["Triumph of the Will" playing] ["Triumph of the Will" playing] Man 1: So, there I was.

I was doing an assignment for class.

And I was at my parents' house watching Triumph of the Will, this famous Nazi propaganda film.

And my mom, who grew up in Germany, was in the other room and she didn't know what I was watching.

She came running into the room, very excited, and started singing along with the music.

And then she sees on the screen, she's seeing these images with the swastika and the soldiers, and she sees Hitler, and she kind of quiets down a little bit and then she just walks out of the room.

["Truimph of the Will" playing quietly] In that moment, I realized how connected my family was to Nazi Germany.

I understand it from this American point of view, as something that is completely evil.

But watching this film on the German side, it's not as clear-cut as it is to us.

I've always known of this, this German heritage that I have.

Mother from Germany, father from America.

I grew up American.

Here's the thing for me: I wanna be German.

I feel German.

I am a bit nervous because I know that we're going to be looking at a part of German history that isn't necessarily the most fun, but I feel like as part of the process of understanding that German culture that I’ve inherited, part of it deals with looking at that particular point in history.

I feel like in some way, most Germans have to come to terms with that at some point or another, and this is my chance to do that.

♪♪ - Hello, I’m Lise Simms, and each week on our show we bring you the story of someone who, for one reason or another, wants to connect with an ancestor, or perhaps an entire generation of their family tree, and we help them do just that.

We're an ongoing project dedicated to connecting families across generations.

And today that person is Ty Arnold.

Welcome, Ty.

- Hi.

- I'm really struck by the phrase "I want to be German.

I feel German."

Where does that feeling come from?

- My mom is German and so I grew up with this history kind of in the background.

Um, I grew up in America, my, my father's American, and I have relatives from Germany that would come and visit occasionally and so I always felt like that's something I should look into, and I really haven't done that until recently.

In fact, just a few years ago I found out that I could be a full-on German citizen because of my mother's status.

And I, I went, I actually went to the, the German, uh, consulate and got the passport, and for me at that point, it was more of a -- it was kind of a status symbol-- Lise: Mm-hm.

- --just to have, like, dual citizenship.

Yeah.

Lise: [chuckles] - J-- kind of Jason Bourne kind of a thing, actually.

- [laughs] - But at some point it clicked like, this is, this is real.

And this is something that I feel like I need to earn this, this, this German status.

And so it kind of grew from there.

Lise: Well, when you say that, the point where it becomes real, it seems to me is that moment with your mother.

- Yeah.

Lise: Tell me a little bit more about what was happening for you then.

- It's, it's kind of a heavy moment, I'm watching it, it feels, it feels kinda heavy.

She comes in and she's singing the song and it's, it's Hitler that you're seeing on the screen, and it clicks for me that, that that is connected.

That Nazi history has a connection in our family somehow.

And I feel like, as a German, at some point people have to deal with that issue.

And at that point it-- for me it felt like that's my-- t-that's my time to do that.

I need to-- I need to understand this German history and look at it and-- with all the good and the bad and just take it as it is.

Lise: Were you afraid of any potential information you might come across?

Ty: Yeah, oh yeah.

- What were you afraid you might find?

- I was, I was worried, you know, having that experience and hearing my mom singing songs and connecting with that whole era of Germany, I was worried that I was gonna find out something that maybe... maybe I have a grandfather that's working in a concentration camp or something that's, you know, very dark.

And so, I was really nervous.

Really nervous to find something out.

And yet I feel like part of understanding who you are as a German means looking at that directly and, and trying to understand it for what it is.

Lise: You are a photojournalist and a filmmaker by trade, and we chose to shoot this particular episode virtually completely in black and white.

I’d love to know your opinions behind that.

Ty: [chuckles] Well, [chuckles] as a, as a cinematographer, I think black and white is very beautiful.

So, I, I think it's very, very pretty.

But also, for the story for me, I think, um, also it's, um, kind of pertinent to my story.

This is, this is me looking back in history and my experience at looking at this history, it's always black and white.

And it's always through that, that kind of a lens and so it felt kind of appropriate to, to look at this World War II history, uh, black and white.

Lise: In the color that we typically see it in.

Ty: Yeah.

- You start with your mom, who's an amateur genealogist on her own right.

It's obviously her family history that you're looking into.

Ty: Mm-hm.

- So, let's take a look at where your journey begins.

