All language subtitles for Fioretta.2023.720p.WEBRip.x264.AAC-[YTS.MX]

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[Randy] Do my kids
think I'm-- yeah.

I mean everybody in
the family thinks I'm nuts.

Of course, I'm nuts.
I go to genealogy conferences.

So they-- they have these
conferences and I always joke

that there are just two types
of people at the conference.

There are the people
who know they're crazy

and the people who have
no idea that they're crazy.

I at least know I'm crazy.

[upbeat music playing]

[Randy] Genealogy's a kids
task in school, right?

You get an assignment,
go do your family tree.

And most people have
like a little tiny family tree.

And I was eight years old
and my mom's mom knew

a lot about her family and
gave me a number of generations

back and-- and had this
huge tree on my mom's side.

And then on my dad's side,
it was 1974 and there

was some new books
that were published

just that year for
my grandfather's centennial.

So I came back to school and
I had this enormous family tree.

And you know how it is in
school when, like, when you're

better at something than other
people, that becomes your thing.

So like
genealogy became my thing.

I wish it had been
baseball or basketball

or something more fun.

And that's how it started.

♪

How can I help you?

Uh, I'm looking
for someplace to stay.

Passport and visa, please.

[sentimental music playing]

[Randy] I always have been
interested in memory.

That there's a future
and a past and a present.

I think a lot of times
we're stuck in

our present,
but to realize that you're

part of this continuum
of history is eye-opening.

It's very moving
to be in the city

where my family lived
for hundreds of years.

Just to imagine
that they were here

like I'm here now
in this very space,

it's just something that
doesn't happen so much where I come

from in Los Angeles,
but I get that feeling here.

[jazz music playing]

[Randy] I've been married for 25
years and we have three kids.

Uh, Dora who's 24,

and Nathan who's 21,
almost 22.

You can see it sort of
trickling through a little bit.

Dora with her work, Remember
Us, which is this group that pairs

up kids having bar/bat mitzvahs
with victims of the Holocaust.

[upbeat jazz music playing]

♪

[Randy] And Joey's just,
you know, starting out.

He's been looking forward,
I think, to the rest

of his life,
learning to be a chef.

We've lived
in this house for, well,

since 2005
and we're very happy here.

Pam, my wife, had a photography
gallery for a long time.

[upbeat jazz music]

Just go around
but like alternate

between the apples
and the beets.

Well, you were
reaching first, you pass.

Where does this
tablecloth come from?

I know. Where did-- where
did you find the tablecloth?

Upstairs.

You have to pour the sauce
onto the--

[Randy] No, first I have
to give a toast 'cause

I'm about to leave for Vienna.

And then Joey's
gonna come meet me.

First to
the Schoenberg Center for

the board meeting
that I have there.

And then I'm gonna drag him
along on a roots trip.

Keep going and try to find out
how far I can go back.

So that's-- that's the plan.

It's either that
or going to school.

- [Joey] Okay.
- [Randy] Okay.

So the end of your senior year.

- [Joey] Dad, shut up.
- So, okay, so there you are.

Anyway, cheers,
uh, everybody,

and thank you, Joey,
for this amazing dinner.

[Joey] Well, my dad decided
to take this trip

throughout Europe to
find graves and family members.

And my sister was
having surgery in a couple weeks

and Nathan had missed
a couple semesters

in the past and so
I was the last one left.

[music ends]

[Randy] You can have that sort
of out of body experience

and you have chills because you
have that instant connection.

You're in the place
where your family was

being back there
500 years earlier.

[tires screeching]

When you then extend
and are able to go back

500 years,
you realize it's not just

a single family story,
it's a people.

We're part
of this larger mosaic.

That's the feeling
I get when I look at it.

[sentimental music playing]

I was very instrumental
in helping

to set up
the Schoenberg Center when

it moved from University of
Southern California to Vienna.

And now I'm on the board.

And so I'm interested in

making sure that it lasts
into the future

and still accomplishes what
it was designed to accomplish,

which is to preserve
my grandfather's legacy

and make it accessible
to the public in--

in the best possible way.

Sometimes it's terrific
to be a Schoenberg

and to be connected
to all these things.

And other times you get
attention that you don't deserve

'cause your grandfather's
famous

or your
great-grandfather's famous.

So yeah. Now I get that.

[classical piano music playing]

[Randy] My maternal grandmother,

her grandparents were
married in the 1880s

and when I went
for the first time

and looked at
the actual record books

from Max and Clementina
Schwartz,

I saw that the very next entry
was his younger brother.

It was actually two brothers
got married on

the same day in this synagogue.

That was a hundred,
uh, 40 years ago.

The Seitenstettengasse
synagogue's the only synagogue

that still exists in Vienna
from the time before the Nazis.

And that's because,
on November 9th, 1938,

there was the famous
Kristallnacht pogrom.

Nazis all over the city,

went around and burned
every other synagogue.

The story is that the fire
marshal came and stopped

the Nazis from burning
this down because he said,

"If you burn this down,

you're gonna burn down
the church next door."

It's the last one left.

It's the last remnant of
that one great Jewish community

that was 200,000 Jews,
really one of the largest

and also one of
the most important

Jewish communities in the
world.

And our family played
such a huge part in that

until the Nazis came
and took everything away.

But this synagogue, it's just
a reminder of that splendor.

I just feel
very attached to the city.

Some people
ask why you're Jewish?

How can you like Austria?

How can you like Vienna
after everything that happened?

And I just remember
my grandmother

saying when she came back
with us one time,

she said, you know,
she-- she loved Austria

and she would never let the
Nazis take that away from her.

And so I guess I feel that
a little bit too.

[Dora] What I do is when kids
have bar/bat mitzvahs,

sometimes they wanna
remember a child

who didn't get
to bar/bat mitzvah age

because they were killed
in the Holocaust.

And so they submit
a request on our website

and I go through
and do research on Yad Vashem.

So it's really important
that we make connections

with rabbis and synagogues.

I think that that's a gift

that you're giving
to other people.

The greatest tragedies
are actually the--

the people who have nobody
left to remember them.

A person dies multiple times.

They die when
their life physically ends.

They also die the very last time
that they're ever remembered.

And it's up to us as a Jewish
people to make sure

that all of
our relatives collectively

never endure that final death.

[soft electronic music playing]

[Joey] In fifth grade,
I did a presentation

on Arnold Schoenberg.

I knew he was famous,
but I didn't know like

anything about him
up until that point.

So I went home and googled
Arnold Schoenberg

and then my teacher was like,
"What's the relation

to you and Arnold Schoenberg?"

And I said, "Oh,
he's my great-grandfather."

And one of the teachers
turned around and she was like,

"Me and my husband love him."

And it's like, "Oh, cool."

- [Randy] Joey.
- [Joey] Hi.

- [Randy] You made it.
- [Joey] I did.

[Randy] Let's go. I got that.

[applause]

Wow, that was terrific.

I wanna thank my friends
Sabina and Johannes

for performing this wonderful
concert for us here today.

And I'm lucky today
to have my son, Joey,

here for the first time.

And really looking forward to
our trip that we're gonna take.

We're-- we're going on
a little bit of a roots trip

starting in Vienna
and then exploring in Prague

and looking at cemeteries

and archives and documents and
we'll see how far back we get.

And we have here today,
my cousins, Arnie Schoenberg,

all the way from San Diego,

and Serena Nono,
who's from Venice, Italy,

representing the three
branches of our family.

["Schoenberg:
Phantasy For Violin And Piano,

Op.47" by Gilbert Kalish
and Joseph Silverstein playing]

[Joey] I am sure
there's gonna be some graves

and archives that
I'm going to be so bored at,

but hopefully,
I'll grow to like--

No, I will never
like going into cemeteries.

I can look
at pictures of graves.

But like going in there is like,
it's like Halloween vibes.

It's, like, weird.

It's, like--
like I don't believe in,

like, ghosts but,
like, feels awkward.

[Randy] With Joey,
I'm hoping for him when

he goes in,
let's say, the Altneuschul,

it's the oldest
active synagogue in Europe.

My ancestors were there,
they were married there, they--

they prayed there
and you're in that building.

It has an effect on me.

So we'll see if it has
an effect on Joey also.

[applause]

[soft eclectic music playing]

[Joey] I think for me,
at least, tracing my family

history gives me an entrée
into the history of the world.

It makes it a little more
special when I go around

and imagine that they were
there in the very same place with me.

[Randy] You're named after him.

[Joey] My middle name.

[Randy]
You're Joseph Samuel Schoenberg

after your
great-great-grandfather.

[Joey] My great-grandfather,
Samuel Schoenberg.

It's the beginning
of my grandfather

Arnold Schoenberg's family tree.

So it's him and his parents,
Samuel Schoenberg

and Pauline Nachod,
and then their parents,

Abraham and Theresia Schoenberg,
and Paulina's parents,

Josef Nachod
and Karoline Jontof-Hutter.

Pauline was from Prague
and we're gonna be going there

to try to explore
her family history.

[woman] This would be, uh,
Schoenberg's mother Pauline.

And this is Samuel Schoenberg.

Here, Joey, you see that?
Look at that.

He's got a little mustache,
a little bit long hair.

It looks a little bit,
you know, radical.

We are a rebellious family.

So Joey,
this is the original study

of Arnold Schoenberg
in the Rockingham House,

you know where
Mima and Umpa live.

And when I was growing up
as a kid, it was all walled up.

When they built
the Schoenberg Institute,

they moved everything over.

So this is all
the original stuff that was in

there that-- that he used
when he composed.

- [Joey] Very cool.
- [Randy] And neat.

Makes me feel like home.

[sentimental music playing]

[soft classical music playing]

[Randy] Serena, you were there

at the-- at the unveiling
in '74?

[Serena] Yeah, there's
a little film, super eight film.

I don't know who filmed it.

I am in it. I'm putting
down flowers on the Zone.

And your parents are in it.

Nuria is in it.
And Sylvia I think too.

- And Rudi.
- [Randy] And Uncle Rudi, yeah.

[together] Yeah.

[Randy] Lucky you were there.

