Student discovers family Holocaust records through participation in Modern Germany course

Holocaust footage played in Dr. Teigrob's HIS 790, Modern Germany course helps fourth year student Kyle Resendes locate grandparents' record at Buchenwald concentration camp. 

"I had always known that my mother's parents were in the Holocaust and worked forced labour at a camp.  They were both Ukrainian Catholics that had been picked up by the Nazis and sent to work.  Supposedly, my grandmother assembled bombs barefoot as to not set off a static charge, and my grandfather hauled the bodily remains from the chambers.  

I've tried to look through databases to find their records, and I finally found a match.  My grandfather's record shows that he was transferred to Buchenwald Concentration Camp in 1944, and was liberated in 1945.  Not only did I finally discover what camp my grandparents were at, but you also shared a video in one of our lectures of Weimar citizens touring a camp following the war - it was Buchenwald.  Seeing that historical connection was a huge revelation to me.  I always knew about that video, but to discover that my grandparents had lived through that place is beyond me.

Thank you for showing that video in class, it prompted me to look through my family history and finally discover this."

Kyle Resendes, History program graduate