Holocaust DNA

In the article “Holocaust DNA” the author Joyce Gramza refers to two survivors of the Holocaust. A 79-year-old Holocaust survivor Lena Mandelbaum said, “We have nobody in the cemeteries, because our aunts and uncles and grandparents and brothers and sisters, everyone went.” Also, her husband Joseph, 83, survived the tortures of Nazis’ concentration camps and murders of his parents. In addition, they hope to find them and then be able to make a Jewish burial and then they will be able to say the Jewish prayer for the dead. This could be happen because their son Syd was bringing them a gift of hope, just saying that it could happen through DNA testing.

            Furthermore, something that is quite important to mention is that Michel Hammer, a geneticist of University of Arizona, said that he can find or identify those people who were killed during the Holocaust using DNA, just like in the recent catastrophes of 9/11, the Indian Ocean Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina. Moreover, he said that if he is going to do it, he has to do it quickly because the average of the survivors is mid-80s. Likewise, he can identify the parents of the children who were sent through the world and they survived. Finally, some survivors hope that they would find their parents, just using the DNA.

            This a very interesting article because it gives to the Holocaust survivors the hope that they need to find their relatives who were killed during the Holocaust. Also, I found it a good source to learn a lit of bit of the DNA and how they can find something just using DNA.