I think it was my dad's
first time in Vienna.

- [Serena] Really?
- Yeah. Yeah.

They came for the unveiling.

[Serena]
They all looked very young.

[Randy] Yeah, they were.
[laughs]

They were
younger than we are now.

- [Serena] And beautiful. Yeah.
- [Randy] Yeah. Amazing.

Do you know why he's not
in the music section?

I think there must have been
a big political thing at

the city council when they--
when they gave him

the honorary grave,
because why wouldn't he be with

Mozart and Beethoven
and Schubert?

He's actually born in-- in
Vienna, but I think they didn't

want to have either
a Jew or a modern composer.

Probably a combination
of the two.

This is the first gate
of the central cemetery

that's in
Zentralfriedhof in Vienna.

And I have over a dozen
direct ancestors because also

my mom's side
is all buried here.

[man] So we are at
Zentralfriedhof gate one,

group five B, and looking for
a special section,

row seven,
grave number 40.

People who died 1884 to 1885.

- [Serena] Hmm.
- [man] Josef Nachod.

[Randy] Oh, wow.
There he is.

[man] Josef...

[speaking Hebrew]

Josef Nachod,
son of Gabriel Nachod,

who was from Prague
and died here in Vienna in 1884.

How is he related to us, Randy?

Joseph is Arnold's grandfather.

He's the father of Pauline
who is our grandfather's mother.

So Joseph is
our grandfather's grandfather.

He's our
great-great-great-grandfather.

He came and brought the family
when he was retired, I guess,

uh, from Prague to Vienna
around I think 1869 we think.

And then like a year later,
uh, Samuel Schoenberg

married Pauline Nachod,
his daughter.

And then a couple years later,
Arnold was born in 1874.

This is still here.

[Serena] So I think
that's the story really.

People have to migrate.

[Randy] A long time ago,
it used to be very hard

to find any of the graves
because it was all grown over.

Remember Wolf-Erich,
when we used to come here

and there were--
Wolf-Erich would

bring his shears
and start cutting away the--

the leaves and the trees
so you could get to the grave.

But now they've
cleaned it up because,

for 50 years after the war,
no one had done anything.

Like you said,
their DNA is still

somehow there
growing up in the grass.

So I think that--
that idea of having the--

the ancestor recorded
with the text

and what they did is great
and fascinating

and the story of their life.

But-- but also having
the physical sense of,

you know,
part of my DNA is underground

here in these bones
that I could dig that up

and find that DNA that's
has been passed down to me.

I don't feel that when
I'm home in California, right.

You don't feel like the soil
in California is part of you.

But you come here
in-- in Vienna and like

our-- our family
is in the dirt, right?

It's in the-- it's in the soil.

It's in the air somehow.

Closed.

Now what?

I've been trying to
get permission for weeks

from the Jewish community here

and it's driving me nuts,
actually.

We have a film permit
and we've been contacting them.

First, they said they were
too busy with Ukrainians,

then they said it's Passover.

And we said that's fine.

We'll-- we'll just film
and we'll work out

all the paperwork afterwards.

And I-- I called the,
uh, the head of the community

and he said,
uh, we can't go in.

And I said, "Why?"

And he said,
"Because the Jewish community

has made a decision
not to let me in."

And I said, "Who made
the decision? Was it you?"

He said,
"The decision has been made.

The decision won't change."

So-- so here's
a cemetery that my family

founded here in Vienna.

The first grave and the third
grave are members of my family.

Many of my ancestors
are buried here.

The Biedermann family,
the Sinzheim family,

the Funk family, the
grandfather of my grandfather,

Arnold Schoenberg,
Abraham Schoenberg,

the first Schoenberg
to come here to Vienna.

He was born in Hungary
and he died here in,

uh, I think 1871.

And he's buried here also.

Um, but can't go in.

[man] So Randy helped raise
money for this project.

- Of course.
- [man] Can you speculate as to

why they won't let him inside?

[chuckles]

No idea.

No idea.

This was a jungle.

The money for fixing
the cemeteries is something

I worked on in 2000
and finally, it's being done.

And here we are in 2022
and it's cleaned up

and they won't let me in.

These are people I know

that I've been friends with
for 20 years

and I'm just in shock.

It's just, it's tragic.

The-- the Jews
who live in Vienna now, um,

live unfortunately
in a very fearful state.

Sometimes there've
been attacks on them and-- and

so they're very, um,
tight and among themselves

and I guess I'm still
considered an outsider

even though all four of my
grandparents were from Vienna.

And, uh,
my family lived here for

hundreds and hundreds of years.

So I don't think
there's much more I can say.

[somber music playing]

["Rainy Year" by
Josh Kramon playing]

[church bell tolling]

[indistinct chatter]

- [words on screen]
- In the back.

[words on screen]

[kid speaks words on screen]

[end call tone]

[heavy rock music playing]

[man]
So a little bit thickness.

And then we start with the--

and we need this and let's try.

It's your job.

So that should cook slowly.

What kind of tattoo
are you thinking of?

What do you want on your skin?

Well, I want kind of like
a clip art of my intestines.

Kind of like near my appendix
or on my thigh because,

uh, because of my Crohn's.

Like I don't want any--
just any tattoo on me.

I want something
that's really true to me.

- Which has a meaning, yeah.
- Yeah.

And inte-- my intestines have
definitely impacted my life.

Not the real topic for dinner,
is it?

- No, not really.
- But--

I mean, it's always
a topic at my house.

- [speaking foreign language]
- Ready?

- You have beer?
- Uh, yes.

- I've got a beer already.
- [woman] Wolfie?

I don't.

I didn't know if
I'd still be able to be a chef,

but I've learned how
to cook for myself

and I hope to
share that with people.

[man] But it smells good.
Huh? What do you think?

[Joey] Uh,
maybe a little bit longer.

[man] Yeah,
it needs some time.

[woman] Yeah. Joey,
you sit here, the second chair.

You sit here.
[man] Oh, perfect. Perfect.

I just want to say
welcome to everybody.

And as Randy wants
to-- to welcome always.

Hilde. It's Hilde Spiel
painted by Lisel Salzer.

We love this picture.

And Hilde is always with us.

She was the most
famous writer from Austria.

In our house at home,

we also have paintings
by Lisel Salzer,

but of my
great-great-grandfather,

of my great-grandmother,
of my grandmother, of my mother,

and of me and my sister,
all-- all in the house.

So when I come here
and I see Lisel Salzer painting

and it makes me feel like home.

To bring these paintings
also to-- to-- to Austria,

this would be amazing.

But because Randy is
doing a genealogical movie,

I think we should invest
a little bit of time

just for anyone here
on the table for 30 seconds,

describe why genealogy
is so important for you.

I'm Serena
and I'm Randy's cousin.

I live in Venice
and I am Italian.

Randy's, um, research
has made me think

about it and made me
more interested in it.

We go back to 1500 and to Venice
to my town, so that's amazing.

I think when I was eight
I did my first family tree.

I was always very
interested in my own family.

All of my cousins ask me,
"How are we related?"

And I tell them,
"We are cousins."

You don't have to know
more than this.

- [man] Exactly.
- We are family.

Now, I don't know why,
uh, it's not important,

but I do it
about 15 hours a day.

- [Joey laughs]
- Um, and the rest--

- [Randy] You sleep.
- I'm resting, yeah.

[laughter]

Well, um,
I wouldn't pass up

an opportunity
to come to Europe.

[laughter]

Um, family is nice
and so it's--

it's nice to know
where I came from.

Not a lot of people
can say that.

[man] And now we've got
Randy himself.

30 seconds,
why genealogy is important.

- Oh, this is gonna be hard.
- For me, it's just

a way of-- of connecting.

I grew up in a family
that felt very European,

so my family home had
furniture and paintings

and things that looked like--
like this beautiful house.

And-- and I guess genealogy
has allowed me

to enter that world
and to meet people like you

and Marie-Theres
and all of you here,

uh, who have that same
sort of feel for that history

that-- that my family
had and that all of us have.

So anyway,
thank you all for being here

and sharing that with me.

The major point,
I think, what Randy always

does all his life
is bringing people together.

Every time we have a new person
come over to our house,

like one of Dora's friends,
Nathan's friends, my friends,

his friends, my mom's friends,
he asks them, uh,

if he can do their genealogy

and then he sits
on the couch with them

and goes through
their entire family tree.

Well, it's selfish
because I can't do it myself.

- [laughter]
- I need the help

of everybody else
to find the next clue.

[man] As he started
posting questions about

my genealogy I've gotten
like all of these strange

unsolicited emails from
all these people that were like,

"Listen, you don't know me,

but I am your second cousin
once removed."

Sometimes-- sometimes it works
and sometimes it doesn't.

It just, you know,
depends on-- on the family.

Oh, I need
some space in the middle.

There we are. Four kilos.
No, two. Four pounds.

Sorry, I got mixed up
with this strange...

- Thank you.
- ...non-metrical system.

Thank you for
allowing us to be here

and making your home,
our home for a night.

- [Marie-Theres] It's your home.
- Very nice. Very nice.

- [laughs]
- [Marie-Theres] Thank you.

[Randy] My mom was
an only child.

My dad had two siblings
and so we had very few cousins.

Five of them.

And even second
cousins were sort of

non-existent in the family.

What we thought
was a normal family.

But then you realize
like there are some families

that stick around in
the same place for a long

time where they have
dozens and dozens of cousins.

Because of what
happened in World War II,

we spread out all over the world
and sometimes have lost contact.

So I think part of
my genealogical quest

has been to reunite us with
these extended family members.

♪ Happy birthday to you ♪

♪ Happy birthday to you ♪

♪ Happy birthday dear Joey ♪

♪ Happy birthday to you ♪

[cheering, applause]

[Joey] I turned 18 in Europe.

I felt like it was very fitting.

- It's the 18th birthday, so.
- Exactly.

A very important birthday.

All the best, Joey.

I think if anybody can
figure out what this is

and who it belonged to,
it would be the two of you,

Marie-Theres and-- and Georg.
So I'm giving it to you.

It must be
150 years old or more.

