My grandparents were born in Eastern Europe between 1907 and 1919.

Their hometowns are on the map below.

G: Goldberg, from Jakobstadt (Jekabpils), Latvia

K: Krawitz, from Lenin, Belarus

P: Puterman, from Warsaw, Poland

H: Halperin, from Lublin, Poland

In Project Genya I document the life story of my grandmother Genya Puterman (born Krawitz). So far, in six recorded and transcribed hours, she told me about her childhood in a typical Jewish town (schtetl) on what was then the Polish-Russian border, the frantic escape to Central Asia following Operation Barbarossa, life as a refugee in ruined Europe, the hardship as a pregant passenger on the famous ship Exodus 1947, more refugee camps in Germany and Israel, the final settlement in Tel Aviv, and more.