♪♪ ♪♪ Woman 1: This is my mom.

This is my dad.

This is my brother.

And me.

Ty: Mm-hm.

Woman 1: When my dad was really young, he was getting higher education in Germany, but Hitler needed people for his army, and so they gave him-- he was like a few months away from his graduation, and so they gave him an early graduation so he could be part of the, of the war.

- So he wasn't drafted, he chose to go?

Woman 1: Yeah.

Ty: The incentive to go in.

Woman 1: I think so.

And see, here are some pictures of him when he was young in uniform.

Ty: What was, uh, do you know, was he, was he supportive of everything that was going on in Germany at the time, or?

'Cause he seems to be, in these pictures, pretty happy.

This one right here he seems to be having a good time.

Woman 1: Yeah, uh, but you have to remember that all my parents, when Hitler came into power, were kids.

And yeah, it was fun to go to the Hitler Youth and do things and march around and do stuff, you know.

At first nobody knew what they were getting into.

Um, after World War I, Germany was in, in a big mess and somebody came and he said, We're building autobahns, we're organizing the youth, and there was a little bit of excitement, and they were in the trap before they knew it.

You know, in fact, I-I thought maybe you'd like to see this.

I talked to my grandma about genealogy, and I asked if she had any records.

She pulled out this big roll of, of a, of a pedigree chart.

I was so excited.

Ty: Hm.

- And I asked her where she got it.

And she told me that my uncle put the pedigree chart together and she said, "I think he did it "because he wanted to make sure we had proof we were not Jewish."

Ty: Hm.

- Now, my, my, my grandparents were not racist at all, but people were scared, and I think they wanted to have all their bases covered.

And I don't know how much they knew what was going on in concentration camps and things like that, but the hatred by, by the government was obvious against various races, you know, and people were scared.

Ty: Do you know if anybody on Wolfgang's side of the family also did something like that on their side?

- I don't know.

Um, if they did, my, my grandma didn't have it.

Ty: If I wanna know more about Wolfgang's family, going further back, who would I-- who would I go see?

- My father's sister, Brigitte.

- Brigitte.

- Same name as me.

She would be the one to ask questions to.

Ty: And where is-- where does Brigitte live?

- In, in Sandhausen-- - Sandhausen.

Woman 1: and I actually have the address here.

Ty: Sandhausen.

Okay.

♪♪ Pretty, uh, pretty interesting.

He joined the navy after the war started, so I'm kinda curious as to what kind of motivations he had to join.

He must have known, you know, kind of what was going on at the time, and so he, he made the choice to do that.

I'm really curious to see more about Wilhelm.

Wanna learn a bit more about him, and more about my grandfather and his family, so I guess we're off to Germany to find Brigitte.

♪♪ - Ty is visiting Sandhausen, where his grandfather, Wolfgang, and his great-grandfather, Wilhelm Steinhausen, lived.

Ty's great aunt, Brigitte, Wolfgang's sister, still lives in Sandhausen today with her son and his family.

[knocking] - Hallo, hallo, hallo.

- Ty.

Ty: Ty.

- Nice to meet you.

Ty: Nice to meet you.

- That's my wife, [indistinct]-- Ty: Hi.

Man 2: --and my son.

Ty: Nice to meet you.

- Josua.

Ty: What's happenin'?

Man 2: And that's Brigitte.

Ty: Brigitte, oh-ho.

How are you?

Brigitte: [speaks German] Ty: How are you?

[speaking German] - Ja.

- These are all, um, my mother's grandchildren.

- [laughs] - Now, Ty, let's have a look at some pictures from the past.

This is Wilhelm, uh, when he was onboard of a, a vessel.

He was a, a marine officer.

Ty: Marine officer.

- Yeah.

- Wow, that's awesome.

Man 2: That's Wolfgang.

Ty: That's Wolfgang?

Man 2: Yeah.

Brigitte: Yeah.

Ty: My mom told me, too, that he was, he was, uh, a part of Hitler's Youth when he was a child.

Ty: Well, um, how did he feel about everything that was happening in Germany at the time?

Do you know if he was excited about the Nazi party coming to power, or how did he-- how did he feel about it?

Ty: So did he, did he ever-- did he ever regret serving in the navy?

Ty: Wow.

I was a little bit nervous talking to them because I, I really didn't know what I’d find.

