TUCSON, Arizona (Press Release)–The DNA Shoah Project is a non-profit, humanitarian effort at the University of Arizona aiming to reunite families disrupted by the Holocaust.
We are building a database of genetic material from Shoah survivors and their immediate descendants in an attempt to match displaced relatives, provide wartime orphans and lost children with information about their biological families and eventually, when the database has reached sufficient size, assist in the identification of Holocaust-era victims whose remains continue to surface.
The project contains an educational component as well, employing current science and technology to teach the Holocaust in our schools. There is no cost to participants.
The project’s cofounders include Syd Mandelbaum, a scientist with a background in genetics and the son of two Holocaust survivors, and Dr. Michael Hammer, a renowned research scientist at the University of Arizona who specializes in human population genetics.
The success of our work depends on the creation of as large a database as possible. We are actively seeking DNA samples from survivors and second- and third-generation family members and we are traveling extensively to promote the project. When travel is not possible, we will send collection materials to anyone who requests them, free of charge.
The project’s web site features a short video providing an excellent overview of our efforts; the Media page of our site contains recent articles as well. Materials are currently only available in English at this time but translations are in the works.
Genealogists may be interested to know that we will again be presenting and exhibiting at this year’s IAJGS conference in Los Angeles, July 11 – 15.
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Preceding provided by the University of Arizona DNA Shoah Project