Tom Stoppard’s Secret—And Mine
Like the playwright, I grew up knowing nothing about my family's connection to the Holocaust.
TL;DR
- The author discovered her Jewish heritage late in life, a secret kept by her parents due to her father's antisemitism.
- Tom Stoppard's play 'Leopoldstadt,' about a Jewish family before WWII, resonated with the author's own hidden past.
- The author's maternal family, the Ullsteins, were prominent German Jews who lost their business and citizenship under Nazi rule.
- The author met Tom Stoppard, and they bonded over their shared experiences of discovering their Jewish identity as adults.
- The author grapples with identifying as both Christian and Jewish, facing different reactions from both communities.