That’s How I Found Her: My Grandfather’s Holocaust Journey

Poland, September 1939. The author’s grandfather, then eighteen-year-old Kalman Sztajer, witnesses a group of Nazi soldiers drag his partially dressed neighbors into the street and shoot them in broad daylight. From that moment forward, Kalman does whatever he can to protect his family. He escapes to Russia but, fearing for his family’s safety, risks a return to Nazi-occupied Poland. His journey continues as he faces a Nazi raid at his wedding, poses as a non-Jewish communist in Buchenwald, and rides a bicycle across war-torn Europe to reunite with his young wife.

A proud and committed Jew whose unswerving optimism propelled him through the Holocaust and beyond, Kalman served as a role model to his granddaughter and their entire family. Kalman’s story of hope remains an inspiration.

A granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, Jessica Kaplan grew up listening to their stories of wartime terror - and of the determination and hope that sustained them. An attorney and writer, she lives in New York City with her husband and three children and shares her grandfather’s story of survival whenever given the opportunity.