In this exclusive ‘Finding Your Roots’ clip, journalist Nina Totenberg learns of a family member’s daring Holocaust escape
Ruth Bader Ginsburg chats with NPR’s Nina Totenberg ahead of ‘RBG’ Image by Getty Images
(JTA) — In this Tuesday’s episode of the celebrity genealogy show “Finding Your Roots,” pioneering journalist Nina Totenberg and TV personality Andy Cohen learn about the deep Jewish roots of their family trees.
In this exclusive clip from Totenberg’s segment, she reacts to learning how one of her grandmothers escaped to the United States during the Holocaust by way of Portugal with the help of a sympathetic official.
Totenberg, a longtime NPR correspondent, is the daughter of famed violinist Roman Totenberg. The episode, titled “Against All Odds,” tells the story of how Roman tried to help his family members escape Europe after immigrating to the U.S. in 1938 through a visa program for artists.
Not all of his attempts were successful, and Totenberg reveals that her father would not talk about his history to the family, fearing it would prove too painful. Totenberg, following in his footsteps, says she has never been to the Holocaust museum in Washington, D.C., for the same reason.
Cohen’s story involves two men on opposite sides of his family tree who were both named Louis. They left their lives in the Pale of Settlement for America, where they sold wares in different stores.
One of them, Louis Cohen, was involved in a legal case that reached the U.S. Supreme Court. During World War I, he was charged with selling wholesale sugar at a price that did not conform to wartime levels, which were set by the government to buoy the economy. Cohen was acquitted by the high court, which declared that the law was unconstitutional.
Both Totenberg and Cohen also get results of DNA tests showing them to be “100% Ashkenazi Jewish.”
Cohen, it turns out, is distantly related to another famous guest once featured on the show, though PBS won’t let us reveal who it is until after the episode airs.
The “Against All Odds” episode of “Finding Your Roots” airs on PBS on Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
