The Memory Keeper A Journey Into the Holocaust to Find My Family

Max and Mally, two out of millions murdered in the Holocaust, are deported in 1942 from Berlin to Theresienstadt – where they will starve to death.

Decades later, in London and on a whim, their granddaughter, Jackie googles their names to find two commemorative stones recently placed outside their old home. The discovery compels her to open a long-closed cupboard of haunting family papers, piece together the story of the family she never knew and find her place in it.

With searing prose and meticulous detective work, Jackie Kohnstamm offers a gripping and poignant portrait of an ordinary family and reveals a remarkable story of loss, discovery and memory.

Max and Mally, two out of millions murdered in the Holocaust, are deported in 1942 from Berlin to Theresienstadt – where they will starve to death.

Decades later, in London and on a whim, their granddaughter, Jackie googles their names to find two commemorative stones recently placed outside their old home. The discovery compels her to open a long-closed cupboard of haunting family papers, piece together the story of the family she never knew and find her place in it.

With searing prose and meticulous detective work, Jackie Kohnstamm offers a gripping and poignant portrait of an ordinary family and reveals a remarkable story of loss, discovery and memory.

Jackie Kohnstamm’s mother rarely talked about what had happened during the war and had kept little evidence of her early life. It was only after her uncle and aunt had died that Jackie inherited an archive of material relating to the family back in Germany. Jackie’s mother had managed to get out of Berlin in 1936, following her brother and sister who had already escaped. But Jackie’s grandparents had remained.

One night, on a whim, Jackie Googled her grandparents’ names. What she found felt like a sign: four days earlier two Stolpersteine (‘stumble stones’) had been laid in their names outside the house in Berlin where they had once lived. Someone had commissioned this memorial to her grandparents. Each listed their name, year of birth, date of deportation to Theresienstadt and date of their murder by the Nazis. Here, then, was the first step, and what followed was a remarkable story of loss, discovery and memory.