And it seems to be an album
of visiting cards of some sort

and there's some--
even some genealogical ones.

Uh, so maybe
you could look through.

[Georg] It looks a bit
like-- like the [indistinct].

[Marie-Theres]
Thank you so much.

[Randy] Yeah.
So what's a [indistinct]?

[Georg]
It's something that it says--

[conversation fades]

[soft classical music playing]

I guess from all the stories

you're telling
me about the family,

I had this dream that I would
start painting some pictures

of-- of the characters
you're, like, telling me about.

And then this morning I spoke
to Nick and I said to him,

you know,
"What do you think if we started

painting these people, you know,
and make a series of paintings

on-- on these characters
that Randy is telling me about?

- It's our family."
- Such a neat idea.

Like-- like how would
you get the-- the faces?

How would
you imagine them, though?

We don't have any photographs
or we don't know

- what they look like.
- I mean, yeah,

of course, we don't.

But, um, I think it would
be interesting to like use

some faces from our family

would be like, uh,
portraits of ghosts.

[Randy laughs] A little bit.

I always-- I think
of these people just as names

or gravestones
or documents.

I never really try to imagine
what they look like.

Yeah, it becomes real, you know.

It becomes like something
other people can visualize too.

[sentimental music playing]

It's number one.

[woman] '74 is--
Arnold Schoenberg born here.

And 1889 my grandma
bought the house.

It's very important for me
to be in this building

and to know that
Schoenberg was born here

and to know about
the period of time

when he was born,
to know about this neighborhood,

because it can convey
some feelings

even for-- for
the work of painting.

[woman] Second district
was a very poor district

and a lot of Jewish people
were living here.

It was a not beautiful district.

The houses,
uh, were looked poor.

[Serena]
I'm a figurative painter

and I like painting expressions

and I think that portraits
are what I really like to do,

to get a feeling of what
the person means to me.

[Randy] Heinrich Schoenberg,

Arnold's brother
and two above him is Artur,

that's his first cousin,

and he was married
to Eveline Schoenberg,

but there's quite a lot of
Schoenberg's and Schoenberger's

and they were all killed.

Heinrich was murdered
in Salzburg

and Artur and Eveline,
uh, in Theresienstadt.

Josef Felix Nachod and
Robert Nachod were first cousins

of my grandfather,

Clara Franziska, and Josef Felix
and Robert Nachod.

And uh, they were killed.

Josef Nachod and his wife Clara,
uh, had a daughter, Edith,

who managed to be sent out
but with a Kindertransport.

And I tracked her down
just a few years ago,

shortly before she died.

And it was for--
she was very, very nice.

Her father tried to
get out but couldn't.

He sent a letter to a man
in Texas in English.

Really a tragic letter,
uh, that we have.

Someone found me
on the internet and--

and said they found this letter
from him and, uh, it's--

we put it in the museum
in Los Angeles because it's so--

so heart wrenching.
He says, "Please help me.

I need to get out."
And, of course, he didn't.

He was sent to Theresienstadt
and, uh, then murdered.

[somber music playing]

[Randy] Barbara Kintaert,
I met a number of years ago

'cause she was doing research
on her husband's family.

And so she found me on
the genealogy site

and then when I came to Vienna,
she wanted to meet with me

and she's just a remarkable
woman who decided to study

the history of her own
building and neighborhood.

[Serena]
Is this a Jewish neighborhood?

[Randy] It was.

[Barbara] When I moved in, in
1984, in this house number six,

there was one old lady who said,
"Uh, what are you doing here

with all your bags and
with all your, uh, boxes?"

And I said, "We are moving in."

And the old lady said...
[speaking German]

She said that in 1984--

[Randy] You have to
translate that for them.

Uh, it means finally
the house is without Jews.

And I started researching
this house where I live.

It's the same overall profile
as Austria in a-- as a whole.

One-third of
the people in our house

were deported and murdered.

One-third of the people
in our house lost everything,

but they were able to get
a visa to-- to immigrate abroad.

And one-third has
an "unclear fate".

So then in 2005,
we had this, um, memorial made.

You have to know
the micro history of the place

where you live because
it's a contaminated landscape.

You-- you cannot just walk
through a nice looking street

that looks
very elegant or whatever,

and not know the history of it.

My husband is Viennese,
his father was half-Jewish.

And my father-in-law
was the only survivor in Vienna.

We are a very,
very small Vien--

family in Vienna
because of the Holocaust.

I-- I consider it as
a-- as a family carpet.

When you have a carpet,
you have a carpet.

Um, it has threads like
this and threads like this.

But if, uh, one part
of the family is eradicated,

some threads are missing.

You have a big hole
in the carpet.

And so through research,
you can mend it somehow.

And our family carpet in Vienna
is torn up, torn apart.

You can live on without
knowing anything, of course.

And it's maybe easier,
but it's not healthier.

So this is our key memorial.

It's 462 names of all the Jewish
people in the whole street.

See, it goes
to the end of the block.

And it's just
a very small street.

It-- maybe it sounds strange,

but I think it makes
the street healthier

to-- to be able to know
the history of the street.

I think all the streets
could do that.

Last summer, uh, uh,
an-- an elderly lady with

heads-- headscarf and
her daughter with no headscarf,

and the son-in-law and the small
grandchild were passing by.

And the daughter and
the son-in-law were able

to speak, uh, English.

And the young woman
and her husband

asked me what it was.

So I explained it to them
and they said,

"Oh, we are refugees too,
and thank you for explaining."

And then they went away.

And then
the old mother came back,

the one with the headscarf,

and she said,
"It's so moving with the keys.

I completely feel with it."

- She-- she was from Syria.
- Yeah.

And she was so moved.

- That was like--
- [Serena] Wonderful story.

Yes, that was nice.

[Georg] All the interior
is from 1881.

And the fascinating thing
is that this shop

was designed for selling fabric.

What they wanted was
a renaissance room

'cause it was history.

Good fabric is something
that is a mentality.

It's a thing
you will have for lifetime.

Not something
you will throw away

after three times of wearing.

It's something
you will have for years.

And you can think
of a birthday present, Randy,

for something
for an 18th birthday I think

a nice fitting suit is
a good-- good thing to do.

Happy birthday, Joey.
You only turn 18 once.

- What do you think about this?
- [Randy] Ah, that looks nice.

Yeah. I like this one.
It suits my aura.

The burgundy one?
That looks a little expensive.

- We'll take it.
- [Randy laughs]

[Randy] Georg was working
in the family business

and he discovered
these old ledgers going back,

you know, a hundred, 150 years
and saw all these names

that just didn't
exist anymore in Vienna.

Like no one could answer like,
what happened to these families?

So he decided to do research.

[Georg] There's so
much cultural history here.

Actually, what-- what
genealogy is about is, um,

that every history
is made by people.

And, um, genealogy
is the question how

these people who are dealing
with are related to each other.

And it's always a question of,

now genealogy is also
a question of biography.

So these two things that match,
and I got interested because

I've got all the old
books from-- from my company

from the 19th century, um,
where people bought cloth and,

um, everyone who got
one of these robes or,

um, there was, uh,
the name written down.

And then there was a little
piece of fabric glued in,

and it was written
exactly what-- what was made.

And I found out that there
was a huge layer in society,

which was absolutely
the most important group

in Viennese society
for the intellectual output

was completely destroyed
in Second World War.

And I'm just trying
to reconstruct

this layer of society.

And so genealogy is
just a way to get an idea how

this world
has been in those days.

There's a-- a quite old book
from-- from 1912 and--

and the second volume
was published

a few years later
by Bernhard Wachstein.

And he was a very,
very interesting, uh, figure

because he was the director
of the Jewish library in Vienna.

And, um,
he was probably the first

really Jewish genealogist
who-- who did new methods.

So he went down
to the cemeteries

and he transcribed
all the inscriptions

and he-- he did lots
of research in the libraries

and-- and he wrote these
two absolutely tremendous books.

- And there you are.
- Oh, wow.

I think for
your-- for your purposes,

I think you should go to
Prague and to do research there.

I think you'll
find tremendous things.

[sentimental music playing]

[Randy] Julius Muller
is like Wolf-Erich Eckstein

or Georg Gaugusch.

He's sort of my go-to guy
in the Czech Republic.

[Julius] I like stories just
not only about the data,

death, marriage,
birth, but also about

the stories
and about real people.

So I would say I was really
attracted by providing data for

other people,
but at the same time,

they provide me with
their stories and their lives.

So it's more complex.

It's just regular profession.
It's more than that for me.

This is where
the wedding was officiated.

And in August 12th, 1845,

Josef Nachod Handelsmann
married Karoline Jontof

and you can see in the books.

The witnesses was
Gabriel Nachod, the father.

- His father, yeah.
- And Israel Jontof.

[Randy] The Altneuschul,
it's the oldest synagogue

in the world that's
still continuously active.

I would say
family reunion for me is

the highlights of the genealogy.

- [Randy] See that chair there?
- [Joey] Mm-hmm.

That's the seat
of the Maharal.

Of the chief rabbi
who's our ancestor also.

[Julius] If you grew up
in a socialist era,

the things of individual
history are suppressed.

So sort of
propaganda or ideology

that you are just
part of something bigger.

After 1990, the whole society
became more individualistic.

[Randy] And think about
our family being in here

hundreds of years ago.

Pretty cool.

[Julius] So I started to work on
a family tree and gradually

I realized that part
of the family was Jewish.

I didn't know that
before until I was 25.

So I started to go
to the synagogue,

trying to learn Hebrew.

For me, genealogy at
the very beginning was

more like an entrance
through world of Judaism.

Still even, 70 years
after the war,

people are struggling to find

a Jewish identity
in different ways.

And those people
are coming to me.

And I'm always
honestly warning them

you will see probably things
you would never expect to see

or learn about your own family.

[chanting in Hebrew]
Hinei mah tov u-ma nayim.

You can find out that from
50 relatives, 45 are killed.

So they want to know and
they want to open the chapter,

which is lost.

And I think it's great.

[Lenka] I would like to invite
you in the National Archives.

On the tables, you can see
all the documents which we were

able to collect about
your relatives and ancestors.