You know, I was nervous that I would find something about maybe even persecution of Jews, or that they had actively participated in the Nazi party, but it seems like my, my grandfather was a pretty cool guy.

I mean, he was part of Hitler's Youth but as I understand it, so was everybody else in the country, you know, so it just kinda-- it feels like they were just kinda swept up in this whole movement.

They just-- after everything ended they kind of realized how kinda crazy the whole situation was.

So I'm just relieved that we didn't have-- we didn't play a larger role in the Nazi party during the time.

My aunt mentioned her great-grandfather, and his name was Heinrich, and she said he was a pastor.

So it would be awesome to find out more about him.

♪♪ - Ty has pushed his pedigree past World War II and World War I to his great-great-grandfather, Heinrich Steinhausen, a Lutheran preacher born in 1836.

Heinrich's brother, Wilhelm Steinhausen, was a prolific painter who lived in the Frankfurt area where there is a museum dedicated to his work.

♪♪ Ty hopes that visiting the museum will help him learn more about Heinrich and Wilhelm.

Ty: Look, look right up here.

Right up here.

Wilhelm Steinhausen.

That's my great-great-uncle.

♪♪ Lise: Ty is meeting with Dieter Vogel, the chair of the Steinhausen Foundation, which is dedicated to preserving the heritage and art of Ty's third great-uncle, Wilhelm.

Ty: So, that, that name on the front door is my, is my great-great-uncle.

- Uncle.

- Really?

This is his, this is his museum?

- Yes.

And his house.

- This is his house?

Where he lived here.

Ty: Okay, tell me more.

Dieter: [speaking German] Ty: This is Heinrich.

Ty: My great-great-grandfather.

Dieter: Yes.

Ty: So, what kind of work did my great-great-grandfather and my uncle do together?

Ty: Uh, he was-- Heinrich was a writer.

- A writer.

- And he writed lots of books.

And in the beginning, they worked together.

You see, the, the bird, the bird is-- - [speaking German] - [speaking German] Ty: The story of the birth and... Dieter: Of our Lord, Jesus Christus in, in pictures and word from Wilhelm and Heinrich Steinhausen.

But, uh, Heinrich wrote a lot of books.

- These are all his books too?

- All from Heinrich Steinhausen.

Ty: What kind of, what kind of books would he write?

Heinrich Steinhausen.

Dieter: This were, uh, more historical roman-romance.

- Really?

My kinda guy.

- Yes.

Lise: By writing historical novels about Germanic knights and chivalry, Heinrich was emulating the vogue of his day.

He lived during the German unification, when the various small Germanic nations and city-states were coming together to form the country that would become Germany.

Prior to this time, society looked to the Greeks and the Romans as the fountains of civilization.

But the strong emphasis on unification led Germans to focus on their own medieval roots, the very setting of Heinrich's books.

The work of Heinrich's brother, Wilhelm, also emphasized this nationalistic sentiment.

He was able to make a successful career as an artist because his paintings focused on Christian images, German landscapes, and other themes that were seen as inherently German and thereby helped unify the nation.

Dieter: Well, in general, he was painting for churches.

- Oh.

- Yes.

Uh, they ve-- uh, very Christian people.

Um, coming from Heinrich's mother, you see here, this is your great-great- great-grandmother.

Ty: Mm.

Dieter: And in memory of her, uh, Wilhelm painted a glass-- stained glass.

Ty: So it had his mother in the corner of the painting?

Dieter: Ye-yes.

Ty: In the glass?

Dieter: Yes.

Ty: Wow.

Dieter: She was a very religious woman.

The whole family of hers, his mother, they were very religious Protestants and, um, Wilhelm writes in a, in a book that he has to, to go every Sunday with his mother to church.

- That's like my mom.

- [laughs] Yes.

- It's true.

♪♪ - I think it's just amazing that there's an entire museum dedicated to the work of my ancestors.

I really had no idea when I came to Frankfurt that I would find a whole museum of artwork.

♪♪ Do I, do I feel more German?

Yeah.

Yeah, we ha-- we have our own museum in Germany.

I mean, you can't get more German than having your own museum in the country, right?

I think the more that I learn the more I feel like I, I kind of have a place here.

Herr Vogel mentioned, um, Henriette, my great-great- great-grandmother.

She sounded like she was kind of influential in the work that they did.

