Background

My mother was born in Vienna, Austria. Her mother, Helene (or Helen, for whom I was named) was born in Bohemia, now part of Czech Republic (formerly Czechoslovakia), but at the time was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. My family was split apart during the Second World War and my grandmother joined her children in America after the war. This site chronicles what happened as well as my journey to put the pieces together, which began in the spring of 2017.

From her many letters and memoirs, it became clear that my grandmother wanted the world to know her story. I have gone through the papers with much help from an archivist, historian, translators, and many others who have offered assistance, advice, and encouragement along the way. With their help, I found that I can indeed tell her story in her own words, in the words of her contemporaries, and in my own.

My grandmother was such a prolific communicator that I have a letter or document for almost every day of the year – not the same year, but almost every date in January, February, etc. Inspired by the online version of “The Diary of Samuel Pepys”, in 2021 I posted a daily blog telling my grandmother’s and her family’s story, using letters and documents from my family archive. If you would like to see the 2021 blog from the beginning, click here. The very beginning of my blog starts here.

In 2022, I posted entries from my grandmother’s cousin Hilda’s childhood diary– we saw life in 1912 San Francisco from a child’s-eye view. Hilda’s first diary entry can be found here.

Going forward, I will periodically post blog entries related to my family history. You can subscribe to receive email updates.

As I share my family story and the journey I’ve taken to understand it, I’d love to hear from you if there are particular stories that interest you and would like to hear more about. Thank you for joining me on this adventure!