The daughter of
Jose Nachod and Karoline Jontof.

[Randy] So Josef,
the son of Gabriel and Eva.

[Lenka] Yes. And mother
Karoline, the daughter of

Jacob Jontof-Hutter
and Franziska Zeimer.

[Randy] So they're members
of the Altneuschul,

- that's where she was named.
- [Lenka] Yes.

[Randy] Look at that.

How many generation
you think are in there?

- Five? Four? More.
- What do you think, Joey?

So we're walking
through the family.

- What's this now?
- Yes.

- Let's see. This is the birth.
- Yes.

This is the birth record
of Josef Nachod.

- Okay.
- Yes.

With the father Gabriel
and mother Eva.

Does it say
what their profession was?

[Lenka in German]
Hochzeitsbieter.

[Randy] Oh, yeah.
Hochzeitsbieter.

So this one does-- When they
died it says his profession

is a-- a marriage presenter.

- Like a wedding planner.
- Yeah.

So he was a wedding planner,
Gabriel Nachod.

And he must have planned
his son's wedding too, right?

[laughs] If that was his--

Okay, so we're going
backwards in time.

Joey, look at this one.
So now we're at the marriage.

Yes. There is a marriage
of Gabriel.

- 1801. Wow.
- Yes.

And it has the house number, 85.

This is the census
of the Jews in 1794.

It's a really
important collection.

And so the interesting thing
is Gabriel Nachod

is listed as a schulsinger,
a cantor.

Remember, Pauline is
Arnold Schoenberg's mother.

Josef is her father.
Gabriel is his father.

And now it's says Gabriel is
the son of Avigdor and Pessel.

Okay. So we're getting
into sort of more Jewish names.

So this is the application
for permission to get married.

So it's Avigdor Nachod,
Moyses Nachod's son,

and then his bride, Pessel,
Josef Bunzel's daughter.

This is the maybe Jewish census
or always of Jews from,

uh, of, uh, living in
Prague of 1729.

[Randy] Moyses Benet. So the--
Moyses, son of Benet Nachod.

His wife Hindele, and children

Simcha and Fig-- Avigdor.

[Randy] Figdor, yeah.
Figdor, which is Avigdor,

the same thing.
And her daughter Rossel.

[Lenka] There is a Benet Nachod.

[Randy] And it says
his occupation.

- [Lenka] Yes. Juwelier.
- A jeweler.

- Yeah. Gems.
- Yeah. So it's your-- your

great-great-great-great-

great-great-great
grandfather, Benet Nachod.

Yeah. So next time you
tell me that I'm crazy,

I'll tell you that
our family did it.

[Lenka] After the changes,

so many people came without
family, without maybe memories.

So for us,
it's nice when the people are

able to find some information
about the family, and especially

for the Jewish people,
because a lot, lot of them,

uh, couldn't-- can't find,
uh, the roots of the family.

[Randy] My thinking
is that the family

came up to Prague
around 1560

because things
changed in Venice.

The Venetians decide
that they're going to burn

all of the Jewish books
that they can find.

That's when
this family of doctors,

astronomers
and philosophers,

so they came up to Prague
thinking it would be safe.

And then in 1564,

they had the same thing
here in Prague.

They're trying to escape
these periodic persecutions.

This is the first
liber judeorum.

It's from the 1500s.

This is the actual book
that they were using in 1579

to record transactions
involving Jews.

And this one is in Czech,
not German.

So at this time,
the King of Bohemia is Czech.

And so they write all
the records in Czech

and here on the lower left
is the mother-in-law of

Salvator Chalfan, doctor,
Jewish doctor.

So Salvator Chalfan,
we believe is the same as

Abba Mari Chalfan, who is
the son of Eliyahu Chalfan.

Salvator was this Christian name

that they would use
with non-Jews,

for Abba Mari Chalfan,
who's our oldest ancestor

who came here to Prague.

These are books that
they kept all

of the transactions
related to Jews because

the Jews were allowed to own
their houses and-- and inherit.

Here it is. I found it.

So this is--
see here's Frumetl.

See it says her former husband.

And this is new husband.

And so maybe it's
a transfer of the property

and it has references then
to other pages in other books.

So in 1690,
they're using this book

to record the mortgages
and transactions.

So this is the Nachod family.

So Arnold Schoenberg's mom
is Pauline Nachod.

- Yeah.
- So this is her direct ancestor.

Pauline was
born in Prague in 1848.

And her father's Joseph
and his father's Gabriel.

And Gabriel's father is Avigdor.

And Avigdor's father
is-- is Moyses

and Moyses' father is Benet

and Benet's mother is Frumetl.

[laughs] Okay. So it just
goes up, up, up, up, up.

Okay. So that's our ancestor.
And Frumetl also.

But this is
such a useful document

because it has the whole family.
Right? This is not online.

And maybe because
when they scanned it,

they didn't have a big enough
scanner and they're just shocked

that anybody
wants to look at it.

That's why they're letting us
touch them because

I'm the only person in 200 years

who wants to look at this,
right?

[soft rock music playing]

[Randy] I think I was maybe

more surprised at
how enjoyable it was for me

retracing some of
the steps with my son.

Joey might have gained
some appreciation of why

I do my research and
why I'm so persistent in

tracking things down.

I think he might have seen some
of the beauty that's involved.

♪

[Julius] This is only a fragment
of the former cemetery

established about 1680
for the victims of a plague.

And then another wave
of disease came about 1715.

Since 1787,
Joseph II decided

all Jewish cemeteries
should be outside of the town.

So that's why they decided
to use that place again.

And they used it for
another a hundred years.

And I think
that I read somewhere,

there's about 30,000 graves
altogether in this place.

1989 most of the cemetery was
grabbed by the structure because

they were developing
a broadcasting station

and they were also using it
for interfering with

the broadcasting of
a Radio Free Europe

and Voice of America,
my father's favorites.

Because of that,
you know, bloody tower,

we had to tune again and again
and again to get the radio.

You can hardly see the yellow
building is the two towers.

We all knew that the very
last floor, there was a spies.

There was, you know,

counterespionage people
listening to calls

that we are connecting,
knowing nothing.

[Randy] Were a lot of
graves lost when they put

- in the-- the tower?
- [Julius] Yeah.

I think it's, yeah, say about
10% maximum is still left,

maybe even less than 10%.

[Randy] So 90% of
the graves were removed

just to build
that ugly postmodern--

Well, it's an industrial
and brutal political act.

- Yes.
- Yeah.

It's not primarily
anti-Semitic, I would say.

It's an industrial
and brutal political act.

- Right.
- [Randy] Yeah.

So sad because it was
just right-- right before

everything changed
for the better.

So to build the tower,
they had to remove headstones?

Yeah. But probably they
destroyed all of those things.

They just transferred
it somewhere.

I don't know what
ritual they observed.

Probably they didn't care.

[Randy] I've heard
sometimes they show up

as cobblestones in the street.
I don't know.

[Julius]
It's about the skeletons.

You know?
What happened with the bodies?

What kind of respect
they paid those remnants?

[Randy] I've never been able to

find any of the graves
of my family here.

So Daniel Polakovic
told me that he looked for

the Nachod graves
and he couldn't

find the ones for,
uh, Avigdor and Gabriel.

But he said-- he said
they were around this area here

that's sort of empty next
to this big giant thing and--

and that he found
one member of the family.

So I'm gonna look for
that member of the family.

And it has a triangle at the top
and a line down the middle

because it's the wife
and the husband together.

Her name is Ester Winternitz,
but she's born Nachod and she's

the first cousin of Avigdor
Daniel Nachod, our ancestor.

So do you see a triangle?

Ooh, there's one there.
Look at that. Okay.

[Julius] You can really close
your eyes and go straight

to it because those
things happen all the time.

[laughs] I know that.

[Julius]
I know what I'm talking about.

Wait a second. I think it's
this-- I think it's this one.

It's hard to tell,
but it looks like there's

this line just like in
the picture and a crack.

- It's definitely this one.
- [Julius] Yeah. Yeah.

Wait, okay.
So-- so it should be right here.

It should say
Josef Ausch-- her--

the neat thing about this is
it references her ancestor.

I see it in the picture.
It says Joseph Ausch SeGal.

So her-- her ancestor
is that famous, the head

of the land Rosh Medina,
Joseph Ausch, who died in 1685.

[Julius] But people still
coming in here, you know,

paying homage to
the significant people,

trying to find
your ancestor's place,

which is also great mitzvah.

[sentimental music playing]

[Randy]
Petr Wilheim is a cousin on

the [indistinct] side.

Our families were
separated after World War II

and they really
had no contact at all.

It wasn't until I was
doing genealogy research

in the '80s and '90s
that a cousin contacted us.

And through
that cousin I found Petr.

And then we met
for the first time at

a family reunion
that we did in 1996.

So I'm so happy that I was able
to find him and meet him.

And I think he enjoys
it also having cousins, uh,

like all of
these families like mine,

where everybody's
strewn all over the world.

And so one
of the nice things about

genealogy is bringing
all these families together.

Now, every time I come here,
[laughs] we-- we hang out

together and we visit,
uh, visit the cemetery where

he-- he works and volunteers.

And, uh,
we took about 45 years for

everybody to come back together.

But now we're good friends.

- [Petr] My cousin.
- [Randy] And here we are.

Well, that's-- that's the grave.

- That's his father.
- Yeah.

- [speaking foreign language]
- His mother, Hana.

- Uncle.
- His uncle, Pavel.

- Rosvalto.
- That's the grandfather.

- [speaking German]
- He was from Austria.

So where it says no date,
right, has just a question

mark, an... [speaking German]

[Petr speaking German]

No one knows where they're--

they were murdered in which--

[words on screen]

[words on screen]

[Randy] It's a pilgrimage site,
I think, for people.

And, um, there it is.

Franz Kafka,
he died very young.

His best friend,
Max Brod was also

a music journalist
and wrote reviews of

our-- our grandfather's
performances in Prague.

[Arnie] What was
your favorite book out of, uh--

The Trial I really liked
because it's really just

a nightmare about turning 30.
[laughs]

The whole book.

