Neither sibling had children, and Turk had long understood that much of her father’s family had been murdered during the Holocaust.
By Shula Rosen
A DNA search begun by a 74-year-old woman after the death of her only sibling has uncovered a large network of relatives descended from Holocaust survivors, leading to a family reunion in Israel and filling gaps in a history she had known little about growing up.
Adriana Turk believed she had few relatives left after her brother died last year.
Neither sibling had children, and Turk had long understood that much of her father’s family had been murdered during the Holocaust.
Seeking information about her ancestry, she used MyHeritage DNA and learned that three members of her grandmother’s family had survived the Holocaust. Their descendants now number dozens and live in several countries.
The discovery connected Turk with Raanan Gidron, 73, an Israeli psychotherapist.
They first spoke in January before meeting in Israel last week, where Gidron introduced her to other members of the extended family.
“From being all alone to having all of these people in my life,” Turk told The Independent.
Turk’s father, Hans Turk, fled Nazi Germany in 1937. His mother died in the Warsaw Ghetto, while his sister, brother and their two young children were killed at Auschwitz.
Turk said her father avoided discussing his relatives and rejected earlier attempts by family members to establish contact.
Gidron knew that members of the family lived in Australia but had never been in touch with them.
Since Turk arrived in Israel, the newly reunited cousins have spent hours comparing family records and revising their family tree.
Their research has taken them through generations of relatives across Europe, with some branches traced to the 1300s. The work has also corrected previous assumptions about the fate of some family members.
“We are filling in places that are empty on the family tree and we’re making corrections,” Gidron said.
Turk has also traveled to Germany to meet other relatives identified through the search. She said seeing familiar features among people she had only recently learned existed was overwhelming.
For Gidron, documenting the family’s history is intended to leave later generations a clearer record of what happened to their relatives.
“The next generation will definitely have a much clearer picture about what happened,” he said.
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