I was born a decade after WWII ended, and grew up in a predominantly Jewish neighborhood in Philly.I was made aware of the Holocaust from a very tender age, and wondered if modern-day Nazis had painted a black swastika on our white garage door when I was 8. I couldn’t understand why my Grandpop and Bubby seemed to be sad so often. Little did I know that my great-grandmother, 2 great aunts, their husbands and 8 children were “liquidated” in Poland in November 1942. Then came the films from the death camps. Were my relatives “lucky” that they were spared that horror and were killed in the streets of the town in Poland where my family had lived since the 1700s? Then came the 20 years of relentless nightmares. At first, I was in a camp, looking for my family, hoping against hope that they were still alive. I didn’t even know what they looked like, yet I kept looking. Eventually, my nightmares turned from being in the camps to being on the outside of the electric fence, still looking. During my first semester of college, I had a western civ class (there were about 35 students). During the semester, our prof showed a documentary, Night and Fog. I hadn’t heard of it, but when I realized what is was, I didn’t know if I was going to throw up or pass out. Unfortunately, my French was quite good by that time (it was narrated in French). I tried to tame my feelings by putting my head down on my desk; that didn’t work for very long. I eventually left the room and waited until class was over to explain to my prof why I left the room. I’m pretty sure that I was the only Jew in the class. He said that he understood. Now, as one of the family genealogists, I’ve come to terms with losing 30 members of my immediate family, just on my Dad’s side. We never knew about my Mom’s side. As more and more people explore their DNA, I’ve often read how surprised and excited people were to discover that they have Jewish blood. Then their excitement was tempered by learning that they lost untold numbers of their newly-found families in the Holocaust. As a parent of 2 little ones, I couldn’t understand why someone would fire-bomb our synagogue in Sacramento, CA in the 1980s. Thus, how it has been for me to be Jewish in America. Am I still afraid that Nazis are coming for me? Now, more than ever.