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Filling in the Blanks
Tracing services bring closure to woman who wondered about fate of missing aunt and uncle
By Roger Anthony, freelance writer, Portland, Oregon
Tuesday, April 15, 2008 — The little girl's life was shattered by events far beyond her control. Her family had lost their home, their culture, and their language. Yet they knew they were the lucky ones.
Polly Alexander, a caseworker with the Oregon Trail Chapter in Portland, helped Ruth Lindemann search for an aunt and uncle missing since Nazi troops forced them to leave their home in Vienna, Austria.
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The girl, Ruth Lindemann, and her mother and father eventually made their way from Nazi-controlled Austria to a new life in the United States. Ruth grew up, got married, had children, and moved to Seaside, a resort town on the Oregon coast. But she could never escape the feeling that parts of her story were missing—blank pages that were filled in this winter thanks to workers from the American Red Cross.
Learning the 'Real Answer'
For many years, Ruth had been seeking information about her aunt and uncle. By conducting some online sleuthing of her own, she had been able to track down information about her grandmother. But all she knew about her aunt and uncle was that they were taken from their home in Vienna at the same time she and her parents were removed from theirs.
"I think my mother and dad had started tracing the family right after World War II," she says. "So this has been going on for 60 years."
Ultimately, Ruth contacted the Red Cross for help. Polly Alexander, an emergency services caseworker with the Oregon Trail Chapter in Portland, helped handled her tracing request. The two women talked, then filled out a tracing inquiry and sent it to the American Red Cross Holocaust and War Victims Tracing Center, which in turn forwarded it to the German Red Cross.
The Holocaust and War Victims Tracing Center, located in Baltimore, Md., is a clearinghouse for people seeking information about loved ones missing since the Holocaust and its aftermath. Open since 1990, the center assists U.S. residents searching for proof of internment, forced/slave labor, or evacuation from former Nazi territories, either for themselves or family members.
In Ruth Lindemann's case, researchers were able to confirm that her aunt and uncle were sent to a Nazi concentration camp in April 1942. Her uncle was executed in September of that year; there was no further information about her aunt.
Months later, Polly Alexander received a package containing the original, hand-written records kept by Nazi soldiers. The papers showed the dates of birth for Ruth's aunt and uncle and the dates of their evacuation. Her uncle's records also included his prisoner number and date of death. Alexander repackaged the papers and sent them to Ruth in Seaside.
"We used to just paraphrase them," Alexander says of the Nazi records. "But this way, Mrs. Lindemann knew it was the real answer. It wasn't just something we found on the Internet."
More than 1,200 Reunions
Although Ruth Lindemann's search ended in heartbreak, some tracing requests have joyous results—more than 1,200 Holocaust survivors have been reunited with family members since the Tracing Center opened. Overall, the center has sought to learn the fate of more than 40,000 individuals missing since the Holocaust and World War II.
The American Red Cross offers its Holocaust and war victims tracing services at no charge. To learn more, contact your local Red Cross chapter or the Holocaust and War Victims Tracing Center in Baltimore.
As part of the world's largest humanitarian network, the American Red Cross alleviates the suffering of victims of war, disaster and other international crises, and works with other Red Cross and Red Crescent societies to improve chronic, life-threatening conditions in developing nations. We reconnect families separated by emergencies and educate the American public about international humanitarian law. This assistance is made possible through the generosity of the American public.
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