And I, and I hear she's from Berlin, so I’d love to go to Berlin and kinda just learn more about her.

♪♪ Lise: Henriette Steinhausen lived in Berlin in the early 1800s.

Ty begins researching her life by visiting the Lutheran archives in search of her christening record.

♪♪ Woman 2: So this is the christening record for your great-great- great-grandmother, Henriette Steinhausen, whose maiden name was Naphtali.

And she's listed here with her mother, and her brother, Theodor Naphtali, and they were baptized on the 14 November, 1827.

So that would have made her 23.

- She was 23 when she was baptized?

- Mm-hm.

- Now, aren't-- in a Lutheran church, aren't you baptized when you're younger?

- Normally, yes.

Ty: So, was she con-- a convert, or?

I mean, how did you... - Um, try reading this section over here.

- Let's see.

Okay.

This section right here?

Woman 2: Mm-hm.

Ty: Um... [laughs] I can't read this.

- Okay.

- You've gotta help me out on this one-- - Okay.

Ty: --'cause it's hard.

Woman 2: So, the, the woman, her son and daughter-- Ty: Okay.

- [speaks German] Previously.

Ty: Uh-huh.

Woman 2: [speaks German] - They were Jewish?

- Yes.

- They were Jewish.

Oh my gosh.

I... had no idea.

They were Jewish and they converted.

Wow.

I always thought-- I always thought that we were, uh, that we were full-blooded German all the way through.

I had no idea that we had Jewish heritage.

Wow.

What's really interesting is I remember my mom mentioning in some part of her family that they did some genealogy work to verify that there was no Jewish lineage in our family, just to be safe during that time period.

And here we are.

Not too far back, we've got Jewish ancestry in our family.

I never, I never would have thought.

I never would have thought that we have, we have Jewish ancestry.

It's-- actually it's kinda cool.

♪♪ Wilhelm, who was a painter for the Lutheran church, and Heinrich is this great preacher in the Lutheran church and their, their mother's Jewish.

Lise: Now that Ty knows that Henriette was born Jewish, he wants to learn more about her ancestors who lived and died as Jews in Germany.

At the Jewish Museum Berlin, he is doing genealogical research.

He's found a book by Jacob Jacobson, a Jewish genealogist who, during the Nazi era, tried to combat the racism of his day by documenting the pedigrees of German Jewish families who had contributed to the growth of their nation.

Ty: I found a whole slew of Jewish ancestry over here that goes all the way back to 1700's, I had no idea about.

Unbelievable.

Lise: Ty's Jewish ancestors have a history in Berlin that goes back to the 1700's, including Issachar Fanty, the first documented German Jew in his family who immigrated there from Prague.

Ty: I've, I've never thought about that.

I've never thought about being Jewish in Germany, and, and so I, I kinda wanna understand what that's like.

Lise: The Jewish museum's permanent exhibition chronicles the Jewish-German experience over the last two thousand years.

Ty's ancestors were allowed to live in the outskirts of Berlin because of the money and skills that Jewish families brought to the city.

But they had to abide by a number of antisemitic laws imposed by their Christian rulers -- they had to pay a special Jewish tax to be counted as one of the city's limited number of Jewish residents, they were not allowed to serve in the military, could only sell goods to designated vendors, and in some cases, all but their oldest child had to leave the city when they came of age.

♪♪ Ty: This experience, going through the Jewish Museum, being here, it's quite different because I know that my family was here.

And they experienced this.

Lise: Ty wants to see the places where his Jewish ancestors would have lived, and has arranged a historical tour with Jewish expert Esther Kontarsky.

♪♪ Esther takes Ty to the site of what was once the Rosenthal gate, through which Ty's ancestors would've passed when first entering Berlin.

Esther: The first thing would probably be that you'd have to ask the guards, um, Can I go in?

And then the guard would probably ask you, uh, Do you have any papers?

Uh, do you have any purpose to go here?

Uh, do you have money?

Or do you have a wealthy family?

And I think, had you arrived here all tattered and torn, I think they would have sent you back.

And then, also, it took a lot of time in order, uh, for them to check your papers.

Then, uh, usually, you would've had the possibility of going into that building, which is, uh, the-- it's not the-- it's now a youth hostel, kinda-- of sorts, and back then it was the Jew hostel, a very close connection between both terms.

Um... yeah, so you'd, you'd stay here and wait until people had checked your papers and found that you are basically eligible for being-- - To go into the city.

