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00:15I'm Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
00:18Welcome to Finding Your Roots.
00:21In this episode, we'll meet actor Lizzie Kaplan
00:25and comedian Hasan Minhaj,
00:28two people whose families have been shaped by immigration.
00:33I grew up seeing the sacrifice it takes
00:37to make the American dream possible.
00:40I have thought about, you know,
00:42what it would be like to be on a boat
00:46coming to a place where you knew nobody.
00:49Yeah.
00:50It's totally unimaginable.
00:53To uncover their roots,
00:55we've used every tool available.
00:57Genealogists comb through paper trails stretching back hundreds of years.
01:02No, this is incredible.
01:03How did you guys find this?
01:05While DNA experts utilize the latest advances in genetic analysis
01:09to reveal secrets that have lain hidden for generations.
01:13No way!
01:15And we've compiled it all into a book of life.
01:20A record of all of our discoveries.
01:23And a window into the hidden past.
01:26So you thought of yourself as Russian.
01:28Yeah.
01:29Did you ever think of yourself as Polish?
01:30No.
01:31You're Polish.
01:32Yeah!
01:33It's making me think about a lot of the decisions that I made in my life.
01:38And maybe that courage and conviction came from my ancestors.
01:42My two guests both descend from people who had to grow up fast,
01:47find their way across the globe, and build a new life in a new country.
01:52In this episode, we're going to retrace those journeys,
01:57and recover what was lost along the way.
02:01Re cứu and what's lost prices in this future.
02:03It is, we're now looking for food dealwear to eat.
02:04Maria, the artist has this day,
02:06Otherwise, the world has gotten us.
02:09We're going to defeat them.
02:10That really doesn't represent them until each other.
02:11Yes.
02:12Which one packs of self.
02:13Yes.
02:14Yes.
02:15Let me divide them.
02:16So I find out,
02:17You get them,
02:18and CHAIN.
02:20They ã‚„ped the family during winter.
02:21I pray about children,
02:22Go!
02:23Absolutely.
02:24That's how I wake up here.
02:25I have student the Henry Bow king on the classic choice.
02:26And a dick shines when it goes.
02:27I planned the atención.
02:28It's cut п math for four Quindi pieces.
02:29Hasan Minhaj is on a roll.
02:42The mercurial comedian has won two Peabody Awards and garnered a legion of fans by blending
02:49stories about himself and his family with keen observations about Muslim life in America.
02:55My dad sits everybody down at the dinner table he's like all right Hasan whatever you do do not
03:00tell people you're Muslim do not talk about politics. I was like all right dad I'll just
03:04hide it cool. It's a brilliant act and he's been refining it since he was a child. Growing up in
03:12Sacramento California Hasan was a class clown often in trouble with his teachers perhaps because
03:20his home life was quite restrictive. Hasan's mother had returned to India soon after his birth
03:28to finish her studies so he spent his first eight years in the care of his father a man who had a lot
03:36of rules. So how do you think that affected you? To me that would be a nightmare. I mean my parents
03:44are dead. I love you daddy but I wanted my mama love. Yeah so you know with me with me and dad you
03:50know look doctor we can get into this and I don't know if you're a if you do psychology but the the
03:54level of draconian law is pretty crazy. That's because he had a crazy kid. You know you're out of
04:00control. Yeah but no touching the thermostat no video game consoles no cable television. Oh um oh
04:06yeah. We're getting closer to oh yeah Sacramento. You know how hot Sacramento is doctor? It's
04:11incredibly hot. We can't touch the AC. There's oscillating fans in the house. Four oscillating
04:16fans don't touch the the thermostat. So I even though I lived in the suburbs our house was like a trap
04:22house without all the fun of cooking crack or meth. You know this is the type of man this this guy was
04:29the husband didn't know it yet. His father would actually help launch his career. He started doing
04:38stand-up in college with material drawn from his family but fearing that his parents wouldn't approve
04:45he tried to conceal it. My mother and father did not know I was doing this at the time. Uh-huh. So if
04:52they didn't know when did they know? They found out when I took my dad's car and I totaled it on the way
04:58to a comedy gig. Then unfortunately they found out. I said I was at the library but I was on the way to
05:03Tommy T's comedy club in Pleasanton. How old? When was this? I'm like maybe a junior in college. Yeah. Yeah.
