Kathryn Schulz

I'm delighted to be here. Thanks so much.

I'm delighted to be here. Thanks so much.

What a wonderful question to begin with, because it has these kind of two valences, the practical matter of where he came from and the kind of mystifying question of where any human being and all their wonderful specificity comes from. In the case of my father, both answers are a little complicated. His mother had fled the shtetl in Poland when it was clear that the shadow of the

What a wonderful question to begin with, because it has these kind of two valences, the practical matter of where he came from and the kind of mystifying question of where any human being and all their wonderful specificity comes from. In the case of my father, both answers are a little complicated. His mother had fled the shtetl in Poland when it was clear that the shadow of the

Second World War was kind of creeping ever further across Poland. She came from a family of 12. They had the resources to get one of them to safety, and they chose their youngest daughter, who was my grandmother, and indeed her parents. And most of her siblings subsequently perished in Auschwitz. So she gets herself to Tel Aviv. My father is born.

Second World War was kind of creeping ever further across Poland. She came from a family of 12. They had the resources to get one of them to safety, and they chose their youngest daughter, who was my grandmother, and indeed her parents. And most of her siblings subsequently perished in Auschwitz. So she gets herself to Tel Aviv. My father is born.

And then at a very young age, he was sent away from his mother. He was sent to live on a kibbutz and spent a few years alone there. His father vanishes or dies. We don't know. My grandmother remarries. And after the war, their family in a truly unusual trajectory when half of global Jewry in its terrible decimated and refugee status is trying to get to the Holy Land.

And then at a very young age, he was sent away from his mother. He was sent to live on a kibbutz and spent a few years alone there. His father vanishes or dies. We don't know. My grandmother remarries. And after the war, their family in a truly unusual trajectory when half of global Jewry in its terrible decimated and refugee status is trying to get to the Holy Land.

My father and his family flee Tel Aviv and go of all places in the world to Germany. So my father left Tel Aviv at about seven, spent from seven to 12 in Germany, and then finally the family obtained refugee visas and wound up in Detroit, which is where he then spent his teenage years.

My father and his family flee Tel Aviv and go of all places in the world to Germany. So my father left Tel Aviv at about seven, spent from seven to 12 in Germany, and then finally the family obtained refugee visas and wound up in Detroit, which is where he then spent his teenage years.

Just shocking amounts, really. I mean, my father was born in 1941, so all around him, what should have been whole vast branches of family trees are just being hewn off viciously, and whole communities are being leveled and destroyed. So there was this kind of background dislocation attendant upon every Jew born in that

Just shocking amounts, really. I mean, my father was born in 1941, so all around him, what should have been whole vast branches of family trees are just being hewn off viciously, and whole communities are being leveled and destroyed. So there was this kind of background dislocation attendant upon every Jew born in that

But then quite specifically, you know, he was born essentially a stranger in a strange land. In 1948, when my father's family left Israel, or I should say left Palestine, it was still Palestine, it was effectively a war zone.

But then quite specifically, you know, he was born essentially a stranger in a strange land. In 1948, when my father's family left Israel, or I should say left Palestine, it was still Palestine, it was effectively a war zone.

And indeed, an uncle who was traveling with him in the caravan to Haifa to leave at the port there was shot and killed in the car with my father in the car in the backseat when it happened.

And indeed, an uncle who was traveling with him in the caravan to Haifa to leave at the port there was shot and killed in the car with my father in the car in the backseat when it happened.

There was a kind of omnipresent violence and insecurity that characterized his young life that is just shocking for me to contemplate, in part because he then dedicated his adult life to providing for his children the stability he did not have growing up.

There was a kind of omnipresent violence and insecurity that characterized his young life that is just shocking for me to contemplate, in part because he then dedicated his adult life to providing for his children the stability he did not have growing up.

My father became the kind of person who you would never guess the quantity of tragedy that lay in his past. You would never guess that his whole family had been decimated by the Holocaust, that he had all of this grief and loss and violence at every stage of his life. My father was brilliant. He was joyful. He was incredibly witty. He was shockingly brilliant.

My father became the kind of person who you would never guess the quantity of tragedy that lay in his past. You would never guess that his whole family had been decimated by the Holocaust, that he had all of this grief and loss and violence at every stage of his life. My father was brilliant. He was joyful. He was incredibly witty. He was shockingly brilliant.