- To go into the city.

Lise: In general, when Jews first entered Berlin in the 1650's, they were religiously devout and tended to separate themselves from the surrounding Christian population.

But this isolation was not only self-imposed, as the Christian government increasingly enforced antisemitic and disenfranchisement laws.

But succeeding generations of Jews gradually lost this strict isolationism and in 1812 the antisemitic laws were abolished.

Jews assimilated the surrounding cultural mindset, which focused on the unification of the German people.

Around the turn of the 19th century, educated Jews sought out their intellectual counterparts in non-Jewish society to discuss the modern ideas of the day and work together to better their country.

It was the intention of these Jews to integrate themselves into mainstream society while retaining their Jewish religion.

But their children often took it one step further and converted to Christianity.

Esther: Over the course of the 19th century, there come-- came this huge explosion of options, possibilities, with many new concepts of identity arising -- a Jew being German and Jewish at the same time, and finding their new identities.

Um... Ty: It seems like that, that might be a reason why my, why my great-great- great-grandmother, Henriette, would have converted to Lutheranism, with that idea of trying to create a new identity for herself and her family.

Esther: Yeah, probably, it was a, a mixture of many things.

Like, for example, as Heine put it, it was the ticket to society, but then on the other hand, uh, it was probably also that, um... yeah, this idea of not being able to really distinguish between faith and belonging to-- a national belonging, yeah?

Then also, this-- what you said, said about your own family.

Ty: Yeah, Heinrich was a-- became a preacher.

Esther: Yeah?

Ty: He also wrote novels -- apparently, typical German romance novel with knights, chivalry kind of stories.

- Yeah, that's even more interesting.

- Yeah, it just kind of-- maybe reinforces the idea that he's trying to integrate more into this national culture.

- But then he was really an epitome of a German on the-- in, in the out-- onset of modernity, so writing novels about knights and such, it's just so typical.

It's very funny that you have this in your family.

It's like the model family of a, of a assimilated Jew, yeah?

Ty: It's just so cool to, um, be that close to where they were.

I, I, I just thought it was fantastic to just, just kind of learn more about that, that side of my family -- the Jewish, Jewish side of my family.

I, I had no idea.

[city bustle] - The archivist over at, uh, the Lutheran archives just called me and said she's got some more information that she wants to show me.

So, I’m gonna go head back there and see what she's got.

♪♪ Lise: In further researching records of Ty's ancestry, the Lutheran archive has made a startling discovery.

They have found a Nazi record that classified Henriette as a known Jew.

- So, starting in 1933, the Nazis started compiling a l-- an index of all the baptisms that had occurred during the past 150 years -- so starting in about 1750 -- and... they were... organized into these folders here.

So every baptism has its own card.

So this is the card for your grandmother, Henriette Naphtali -- you can see her name here.

And it says here: [reading in German] So, she's from foreign descent and she's Jewish.

So the Nazis knew that your grand-- great-great-great-grandmother was Jewish.

And we can assume that they also knew that her, her descendants were-- had Jewish ancestry.

Ty: It's kinda scary, to know that they were that meticulous about finding Jewish blood all the way through, through German families.

Why did they do that?

What did it mean for our family?

Did they have to hide that fact?

Lots of questions.

Lots of questions.

Let's get this, uh-- let's stir the pot up a little bit and see what happens.

[chuckles] Lise: To answer his questions about the Nazi transcription of Henriette's christening record, Ty has been referred to historian Manfred Gailus, an expert on the Nazi's genealogical endeavors.

Ty: The card -- it was from my great-great -great-grandmother, Henriette -- it said that she was Jewish.

Why would the Nazis keep these records and why did I find them in the Lutheran archive?

Manfred: The Nazis started a large investigation on which families were Jewish or of Jewish origins.

And churches -- they did this research too.

In Berlin, this research was, uh, commanded by a pastor.

His name is Karl Themel.

Here you see the Father Themel.

He was a real expert on family history.

Lise: Father Themel, a Lutheran minister and resolute Nazi, wanted to help the government discover the people of Jewish descent hidden among the German population.

He organized a team of researchers who scoured the Lutheran archives in search of records of Jews who converted to Christianity.

When they found such a record, they would create a transcription, such as the one Ty found for Henriette.

By following this method, they were able to discover 2600 Berlin residents who had Jewish origins.