He wakes up on his 30th birthday
and by a year later he's dead.

So I always thought
that that's really--

it's all just about
his anxiety of turning 30.

[sentimental music playing]

Everybody,
welcome to this amazing

cousin event here in Prague.

I'm so happy to be here.

This is my son, Joey,
who's on this adventure with me.

We just came from Vienna
and we're seeing

all sorts of amazing documents
and graves and things.

We're tracing our family
history back 500 years.

And on the way we're discovering
a lot of our cousins,

the first I'm gonna say about
Michaela, who's very special.

I went and-- and found you.

Since then, Michaela
and I have been very close.

[soft music playing]

[Michaela] 30 years ago,
my neighbor told me,

"You have an American cousin
here in house."

"No,
I have no cousin in America."

"Yes, he's sitting
in our house."

I came home.

So I first time saw
Randy it was--

it was very, very beautiful.

♪

My father died
several years ago.

My brother died
several years ago and, uh, ago.

And I was the only one
knowing nobody here.

[Randy] Michaela
took me immediately out

into the countryside.

[upbeat music playing]

I don't know anybody
in Czech Republic.

Michaela's gonna show me around.

So we went to the countryside

and she said,
"I wanna go hunting mushrooms."

[laughter] Now I had
never done anything like that.

And-- and I thought, okay.
Okay, we'll go for mushrooms.

So-- so we were
walking through the forest

and I-- I saw
a mushroom and I said,

"Michaela,
Michaela, here's a mushroom."

And she says,
"Ooh, that's strange.

Sure about that?"

Okay, we take it
and put it in the basket.

[laughter] So--
so at the end,

she had all of these mushrooms
that she wasn't sure about.

And I was, you know,
I met her yesterday, right?

And she said,
"Okay, I'll ask an expert."

And you-- you got out
of the car and you went

and called this lady down
and then talk, talk, talk.

And then you
came back in the car

and said, "Yeah,
I think it's okay."

Right? And so they went home and
you made this delicious stew.

It smelled good,
but I thought

I was probably
going to die, right?

So that-- so
I waited until the first bite

and I thought, "Okay,
she didn't die immediately,

so maybe I should try it too."

And I-- and I ate
and the food was delicious.

I-- I remember that
like it was yesterday.

[laughs]

My name is Radmila Iblová.

And we, uh, discovered
the really fantastic,

um, family tree
thanks to Randy.

I didn't know about
nobody of my family, um, roots.

And I remember
the date when we wrote him.

"Hi, Randy, do you know
anything about our family tree?"

And he answered immediately.

"You know that you have
your very close relatives

in Milan
and also in Haifa."

And we said, "No,
we didn't know about that

because nobody knew
that somebody survived the war

in the Czech Republic."

And we began the new life,
thanks to Randy.

My mother,
she is Renata Pavelková,

she was born
in the partly Jewish family.

And unfortunately, she was
as a seven years old child,

uh, in Terezín camp.

Luckily, she survived.

But unfortunately
for a very long time,

she was not able
to talk about this history.

It's an amazing, amazing
privilege to meet someone

who was actually
a witness to that event.

I just feel the need
to find all of you.

And it makes me so happy
to see all of you

sitting here today,

especially the little ones
at the end there.

So thank you all for coming.

Thank you. And, uh,
for allowing me to introduce,

Joey, my next generation

who may or may not be
interested in genealogy.

We're--

- I'll leave an open mind.
- [Randy] You're gonna have

- an open mind. Good.
- Yeah.

- Open-minded.
- [Randy] That's-- that's all

- that's required.
- It's very nice

to meet all of you.

[laughter]

[soft music playing]

[sad music playing]

[archivist] The archive of
the Jewish Museum in Prague

look after the records

of the individual
Jewish communities

in Bohemia
and Moravia and Silesia.

We have one simple
and serious goal.

Protect the records and preserve
them to the next generation.

Like a testimony.

Yeah, yeah.

So you have a bunch of things
I think you found for my family.

Yeah. We have here, uh--
uh, a familianten book.

It was a quota,
a limit

on the number
of Jewish families.

So one person had to die
before the next person

could get married.

And they kept track
of these in giant books.

[archivist] There is the family
of Gabriel Nachod.

[Randy] Right?
So that's Nachod Gabriel

and that's
his father of Avigdor

and his mother Pessel
and has a date under that.

And then the next--
next column is his wife.

Ava, the daughter
of Moises Zodex.

And-- and he gives
sort of a number

when they were married in 1801.

Permission to-- to do marriage.

[man] It's like
a eugenics program.

And if you look on this column
here, it has-- has the children.

Has the sons. Uh,
not the-- not the daughters.

They didn't list the daughters.

So first was Simon, who died.

And then there's
Philipp and Josef,

who's
our great-great-grandfather.

Can see there's
some kind of announcements

to the marriage.

[Randy] He was
allowed to get married

because his older brother
had moved away.

He went to Vienna
to study medicine

and then ended up in Hungary.

- Got it.
- Where he was a doctor.

And so, uh, that's
why our great-great-grandfather

Josef was allowed
to get married.

Yeah. The Pinkas synagogue.

And it's-- it says
the date there in 1845.

So that's our great-great
grandparents' marriage contract.

And that their marriage
is gonna be announced.

[archivist] When you wanted
to-- to get married,

you have to pay
some money to the state.

There is
some kind of records,

some kind of documents
that they pay 500 florins.

It's like the receipts.

Well, that's how the--
the government raised money

from the Jews
by charging fees

every time they needed
to do something.

So every--
every time you--

you got married
or you opened a new business

or you built a house
or sold something, right?

Just like today.

This is in--
in Hebrew or Yiddish.

Which-- which is it?

Daniel, you're-- Daniel.

[Randy] You're
the expert at reading this.

Is it Hebrew or Yiddish?

What is it?

[Randy] 1756. Right?

It must be 17--
'cause this is Avigdor.

This is the father of Gabriel

who we just
saw the familianten.

This is a lawsuit
between Avigdor Nachod

and his employer,
a guy named Beer Schefteles.

It's session protocols
of the beth din,

of the rabbinical court.

This is really amazing

how much detail you have
of the day-to-day lives.

[Randy] This is our great
great-great-great-grandfather.

This is an event
that happened over 250 years ago

and here
we are looking at it.

You feel like you almost
know 'em a little bit, right?

[archivist] Perhaps you have
heard about a great expulsion

of the Jews
during the era of Maria Theresa.

[Randy] Look at that.

Avigdor and his whole
family were expelled

from Prague in 1745.

And then they were
allowed to return in 1748.

So the Pinkas synagogue
kept a book recording the--

who owned
the seat basically, right?

It was-- it was
like a property record.

[Randy] So now we'll
have an idea where he was

in the Pinkas synagogue
where they were sitting.

So this is a tax book
for Manes Nachod, right,

from 1685.

Benet Nachod
and his father, Manes,

apparently they were frequent
visitors to the Leipzig Fair

where people came from far
and wide to trade things.

And you have a little
book here too. What's that?

And when did he die?
When does it say he died?

1586.
Oh, my gosh.

And that-- so that grave
is in the old cemetery?

Are you gonna show that?
Will you show that to us?

[dramatic music playing]

[Randy] Yeah, it does.

Daniel's gonna show us,
he says the oldest grave of--

of the Chalfan family here.

♪

The Nachod family is there?

[Daniel] The father
of the family Manes.

So which one--
So that's Manes Nachod?

And that's Frumetl.

Frumetl,
the wife of Manes Nachod,

daughter of Joseph Ausch.

[Randy] We saw lots of--

[Joey] You're saying he's rich
because the grave is fancy?

I brought
the Wachstein book with me.

So let's-- let's look at that.

I thought
we might need this...

because there's
so much back and forth

from-- from Vienna
and Prague.

So let's look up Heschel
and see what it says.

So Heschel--

Heschel ben-- Elia. See Chalfan.

So the name was-- was Chalfan.

It's a long time ago.

It is.

[Randy] Abba Mari,
the son of Dr. Elia Chalfan

from 1586.
Wow.

[soft music playing]

There aren't too many
other places in Europe left

that have
any Jewish character,

let alone something as moving
as the Old Cemetery in Prague,

which is, you know,
not only beautiful

to look at,
but also the final resting place

of so many
of my family members.

So you have to be grateful
for what they have.

[upbeat music playing]

Going to Theresienstadt
is difficult.

It's like a ghost
town in a way,

and yet there's still people
living there

because it was originally a
city, it was a garrison town.

It's just bizarre being in
a former Nazi concentration camp

and then seeing its function
as an ordinary city.

When the Nazis
took over Czechoslovakia

and they started sending
trainloads of Jews

from all over Czechoslovakia,
Austria, Germany.

Some came from Holland,
Denmark, there were well over

100,000 Jews,
I think 133,000

who were sent here
during World War II.

Wherever humans are,
they're gonna make music

and they're gonna write
and they're gonna paint.

You know,
artists have to do this

wherever they are,
no matter what the conditions.

Viktor Ullmann was a student
of my grandfather,

Arnold Schoenberg in Vienna.

This is a poster from a concert
that they had here

in Theresienstadt and it has
all the composers listed.

People attended
real concerts,

and even my grandfather's
music was played here.

So sometime in July 1942,
my great-grandfather, Siegmund,

was given a notice,
told to show up

at the train station
sent here.

It was one of the most crowded
times in the ghetto.

It's hard to imagine it now,
and it's sort of empty.

But in a town that was
built for 3,000 to 5,000 people,

there were
50,000 Jewish prisoners.

So people were just piled
on top of each other.

And then after two months,
they started deporting people

to the east,
to the extermination camps.

And, uh, my great-grandfather
and-- and my great-grandmother's

sister were deported
on the second--

second train
to Treblinka where people

upon arrival, stripped
of all their clothing

and put in
gas chambers and killed.

He was murdered probably
within hours of arrival.

He knew that my mom existed,
but he never got to meet her.

For me, though, it's not
how I imagined Theresienstadt.

I imagined it
as my great-grandfather

experienced it.

