On a recent episode of PBS’ Finding Your Roots the singer Alanis Morissette discovered that her uncles Gyorgy and Sandor Feuerstein, died in the Holocaust. This news was not entirely shocking considering that Morissette already knew that her Hungarian Jewish grandfather miraculously survived the Holocaust leaving him to relocate his family. Which included Morissette’s mom who at the time was only six years old (via consequence).
The move was from the Soviet Union to Ontario which led to the family keeping their Jewish heritage a secret so much so that the singer didn’t find out she was Jewish until she was 28. The singer’s relatives Gyorgy and Sandor were originally thought to have disappeared during the Holocaust after being forced into a work battalion in Russia. The Finding Your Roots team discovered through looking at records at the World Holocaust Remembrance Center that they both died while working in the slave labor army.
When asked about it Alanis stated “It’s unfathomable for me,” as she could not even imagine the condition that her great-uncles had to deal with. On the episode of Finding Your Roots, the singer also learned that her great-great-grandfather was born out of an area known now as Ukraine. On top of this news, the singer elaborated “I had no idea how super Jewish I am!” (…) “I feel welcomed into a community that I always had a crush on. I’ve always had a crush on Judaism and I would just show up on Passover and at Seder. Now I know why!”.
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