Ty: What would he do with these records that he found?

Manfred: He went to Nazi or state institutions, and he offered his results.

They had a department -- a new department -- for, uh, racial research and for decisions of, uh, Aryan, non-Aryan people.

And Father Themel, uh, had a close connection with the chief of this institution.

This was a very strict and dangerous SS person.

His name is Kurt Meyer -- Doctor Kurt Meyer.

Lise: Kurt Meyer, the head of the State Office for Kinship Research, was an SS colonel and race scholar who took part in authoring the Nazi racial ideology.

Like Father Themel, he and his organization were determined to identify all the people they considered of inferior race hidden among the Aryan population.

Manfred: This person, Doctor Kurt Meyer, he was so radical a Nazi that he decided after the war, We cannot live when this whole project was collapsed, and, uh, he and his family committed suicide.

He killed, I think, three children, his, his wife, and then himself.

So, you can imagine, terrible, terrible things.

Ty: So, at what point were you in trouble, with that Jewish descent?

Manfred: This depends on, on the-- their status.

Uh... if there were four or three grandpar-parents Jewish, then this person was Jewish by definition.

If he had only two of the four grandparents, he was a Mischling: uh, a mesh-- meshed together.

Ty: Okay.

- Imagine 1940 or 1941, 1942, people who were half-Jewish or quarter-Jewish could not know, will the war be successful for Nazis or not?

And so they could not know what will follow in the future.

And, of course, the, the Nazi, uh, utopia was that after the successful war, this Jewish question will be solved for all people.

So, this means there was fear, insecurity, and, uh, a large, uh, de-depression on all people who were of Jewish origins.

Ty: It'd be interesting to find out how Jewish the Nazis considered my great-grandfather, Wilhelm.

What was the official record of our family?

Lise: In 1939, the Nazi government conducted a census of the German population in which they required every resident to state whether each of their grandparents were or were not Jewish.

The German Federal Archives in Berlin have copies of the censuses of Germans who marked on the census that they had at least one grandparent who was Jewish.

If the government knew that Ty's great-grandfather was of Jewish descent, his name should appear in the archive's database.

Archivist, Nicolai Zimmermann helps Ty search the database.

Ty: Let's see if Wilhelm's in here.

[clacking] Steinhausen, Wilhelm.

Nicolai: Okay.

There's no entry.

No entry at all.

- Nothing.

Which would mean that-- - Which is strange.

He should have filled this form and saying that he has some Jewish ancestry.

Um... which-- yeah, which is strange.

- But, it's not there.

- Why did they not do that?

Um, and he was supposed to fill this form out very adequately, and if he did it un-- wrong, not right, then he was, uh-- there, there were sentences, so he could, could go to jail for, for this.

So this was... strange, that he did not really... pointed this out.

And we don't know, really, why.

Maybe they simply denied that, that Jewish ancestry.

So it is likely that they somehow tried to deny this -- on purpose or not knowing, we don't know.

But do you have other, other relatives, like, for example, cousins, uh... of, of Wilhelm, or, or his siblings, or something?

Ty: We could look up-- we could try... my great-great-uncle, and his kids.

See if they have anything in there.

They would be cousins.

Nicolai: Yeah, that's good idea.

Ty: Um, there's, uh, Luise.

Her last name, uh, Bückling.

[clacking] - And actually, there is one, yeah.

- So she, so she has an actual census?

Nicolai: I can get it for you.

- Nice.

- Yes, I can do that.

Okay.

So here are the cards.

Ty: So these are documents that were actually filled out by our family?

Nicolai: Exactly, and there, um-- here are some, some explanations in theirs, as well, um, that hint that if you're not doing this correctly, you're punished with Gefängnis-- jail.

You're going to jai-- jail, if you don't really-- Ty: That's a little harsh.

Nicolai: So, they were trying' to, to get the correct answers.

Ty: Wow.

Nicolai: The first one that I have here is by Luise Bückling, and this is the, uh, the interesting part of this census card, because the question is: Was one of the four grandparents of you Jewish, by race?

And now, this is rather interesting-- she has three non-Jewish ancestors, but there is one where there's a special remark, it's... Ty: What does that say?

Nicolai: "Siehe unten."

So, uh... - "See below"?

- "See below".

