kirschman, one of Grebenschikoff's grandchildren, said, "It was so natural for them. They picked back up...like no big deal....I've never heard my grandmother speak German before, ever." Founded by Steven Spielberg, the foundation's archive has 55,000 video testimonies from survivors and witnesses of genocide.