This overcrowding
and the smell and the hunger

and sickness, that's
all absent when I go there.

And there's just sort
of nothing to bring it back.

♪

We're gonna go to one of
these small towns called Ustek,

where the Ausch family,
some of our ancestors live.

Ausch is the-- I guess
the German name for Ustek .

[Achab] Matzevos
are very poetical

for the man
who knows Hebrew.

And when you
are interesting in the Hebrew

and in the text written
on the tombstones,

you must do it
the rest of your life.

It is poetry, it is mystery.

I knew that's my task.
I do it 20 years without money.

I am going on the cemeteries,
make pics and rewriting

of the epitaphs,
and translating it.

[man] The main part
of our work, uh,

are the abandoned cemeteries

in the border area
of Czech Republic.

The first was the restoration.

And when the cemetery
was able to-- to be documented,

we can start
to making the map

and put number
to each gravestone.

I have it in--
in our papers because,

uh, now is
not very well, uh, light

to read this, uh,
very properly.

Yeah, it's very hard to read.

Rosh Medina
is here on the second line.

Rosh Medina.

[Randy] Medina, okay.
So that's--

that's what you had here.

Every time he's mentioned
on his grave

and on all the other graves

and on the
Torah curtains they say,

Rosh Medina, which
means the 'head of the land.'

So what does that
mean head of the land?

When we went to the archives,
we have these statutes

that they made for the Jews

outside of Prague for
the Landesjudenschaft,

it's called
for the Country Jews.

And he is the first signatory
of the statutes in 1659.

So that's why I think he's known
as the head of the land

because he was the leader
of the country Jews in Bohemia.

[Joey] Interesting, right?

Here.

We are only a grass.

We are going away
when the wind blows.

So this is the reason
why we put between this,

uh, and the stone.

And this stone.
A bit of the nature.

As the Talmud teach,
you will never finish your work,

but be sure
without your work

wouldn't be finished
the universe.

♪

[Randy] So what is this honey--
honey liqueur,

honey brandy,
something like that?

[man] Something like that.

[Randy] Okay. And thank you
to Achab for finding him.

Otherwise I never
would've found him.

So, L'Chaim.

[all] L'Chaim.

[Randy] Not bad.

350 years ago,
that was our family living here.

And now,
here we are toasting them.

Pretty fun.

♪

[Randy] When I first
came here, I don't know if--

if you remember, I think the--
the person who told me

that you-- your family was
here or your father was here,

was-- was our cousin
Mischa in Santa Barbara.

In the '70s-- '70s or--

And he visited
you in the '70s, right?

- Yeah.
- [Randy] Yeah.

But, uh, Mischa,
I-- I just got news today

actually that he died.

- He died today this morning.
- [gasps] No!

Yeah, this morning. I'm sorry.

- This morning.
- [Randy] I'm sorry. Yeah.

- I just got-- I just got the--
- He was 100.

[Randy] He was 100 years old.

Um, and I saw him--

I can remember in
Santa Barbara, it was so--

such a nice small house
with a very nice view.

- [Randy] Yeah.
- On the Santa Barbara.

Santa Barbara.
It was beautiful.

And they were so nice to me.

I went with him
to the shoemaker with--

with his shoe.

It was, uh,
in front of the mission

- there in Santa Barbara.
- Yeah. [laughs]

Yeah. And it was beautiful.

He's the reason
I found you because he told me

we have a cousin in Prague
and that's why I looked you up.

- [Michaela] Yeah.
- Very sad. Very sad.

But he brought us together.

[laughs]

[somber music playing]

[soft music playing]

The Pinkas synagogue
was the family synagogue

of the Nachods
back in the 17th century.

So they had their seats
here and they donated

a big Torah curtain
and also a Torah mantle

to cover the Torah.

They were its prominent members.

Those would all be our cousins
and the Jontof family there.

So this is supposedly the robe

and flag of Shlomo Molcho,
who was a Spanish Jew

who fled from Spain and then
became sort of a preacher,

uh, talking
about the Messiah coming.

And he tried to form
an army to take over Palestine.

I think our family probably
brought them up to Prague

from Italy because
Shlomo Molcho was down in--

in Italy and our family
was involved with him.

You could wear
that to the Met Gala.

Yeah. [laughs]

I don't think I wanna wear it.

Uh, I don't want
to end up like Shlomo Molcho.

He was burned
at the stake after all.

You think when they had
the ghetto here 200 years ago,

they had,
what is it called?

Nut Glida?

Um, I'm gonna guess not.

Probably not.

But you never know.

Ooh, it's s dripping.

It was good.
It was pretty good.

I like the pastry.

[Randy] Gonna ruin your dinner.

This can be my dinner.

I don't think I care.

We gotta go back to Vienna

to find those Chalfan
graves that Wachstein found

and see
where that takes us.

And Vienna's good.
We know people there.

[upbeat music playing]

[Randy] Well,
the archivists for the city

have brought the archives
for the entire city here to--

to this building
they call the Gasometer.

Uh, it's an old
natural gas storage facility.

Every document is a clue.
Right?

It's like, you know,
we're going on a treasure hunt

and who knows
what we're gonna find?

The birth should
have the person's name

and the date
that they were born

and the parents' names.

But there's
always a chance you're

gonna find something
you didn't know was there.

The archivist
got me all the books.

So I get to show you
all these neat things.

Oh, I love this stuff.

- Okay.
- [Joey] You're weird.

[Randy] I am weird. I know.

You see the date there? 1632.

So this is the property book,
the Grundbuch.

So, it is like
a property register

of the Jews in Vienna in 1632.

This is one
of the only records we have

of our ancestor
Heschel, Elias, Jewish doctor.

So he's Heschel, the son
of Elias, the Jewish doctor.

So Elias is the one that
got permission from Rudolf II

to move from Prague
to Vienna in 1597, I think.

And so he's
here already at 1600.

And this is his son,
Herschel or Heschel.

Uh, and it says
where he lived in 1632.

So there's the plan.

The plan means map of the--
of the Jewish town,

actually right
where the Jewish quarter was,

many centuries later
when Arnold Schoenberg

was born in 1874,
it's right around this area.

Uh, but also his ancestors
were living here in the 1630s.

Well, like why is a house
in the place it is?

Why is this street like it is?

Well, this street
is like it is today

because of how it was built
400 years ago, 500 years ago.

So, everything new
is really part of something

old at the same time.

It's also a section of Vienna
that's near the train station.

It's where immigrants come in.
Right?

So back then, the Jews were sort
of recent immigrants to Vienna.

And today you'll
have people coming from Ukraine.

So the recent
refugees and immigrants

into Vienna
also live in this area.

So, it's-- it's had that
history for a long, long time.

So I already
have American, Austrian,

and German citizenship,
and I'm applying for Czech.

That's also I think
a way of-- of reclaiming

some of the history
that we had, um, here.

If we left
a property or painting there,

you'd want it back.

Uh, so they left
their citizenship behind

also when they fled.

So if I can recover
a little bit of the things

that my grandparents
and great-grandparents had,

it makes me feel good.

So, that's part of it.

Thanks to the book
by Bernhard Wachstein,

I thought that
the graves that he had recorded

for the Chalfan family
were in the Seegasse Cemetery,

the really old
Jewish cemetery in Vienna.

So we were there
looking for those graves

and not finding them
or anything close to them.

When Johannes Reiss
came in and told us

that we should be looking
actually at the fourth gate

of the central cemetery,
where--

where a fragment
of it had been moved.

The stones were buried here.

Oh, they were
buried here in '41.

[Wolf-Erich Eckstein]
The Seegasse,

like all Jewish cemeteries,

were taken over by the Nazi.

And so the Jewish
community decided to bring

some head zones away
and cover them with Earth.

And these were found
by Mr. Schreiber,

former Stone Mason.

[Randy] Arnie, do you see
it has like a little--

- little, uh--
- [Arnie] Should be--

Like looks like a shield almost.

Like this shape.

I thought-- was it supposed
to be on one of these?

Maybe they moved it.

I have a picture.
It looks like this.

See, it has like a shield
with a point on the bottom.

Is it over there?

I think that's him.

It looks like.
Yeah. So it's a fragment.

Yeah, there's a dirty trick.

Take chalk...

and go over.

[Randy] Oh, wow. [laughs]

Elia.
Elia Ben MHRR.

- Abba.
- Abba.

[Randy] Oh, that's it.
That's it.

Should I take the rest
to make it really sure?

[Randy] This is the son
of Abba Mari Chalfan

who came from Venice
to Prague to be here

in Vienna
and find this grave

from an ancestor
who died 400 years ago.

Right? And here we're standing
right-- right next to it.

Um, it's just
an incredible feeling.

It's why--
this is why I do genealogy.

- Thank you.
- [Wolf-Erich Eckstein] Yeah.

Amazing stone too.

And he was such an interesting
person we're finding out.

There's a list
of the Jews in Vienna in 1600

and there are only 71 Jews
in-- in the whole city.

- Amazing.
- [Arnie] Yeah. We really need

to find the rest of it.

[Randy] Well, Arnie, that's
your job to find the rest of it.

They look like recent breaks.

It must have been broken
during the Nazi period

when they were moving things
and had to bury it.

Somehow it-- it's almost
fitting that it's broken.

And this is the oldest grave
of my family in Vienna.

We expected it in one cemetery.

And there it is, the fragment
lying in a different cemetery.

That's not-- that's
not normally how it goes.

[Randy] Eisenstadt
is the main residents

of the Esterházys
who were type of prince.

And they owned a lot
of land on the border,

basically, of what's
now Austria and Hungary.

Uh, that's
called the Burgenland.

After 1670, when Jews
were expelled from Vienna

and Austria, they uh,
found refuge in the Burgenland.

[man] The Jews
were so-called protected Jews

by Esterházys princes,
Schutzjuden.

It means they had to pay
for their residence permission,

but they had the protection
of the Esterházy.

[Randy] A lot of Jews
went there, including one family

with the name Austerlitz
that we descend from.

They were in Vienna in 1670,
but they were kicked out.

And so a big group
went to Eisenstadt.