- But wait, wait, wait, wait, this is... - And, but there's-- - ... look, this is the, the, the mother on her father's-- her grandmother, on her father's side?

- Exactly.

- Well that's, that's Henriette.

That's Henri-- I learned about her.

She was Jewish.

- She was Jewish?

Okay.

- So what does it say, then, at the bottom?

- They don't say, simply, She is Jewish, but there is a, a, a long explanation, which is very, very unusual.

So it's, it's Gerhardt, the husband, explaining this, Ty: Okay.

- uh, to the, to the census, uh, bureau.

The mother of the father of my wife.

So, she converted about 110 years ago from the Jewish religion to the Protestant Christianity.

- Yeah, which-- and I’ve seen the record, when that happened.

- Oh, really?

- I actually saw that record.

- Okay, so this is true.

- Yeah, it is.

- However, there's no birth certificate for her, therefore, her race cannot be defined absolutely clearly.

The father of my wife was one of the greatest artists of Germany.

- I've-- and I-- he's got a museum.

He's got a museum in Frankfurt w-- yeah, I’ve seen it.

- Okay, so you've seen it?

He was really famous.

- He was, he was okay.

He was okay.

[chuckles] Nicolai: And, uh... therefore, I believe that, that she can be considered Aryan.

- Wow.

- Okay, so this is very, very interesting, uh, card.

I've never seen this... Ty: Now, it, it's also got this mark here-- what is, what is that?

Did someone cross that out?

Nicolai: So, actually... he submitted this page, and, uh, there was someone deciding-- he was underlining the first line and wrote there, Both: "Yes."

Ty: So they're looking at the very first sentence.

The fact that she was-- that the grandmother was Jewish ends the question.

So it's-- it seems like it's more of just-- it's actual blood.

If it's in the-- if it's in your blood, it's there on the paper.

- Mm.

They're not interested in all the explanation, no?

Ty: Even regardless of the accomplishments of the family.

Nicolai: Yep.

Doesn't make a difference for, for the, for the Nazis.

Lise: In fact, the name of Wilhelm's daughter, Luise, was publicly posted in a list of people of Jewish descent living in the city of Wolgast.

This combined with the fact that Luise's husband was a known opponent of Nazi ideals made them a target of the Werwolf -- a Nazi civilian commando force organized in 1944 to resist the Allies who'd begun invading parts of Germany.

Members of Werwolf formed a pact, vowing that Luise and her husband would not leave the city alive.

A good friend of the couple warned them and they fled the city by night, hidden in the back of a truck.

♪♪ Ty: I don't, I don't know what it's like to fear for my life because of who I am.

My distant cousins, they had quite a bit of problems with their Jewish status.

In contrast, our side of the family didn't appear to have any problems because of that.

And it's quite possible it's because Wilhelm didn't acknowledge his Jewish status.

Lise: Ty returns to his great-aunt Brigitte's home to share with her and her son, Horst, what he has learned, and to find out if she knew anything about their Jewish ancestry and the effect it had on the family.

- I found a museum from Wilhelm Steinhausen.

- [speaking German] - Yeah, yeah.

So you know?

- Yes, I know.

Ty: Yeah.

And, I learned that, um, their mother, Henriette, was Jewish, in Berlin.

She was born Jewish and she converted, and then Heinrich became a pastor and Wilhelm became a painter after that.

Her maiden-- her name was, uh, Naphtali.

Henriette Naphtali.

- That is typical-- that is typical Jewish.

Brigitte: [speaking German] Ty: But you never really knew that, that she was Jewish?

- [speaking German] - Interesting But here's what's interesting too, is we looked to Heinrich, to Wilhelm, and then to Wolfgang, my grandfather, and they don't mention-- they don't mention Henriette, with, uh, gemischli.

- [softly] Uh-huh.

Ty: So they didn't have the same experiences that Wilhelm's family had.

- [softly] Mhmm.

Ty: Interesting.

Horst: [speaking German] Ty: [speaking German] Brigitte: [speaking German] Horst: We, we c-- uh, currently feel more and more as European... - Mm, mm.

- ... and I, I can't, uh-- I can't feel, uh, this, this special national German idea.

I think, especially due to the bad experience -- what we, what we made in, in World War I and World War II.

Ty: So what advice would you have for me, learning about being German?

Horst: [speaking German] Ty: I agree.

I think that's, I think that's well put, that this, this is an opportunity to explore many... many sides of, of what I’ve been given, through my family.

