Family Treasures Lost & Found

The Memoir

 

"When a technology journalist turns her forensic skills to her own family, a unique detective story unfolds.... This beautifully written book, really two stories in one, is not only about what the author found. It is also a journey of discovery. Karen A. Frenkel demonstrates what truths can be revealed, despite decades of silence and gaps in the record, and inspires others to embark on their own journey. A must read." 

 

—Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett

Ronald S. Lauder Chief Curator 

Core Exhibition at POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews

Professor Emerita

New York University

"Karen A. Frenkel has gifted us with a deeply researched, profoundly moving journey before, during, and after the Nazi era of horror, death, escape, refuge. Her memoir is brilliant, gripping, haunting...the perfect read for this moment. Everyone concerned about humanity's ongoing struggle for empathy, survival, and human rights will benefit from Frenkel's vision, family love, and hope."

—Blanche Wiesen Cook

Professor Emerita, John Jay College and the Graduate Center CUNY

author of Eleanor Roosevelt and The Declassified Eisenhower

 

"Frenkel's remarkable memoir shifts the paradigm that assumed Holocaust survivors continued to be victims after the war.... This beautifully written, intensely engaging memoir also chronicles novel expressions of the rise of antisemitism in institutions of medical education, juxtaposed to individuals who risked their lives to save Jews. The tapestry Frenkel weaves with much persistence is inspirational."
—Eva Fogelman

author of Conscience and Courage: Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaustwriter

Co-producer, Breaking the Silence: The Generation After the Holocaust

"With the rise of active global antisemitism, Frenkel's memoir is most compelling and much needed.... This memoir enables readers to absorb the most outrageous acts society can perpetrate on its members."
—Arthur Flug

Executive Director, Kupferberg Holocaust Center

Queensborough Community College (Retired)

author, Untermenschen: A History of Targeting Others for Inequality, Hatred and Suffering

  

The Documentary

 

Karen A. Frenkel has unlocked her family treasures, once brought home in plastic bags, to tell the story of her parents' and grandparents' ordeals during the Holocaust. Her research was prodigious, her work indefatigable, and her courage admirable. As we follow their stories, the history of the Shoah unfolds, the world before, the diverse ways in which these Jews faced their fate and made life and death choices—even choiceless choices—how they dealt with the legacy of their struggle, some in silence, and some in words. As the child of survivors, Frenkel uncovers her past but the story she tells is not just personal for we begin to feel that her family could be ours. Her exploration of the past is engaging. Family Treasures is truly a treasure.

—Michael Berenbaum

Holocaust educator, historian, museum curator, rabbi

Director, Sigi Ziering Institute

Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies

American Jewish University

author, Elie Wiesel: God, the Holocaust, and the Children of Israel

 

Family Treasures Lost and Found can serve as an excellent resource for Holocaust educators, modeling key skills such as critical inquiry, archival research, and the analysis of survivor testimony essential for effective instruction. Students and teachers will be introduced to fascinating aspects of Holocaust history as they follow

Karen A. Frenkel's quest to learn her family history and by extension the broader history of Jewish life in Europe before, during, and after World War II. The discussion guide and appendix offer helpful resources designed to provide educators with the necessary tools to effectively teach this complex history.

––Avinoam J. Patt
Professor of Holocaust Studies
Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies
Director, NYU Center for the Study of Antisemitism
New York University