There is this remarkable
Jewish museum

that my friend Johannes Reiss
has put together.

It's small,
but it's very comprehensive.

Oh, this is--
this is the town.

This is Eisenstadt here.

Johannes Reiss is an expert
on reading Hebrew tombstones.

And his partner, Traude,

is a genealogist
and a very good friend.

[Johannes]
Towards the end of October 1992,

a neo-Nazi boy wrote

Nazi symbols on 88 gravestones
on the Jewish cemetery.

I recognized that nobody knows
the names of the people

who are buried there,
neither do know

what is written
in those inscriptions.

It inspired me to work
on the Hebrew inscriptions. Yes.

This stone is our eighth
great-grandparents,

a husband and wife
who died the same year in 1724.

Ruchana Austerlitz,
she died in February

1724 and Salman Austerlitz,
he died in November 1724.

The symbol
for the Levites families.

[Randy] Also 'cause they washed
the-- the hands--

Because they washed
the hands for the kohanim,

the priest in the temple.

Solomon.

[Joey] Daddy, what's gonna
be on your tombstone?

It's up to you.
I'm dead. So, you know.

[Johannes] Every inscription,
each inscription of each stone

is published online,
and the QR codes on the stone

guides to this specific
and permanent URL.

Yeah. I don't think
there's any other cemetery

in the world
that is done like this.

It's only thanks to all
the work that Johannes did it.

So should we try
to find their-- their parents?

They-- they--
are they around here?

Yes. The parents
are two or three rows behind.

[Johannes] We feel responsible

for the descendants
of the truth,

which were living here
in the Jewish communities.

And the cemeteries have
buried their grandparents,

their great-grandparents.

In Jewish history, tradition
is the important point.

And tradition doesn't end
one generation behind us.

This one is Moses.

Elia Gelles.

- Gelles.
- This is Tzvi Hirsch.

- This is the father.
- [Randy] Father and son.

So that's our--
our 10th great-grand--

my 10th great-grandfather,

your 11th great-grandfather,
Joey.

Right-- right here.
And you've died when?

- In 16--
- [Johannes] 1686.

This is the father.

And next to this stone
is the mother, Levia Austerlitz.

[Randy] Oh, there--
so there's Levia.

She died in 1695.

So yeah.
So she's in exile from Vienna.

- [Johannes] Yeah.
- With-- with her-- her husband

is here and--
and she's there.

[Johannes] Yeah.

The Jewish history is always
a history of immigration.

[Traude] They left their homes
without knowing

where they are going
and what they will expect

in their new home.

That's really moving to me.

More or less the same
like today.

People left--
leave their homes

and don't know what--
what will happen tomorrow.

Johannes and me, we--
we are lucky enough to have an--

an apartment and we said,
'let's take one family to us.'

And the next day
we picked up a family,

grandmother, mother,
a 12-year-old boy,

and a little dog.

They are from-- from Ukraine.

And I hope
to stay in Austria

because it's unbelievable
that they have to leave.

It's not a life.

[Randy] Forchtenstein,

it's this really
old medieval castle

high up on a hill looks
like Hotel Transylvania

but it's filled with all
the records of the Esterházys.

They ran all of their domain,
all of their towns,

like a business.

A lot of researchers
are interested

in what's in Forchtenstein.

These records that
the Esterházy family kept,

which will record
all the taxes and things

that they charged Jews for
will go further back.

So that's sort of exciting
for genealogy.

And they may have information
for me on the Austerlitz family.

And how did you find them?
Because it's not indexed, right?

This is a conscription,
just like a census, Joey.

So it's-- it's basically
a word for a census.

So they-- they keep track of all
the people living in the area.

Not everything is indexed,
but we-- we have

a-- a special structure of the--
of the whole, uh, archive here.

You have seen this--
this, uh, this, uh,

small houses
in Eisenstadt today.

And here you
see how many people,

how many persons
live in every single house.

[Randy] It's documents
like this that really help

put the puzzle pieces together.

And how far back do these go?
How many years?

[archivist] Goes back
to the beginning

of the 18th century.

So here, for example,
this is Herschel Austerlitz,

and has his kids and everything.

And there's
a note on the side says,

"He is the son
of Aaron Austerlitz."

Right. So here you have even
three generations of Austerlitz.

These are the first documents
we already have scanned for you.

[Randy] Wow. Well, I know a lot
of people who are researching

the communities
in the Burgenland,

can share it with the people
who are interested in--

in researching this,
um, this area.

So that's very valuable.
Thank you so much.

- You're welcome.
- That's really great.

[upbeat music playing]

This is part of the Sebastian
Tengnagel collection.

Tengnagel was the imperial
librarian at the beginning

of the-- of the 17th century
here in Vienna.

And he was a prominent
orientalist and he collected,

um, a good numbers
of, uh, Hebrew manuscripts.

[Randy] Many of them,
they think came from the library

of our family
when they came here to Vienna.

This is Italian and it is,
uh, it's not easy to understand,

but this is
from, uh, your ancestor.

Quest Libro something.

Elia Alphan. A-L-P-H-A-N
at the end. So Elia Alphan.

So this book
belonged to Elia Alphan

and he died 400 years ago.

And here we are in front
of one of his books

that was owned and has essays
by his grandfather

and great-grandfather
who were alive in the 1400.

You see where it says "Kalonymos
ben David Kalonymos."

And he probably gave it

to his son-in-law
Eliyahu Menachem Chalfan.

I mean, it's hard
to believe that something

this old was owned and created

by someone
that I share blood with.

[Randy] Uh, so there's a number
of different works

that are all bound together here
by Aristotle and Maimonides.

One of our ancestors in
the 15th century, in the 1400s,

was writing out little notes,
uh, on all of these things.

I just think it's amazing
that Arnold Schoenberg's mother,

Pauline Nachod comes
from Prague and her family

goes all the way back
into the 1600s.

And then
she has a grandmother

that is named Chalfan
and her family came from Vienna.

So, and is a descendant
of Dr. Elia Chalfan.

So we're-- we're absolutely
a descendant of this Dr. Chalfan

and of the ancestors
mentioned in this book,

his grandfather,
Rabbi Eliyahu Menachem Chalfan

in Venice, and Kalonymos
Ben David Kalonymos.

These are all our ancestors that
we've been able to establish.

But it's amazing
to find something

that they owned, right?
After how many years this is?

He died in, 1630 I think.
So he died 400 years ago.

And here we are
in front of one of his books.

[Dr. Petrolini] You should talk
with Fabrizio Lelli in Florence

because he specialized
on the movement

of manuscripts
from the southern Italy

to Venice and to Vienna
to Northern Europe.

[man] Did you have an eye
on that particular note

in the appendix of the book?

[Randy] Bernhard Wachstein says,
"And I was in the cemetery

in Venice, and there's
this grave of Fioretta there,

the wife
of Eliyahu Menachem Chalfan."

And that was the first clue.

Fioretta's would be
the oldest known gravestone

that we found
from our family.

That's why I came to Europe.

So we're hoping
when we get to Venice

that that grave is still there.

It was there
a hundred years ago,

so I hope
it's still there today.

[upbeat music playing]

[Randy] Chiara told us
that a scholar in Florence

knew more about
Fioretta's husband,

Eliyahu Menachem Chalfan.

So we're going there
first to find out more

about their family
and how they live.

It really is a surprise
when you come across something

that still exists,
that they are still traces

of these people
that you've never heard of.

That their life
is why you exist.

Without them,
you're not here.

And no one has remembered them
until you've dug them up again

and learned
something about them.

[Prof. Lelli] It's something
really unbelievable.

This parchment,
which has been recently defined,

the magnificent parchment.

So you will see why.

I think, uh, we--
we need someone to assist us

for opening it
and unfolding it.

[Randy] Wow. Amazing.

That's 500 years old.

Wanna look closer?

Wow.

Joey, you wanna come around?

Here, come around me
on this side.

It's better.

Better view.
You see the dragon?

- There's a dragon there.
- There's a dragon there.

He's riding it.

[Prof. Lelli] This is a--
an incredibly interesting

artifact dating to 1533.

This was a joint venture,
so to say,

of Eliyahu Menachem Chalfan,

your ancestor
and Abraham Sarfati.

The drawing of
the parchment took place

at a specific moment
that followed the execution

by burning and stake
of a very singular person.

His name was Shlomo Molcho,
uh, an alleged messiah.

So this is a sort of, uh, map.

Hmm? A--
A drawing of the divine world

and what the distinction
between a lower level

of existence
and an upper level of existence.

[Randy] Do you think
Chalfan believed

that Shlomo Molcho
was the Messiah?

I incline to think so
because otherwise,

they wouldn't have realized
such a beautiful artifact.

For many other Jews, this was
just a fake, was just a cheater.

Someone who was just imagining,
he was pretending.

I must tell you something,
Randy,

that when you contacted me
the first time,

I would hardly believe

that you were really
the descendant of my hero,

Eliyahu Menachem Chalfan.

And the idea
of being able to show you

his artifacts is just,
uh, blowing me away.

I don't know what to say,
but I'm just blown away.

[soft music playing]

[Prof. Lelli] The Chalfan family
came from France

and to northern Italy
like many other French families.

And they moved eastward
to Venetian area

and at some point
they moved to Southern Italy

because we find them in Naples.

Eliyahu Menachem lost his father
at a relatively young age.

And 1526, uh, his father-in-law,

Kalonymos Ben David Kalonymos,
gave him a big part

of the library
belonging to his own family.

And, uh, we have an inventory,
a complete list of this library.

They were the first
generations of Jews living

in the gate
of Venice because they--

when Chalfan
started living in Venice,

so the gate
has just been opened.

[Randy] Every genealogist
just dreams

of taking the family back
further and further and further.

That was my dream
as a little kid.

And now here we are at the 1500s
and into the 1400s.

And, of course, I'd love if
we could get back even further.

[Prof. Lelli]
I try to reconstruct

the history
of the person or family.

[Randy] So it really expands
what I thought we knew

about Jews in the olden days,

but I thought
they're just living

in their little
communities alone.

But instead,
they're engaging with kings

and popes and emperors.