♪♪ I feel a lot more German now than I did before.

Being German to me also means being Jewish.

And it makes it more comfortable for me to understand that I have this American part that I can bring to the table, and it's just part of this huge story, uh, of our family.

This whole experience I’ve had is about my family.

And something inside me, just-- it-- it just-- you know, I feel how important it is to... to share it.

It just-- that just-- I don't know what it is.

It's just-- it's something there that brings that out.

It just is important.

I'm really excited to teach my children that they have this heritage, in, in their family, and they should be proud of it.

Because it's pretty, it's pretty amazing.

♪♪ You guys made me cry, I can't believe it.

[chuckles] ♪♪ - Talking about your children really brought up a lot of emotion.

What was, what was going on there?

Ty: I, I think...

I started this, this whole journey -- it was kind of selfish for me.

It was about me.

It's about me.

It's about understanding who I am, with this German side of me.

And going through the, going through the experience, it kind of... hard to describe-- it just shifted.

It shifted.

It wasn't about me-- it was about my family.

And not necessarily my brothers and sisters or my parents.

It-- I just felt that this is about my family that I will create.

I'm single -- I, I, um...

I don't have a family of my own.

And I felt that it is so important that, that my children understand this, that I c-- that I can share it with them.

It just-- it is an amazing feeling to, to, to say, like, It's important that I do this, this is the next step.

It's part of the next step of being German, of being me, is having this family.

Lise: Did you always, eh, a-anticipate children in your future?

Ty: Yeah!

Yeah.

- You did?

You always wanted to have kids?

- Always wanted to have kids.

Never thought of how, how important it would be to integrate this whole experience, to-- into their lives as well.

Lise: Did you think you'd have that family by now in your life?

I've, I've traveled a bit, I know what living out of a suitcase can be, and I’ve found it lonely.

Have you found that along the way?

Ty: Oh yeah.

Oh yeah.

Um, I, um...

I've-- at some point, I did have a family-- I’m, I'm divorced.

And, I’ve lost that.

I've had it, and I’ve lost it.

And, ever since, um, I’ve been doing amazing experiences-- traveling different places, learning different cultures-- but it's always by myself.

Lise: Yeah.

It's always by myself.

And, um, I had this experience...

I had this experience by myself as well, and so I think maybe that played into the idea that I need to share this.

- You went into this, Ty, really wanting to reconcile your German pride and your sense of German-ness with this Nazi era.

Were you able to do that?

Ty: I think so.

I was-- yeah, I was really nervous at first, and it was kind of-- it was, it was shocking.

It was a new experience.

And it was a shocking in a good way.

Instead of being the, the, uh, the perpetrator of all of these, these events, it-- I, I kind of experienced the side of what it was like being persecuted in a small way.

Lise: Mm-hmm.

- Um, and so, it's-- it-- this, this whole experience-- this Nazi experience changed for me a little bit.

It's not, i-it's not the fear of, of how-- of, of being involved with it, but it's understanding, What was it like from a Jewish point of view, now?

I, I, I feel like I had this almost naive view of what it meant to be German.

It meant being, uh-- looking at Neuschwanstein castle, the pretty castles, the pretty landscape, the, the bratwurst, you know?

I really just felt like I had this, kind of, black and white view of, of what it meant to be German.

And now, having gone through the experience, I feel like it is a lot more colorful.

Um... being Germish-- German to me means also being Jewish.

It means, um... inheriting this culture from my family from the East German side of things.

It means being part of a larger European community.

So it means a lot more things to me than just the simple, the simple ideas that I had before the project.

- Feel you have the right to that dual citizenship now?

- I feel like I’ve got a good foot in the door.

I feel like I have more things that I need to do, and-- but I-- but yeah, I do feel like I’m earning it.

Lise: And where are you gonna be in ten years, Ty Arnold?

Ty: [laughs] Well, I’m gonna be with my German wife, in some little countryside, with the little kids, teaching 'em German, and, uh... yeah.

Painting something in the backyard.

[laughs] Lise: Fantastic.

That sounds like a beautiful life to look forward to.

Thank you so much, Ty, for sharing your story with us.

- Thank you, thank you.

- Thank you for watching.

This conversation continues on our website, so please log onto byutv.org.

And I’m Lise Simms.

I'll see you on the next Generations Project.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