05:10And my dad I had to call my dad to come get me and he goes wow we're about 40 miles from the library.
05:17You sure you're going to the library?
05:18With his secret out in the open, Hasan was able to devote himself fully to his craft.
05:28After college, he began releasing videos on YouTube which led to a spot on The Daily Show
05:35and a breakout special on Netflix featuring a routine that was largely focused on his childhood.
05:43The only problem? His parents still didn't know exactly what he was doing.
05:50Did you tell your parents about it before you let them see it?
05:54They came to the off-Broadway show in New York. So by the time it was up and running they finally...
06:02So what was their reaction? Because it's about them.
06:05Yeah. Um...
06:07Were they hurt?
06:07I would say it's very complicated because it's a lot.
06:15On one hand, they're proud.
06:18Like I remember seeing my parents at the show.
06:22They're looking at other people to be like wait they're all here to see him?
06:25Right.
06:25So they're acknowledging that.
06:27Right.
06:27Right.
06:27And then at the same time, there's a level of like, hey, why are you talking about this stuff?
06:33Yeah, right.
06:33And why are you making it more dramatic?
06:35Right.
06:35You know, like you're really hamming it up here for them and why are you doing that?
06:41So there's all these layers to it which is there is this simultaneous like wonder, curiosity, awe, pride, and why do you have to do this?
06:57Yeah.
06:57It's like five different emotions happening in one.
06:59Do you censor yourself because of that?
07:01A little bit.
07:02A little bit.
07:02There's some things that I will change or modify or cut or truncate.
07:08It would be too painful.
07:09It would be too painful and also you just want like, these are people that I love.
07:13You know, they're ultimately the people that I really love and I want them to be happy.
07:18And we have so much else to fight about.
07:22It doesn't have to be about the act.
07:23Yeah.
07:23My second guest is actor Lizzie Kaplan, who came to fame in the cult classic Mean Girls.
07:32Yeah.
07:35And has built a remarkable career by crafting a series of unforgettable, offbeat characters.
07:45Oh, I'm sorry.
07:47Did you think that I was like those other girls?
07:49Lizzie is blessed with impeccable comic timing.
07:54But her own story begins in tragedy.
07:57As a child, Lizzie's world was turned upside down when she lost her mother to cancer.
08:04She was sick for a year.
08:09It still was a great shock to everybody.
08:12She was young.
08:12She was 50.
08:14Can I ask you how you coped?
08:15I can't imagine losing my mother at that age.
08:19Not well.
08:20I mean, it's funny when people lose a parent.
08:24Funny, obviously.
08:25Not funny, ha ha.
08:26But when people lose a parent and, you know, everybody says, oh, this is such a horrible age.
08:30I don't know when a good age would be.
08:33If you're very small and you never really have any lasting memories of that person, that's its own tragedy.
08:39And then for me, I was 13, you know, right on the cusp of womanhood, like an adolescent.
08:46And that was pretty bad.
08:48That was a pretty bad time for it to happen.
08:50When I was very close with my mother, all of my siblings were, she definitely was the center of the family that kept everybody together.
08:59And when she passed away, we kind of all lost our way as a family for quite a while.
09:07Lizzie would ultimately find her way.
09:10But it took more than a little luck.
09:13Soon after her mother's death, she was accepted into an art-size school in Los Angeles.
09:19She was supposed to study piano, but lost interest.
09:24So she switched to acting and discovered her calling.
09:29I just liked it.
09:30Certain things came sort of easily to me.