Henry VIII,
he wanted to annul his marriage

to his first wife,
Catherine of Aragon.

He went to all
these rabbis and asked

for opinions that
the marriage was invalid.

Some rabbis supported
the Pope against Henry VII.

Chalfan and Kalonymos supported
Henry VIII against the Pope.

[Prof. Lelli] The Jewish
scholars in those days

were at the same time alchemists

or astrologers
or medical doctors.

But at the same time,
they could,

uh, discuss
the Kabbalistic text.

I don't even know-- and Joey,
I'm sure you don't know,

like what--
what is Kabbalah?

Where does it come from?

You know
what Kabbalah means in Hebrew.

Kabbalah means
something that is received.

The word had a sort of
a very deep meaning

relating to the handing down
of a tradition

from generation
to generation.

- Like received wisdom, right?
- [Prof. Lelli] Exactly.

At some point, you have the--

the idea that
there's something hidden

that accompanies
these rabbinic traditions.

And so this is the Kabbalah
that was considered

the holiest in the Middle Ages.

And that finally, eventually,

became what
we today call Kabbalah.

Our hero,
Eliyahu Menachem Chalfan,

this is another
very interesting scholar

who worked
in this environment.

It's a very interesting
and complicated story.

[upbeat jazz music]

[Serena] I was born in Venice.

I'm a true Giudeccina.

When I was
a little girl,

Giudecca used to be
a part of Venice

where only fishermen lived,
and also factory workers.

And now it's become
like the rest of Venice.

I think we lost control.

The whole city
is bound to become

like a tourist attraction place

and you lose
a feeling of real life.

Giudecca still has a lot
of people who are Venetians.

You know everyone.
People help each other.

There's a lot
of solidarity in the island.

So you haven't been here before?

Nope.

[Randy] You know, I was here
like 30 years ago, I guess.

[woman] Hi.

- Hi! So nice to see--
- [Randy] Hi.

Hi, Joey.

[Joey] Hi.

So this is Nick.

[Randy] Hey, Nick.

My husband.
Randy. Joey.

- Nice to meet you.
- Yeah, come in.

- Finally.
- [Serena] I think Joey coming

into this trip and joining

is just the best thing
that could happen.

It's wonderful that Randy
is handing him down history

and his own legacy.

I started imagining
these people that Randy

was giving me information about,

just trying out
different expressions,

just to work things out

before I would start
with the paintings.

When you look
at a painting,

you can feel that somebody
has actually made it

with their hands.

We're showing you
this new painting Nick did.

So it's a surprise.
There it is.

- Wow.
- [Nuria] My father.

Oh, wow.

[Randy] Which dog is that?

[Nuria] That was Ronnie.

[Serena] Ronnie.

[Nuria] Ronnie was
a beautiful Irish setter.

[Serena] Nick
wanted to have this painting

ready for your 90th.

Oh, thank you, Nick.

That's lovely.
I really--

Thank you so much.

Really.

And I really like it.
It's very good.

[soft music playing]

It's always interesting
to know where you come from.

Randy is very serious about it.

But that doesn't mean
that he's not very active

right now
in the world we live in.

And that's very
important that I know

that he applies
these things that he knows

knowing who he is
and what he wants to be.

And we didn't
expect to have wars

like this now again.

And it's very disturbing.

And these are things
we were not used to.

Art and music
can help with that

because usually there's
a great sensitivity of mind,

of people who create art.

You're helping people
to believe in the future.

[Serena] Now I think painting
has a lot to do with history.

It really makes you feel
and makes you think about,

you know, what these people
have been through.

Having to leave one place.

The difficulties,
it just never ends.

Life can be really tough
on some people,

like our ancestors.

Going out to the cemetery
you have a chance

to sort of contemplate
what that must have been like

for people 500 years ago
to go out over the lagoon,

rowing against the current

out to this pretty far
off island, Toledo.

And it's difficult
enough when you have

a loved one who dies.

And in Jewish tradition,
you're supposed to bury

the person right away,
like the next day.

So she was alive
and then the next day

they had to go in a boat
and row for hours

out to this far-off cemetery

because that's the only place

they allowed Jews
to bury people.

[sentimental music playing]

We're gonna finally
find Fioretta. Okay?

I hope.
I hope we find her.

And Wachstein's book
that said, "In the old cemetery

in Venice on the Lido,
there's this grave of Fioretta"

but that was
a hundred years ago.

Is it still there?
Is it overgrown?

Was it moved? Is it lost?
Is it still legible?

We just didn't know.

Okay, here we are.

Let's see if
we can cross the street

without getting killed.

Yep.
Looks good.

[indistinct chatter]

[Serena] Oh, it looks good.

- Wow.
- [Randy] We wouldn't have been

able to get into that cemetery
without-- without Aldo.

Oh. Oh, there he is.
Oh, my gosh.

[Aldo] I superintended over
the cemetery for everything.

[Serena] Ciao, Aldo!

[Aldo]
Funerals, maintenance,

restoration of tombstones.

I am a volunteer.

I was born
August the 28th, 1930.

During the war,
of course, we were hidden.

Many Venetian Jews
saved their lives

because our Catholic friends.

And that's what happened to us.

Wow. Thank you, Aldo.

- Amazing.
- Wow.

[speaking Italian]

This with a certain pride,
with a certain emphasis,

the ancient
Jewish cemetery of Venice.

Just what is left of it, because
it was a wide, wide area.

And those times it was the most

out-of-the-way place
you could imagine.

They didn't want that us
as neighbors not even as dead.

It's such a long, long story.

636 years of the cemetery.

Nowadays, this year,
I think just three visits.

- [Randy] Visit?
- [Aldo] You're the fourth.

[laughs]

[Randy] Okay,
so we're looking for a grave

that looks like this
with a triangle.

- [Serena] Like this one here.
- [Randy] I think so. Yeah.

But-- but--

[sentimental music playing]

[Joey] Daddy come.
I think I found it.

[Randy] You're kidding.
Why? What'd you find?

[Joey] Serena, come.

It says "Halfon"
and it says "Fioret."

[Randy] Which one?

- [Joey] This one.
- [Randy] Oh my God.

So where do you find it?

- Where does it say it?
- Fioret.

With "et".

- "Et".
- Fioret. Okay.

[Joey] And Halfon.

Halfon down there.

- So let me see.
- Halfon?

- [Randy] Fioret.
- Yeah.

- [Serena] Wow.
- [Aldo] Eliyahu Halfon.

[speaking Italian]

...Eliyahu Halfon.

[Randy] Eliyahu--

[Serena] That's the husband,
he's saying.

- Halfon. You're right.
- Yeah. Yeah.

- That's it.
- Wow.

[Randy] That's it.
I can't believe it.

Amazing, Randy.

It's "Fioret
éshet the wife of

haRofe... MHRR
Eliyahu Halfon.

This is Fioretta.

- [Serena] Can you imagine?
- [Randy] Joey,

- you're the greatest!
- [Joey] Yeah.

[Serena] Yeah. Wow, Joey.
Well done, Joey.

[Randy] Basically, Joey
is the one that really found it.

I guess his Hebrew school
training was enough

for him to read out
one of the names,

and so I looked over it and wow,
sure enough, there she was.

Fioretta Chalfan.
That's our ancestor.

[Serena] Let's
put a stone on it.

[sentimental music playing]

[Randy]
When you finally find it,

and then you're standing there
and you realize 500 years ago,

her family,
my family, our family,

was standing
there also, right at--

at her graveside
when she was buried.

You can see that he was pretty
happy to have accomplished that.

I know he was sort
of reluctant sometimes

to go along on this trip
and we're in archives

and underground,
looking at old records

that he can't read because
it's in different language

with different script.

But then when he's actually able
to accomplish something,

part of this research,
part of this journey,

I think that must have been a
really important thing for him.

It's that time of life
when you start thinking about,

okay, who am I gonna be
and what am I gonna do

and how am I
going to do it?

And so he was able
to explore that,

I think,
while we were on this trip.

He gets to write
the rest of his story.

[sentimental music playing]

[Joey] It was definitely
a bonding trip.

I will always remember it.

[Randy] Serena
did such a great job

with all the paintings,
but you could tell she really

identified,
I think with Fioretta,

you know, this sort of
last matriarch of the family.

And she's from Venice,
she's born in Venice,

she still lives in Venice.

There's hardly anybody
who can say that.

And to have this ancestor
on her mother's side,

which she never
expected to find,

I think really
connected with her.

She had this artistic way
of responding to it,

of imagining what Fioretta
might have looked like.

You can see
a little bit of Serena

in the painting,
which I really like.

[Rabbi Nolan Lebovitz]
We're obsessed with memory,

but we're essentially
missing so many generations

because of these atrocities
that happened in Europe.

So there's really
no one left to remember them.

And as a genealogist, you can
at least get a little bit

of that back
by recording their names

and some of their history.

[Joey] I think he wants
to feel reconnected

with the family
he lost in Europe.

That he wants to be connected
to where his family used to be.

And even
if I never will meet them,

it's nice to know
that they were there.

I can feel
where he's coming from.

[Rabbi Nolan Lebovitz]
The Jewish story

is a story of perseverance.

Generation
after generation,

even though we carry
with us all of that darkness,

we have to remember
because memory is a value.

This is an important part
of what it means to actually

be part of a greater story
than just ourselves.

[Serena] It's been amazing
to be able to spend time

with them
and confront this subject.

It was like magic
because it was this circle

that from Venice,
they go to Prague, to Vienna,

to Los Angeles,
and then back to Venice again.

[Randy] I've also
been interested now

in looking back further
after Fioretta,

back down to Southern Italy
where it's possible

that there are other family
members we can learn about.

[Michaela] I'm pretty sure
that after this research

with Fioretta,
he will find another person

in the family,
that he want to dig up.

He'll search and do the research
the rest of his life.

He will not stop.
It's not only a hobby.

You find people,
you find friends,

you learn everything new.

I feel how I'm smiling
when I think about it.

♪

[upbeat jazz music]

♪

[sentimental music]

♪

[dramatic music]

♪

♪