09:33Learning lines and diving into a character.
09:38And I also think, you know, in retrospect, I've thought about this,
09:42that in my sort of angst-ridden teenage brain, I was actively trying to make sense of my mother's death.
09:51Why did this terrible thing happen to me?
09:53And in my mind, I mean, I wanted nothing to do with doing comedy.
09:56I was going to be a serious actress and Shakespearean actress.
09:58And I needed to have this, like, trauma and darkness and depth in order to access these parts of myself.
10:05And I think, honestly, it probably got me through a lot of that time.
10:11Because it was me just trying to, like, attach meaning to this horrible thing that happened.
10:17And the way that I attached meaning to it was, oh, I need this darkness to pursue this acting thing.
10:23Lizzie may have been wrong about her future with Shakespeare, but she quickly found another outlet for her talents.
10:32Although her father had no connections to the entertainment industry, she had an uncle who was a publicist.
10:39So she turned to him for help.
10:42And that would change her life forever.
10:45He introduced me to this manager he knew, but it was, like, the lowest assistant on the totem pole of this tiny management company.
10:58And this guy agreed to sort of represent me probably as a favor to my uncle.
11:02Right.
11:03And I started going out for auditions.
11:05And I just, I started getting jobs, but not anything.
11:09Like, in my mind, I was going to be the lead of the show.
11:12And it was going to be, like, shot out of a cannon.
11:14And it was not that.
11:15It was, you know, my first job was one line, girl number one in a pilot.
11:21And it just gave me enough, like, not enough to be fulfilling, but enough to, like, just keep going.
11:28Just keep going a little.
11:29Just a little, see what happens, see what happens.
11:30And for whatever reason, I never, like, doubted that that was going to be my thing.
11:36And I don't know.
11:38I think probably only in recent years do I think, oh, okay, maybe I feel good about the work that I'm doing.
11:44And maybe this was what I was supposed to do as opposed to, like, well, I can't do anything else.
11:48Right.
11:48I got no college education.
11:49I have no plan B.
11:50Like, what am I going to do?
11:51Yeah.
11:51But I also just genuinely love doing it.
11:56I love it as much as I'd probably, I mean, more so than when I was a kid.
12:00It just was an instant fit.
12:02My two guests have been fortunate.
12:05Both have thrived in the public eye, finding fame and fulfillment in the limelight.
12:12But their family trees are filled with people whose stories have long lingered in obscurity.
12:19It was time for that to change.
12:22I started with Hassan and with his father, Najby Minaj.
12:29Najby immigrated to the United States when he was 31 years old, seeking work as a chemist.
12:36But Hassan believes that his father's job was never the most important thing in his life.
12:42I went to his retirement party and his co-workers gave speeches and we cut Costco sheet cake.
12:50And then they were like, thank you for the 35 years.
12:53Did he cry?
12:55No, he didn't cry.
12:56But I was really moved.
12:58Because I kind of looked at his office and his floor.
13:05And I was like, man, like, you know, it's just a sea of cubicles.
13:08It looks like the TV show Severance.
13:10You know, it's just a sea of cubes.
13:13And I was like, man, my dad came here every day.
13:16He took the light rail or the bus.
13:19And he had this job that I'm sure he, I know he did not like.
13:24But he did that all for me.
13:25Wow.
13:26And my sister.
13:26Mm-hmm.
13:27And I see my dad still to this day as someone who is obviously extremely intelligent, but has so much potential.
13:36Mm-hmm.
13:36And, you know, maybe I'm trying to pursue this path that I'm on and see my potential through in his honor.
13:49Because he really sacrificed a lot.
13:52Perhaps because of his sacrifices, Najmi chose to focus on the future, not on the past, and rarely discuss the life he'd left behind in India.
14:05We set out to recover it, beginning in Sheerkote, the city in northern India, where his mother's family has deep roots.
14:15Have you ever seen that photo?
14:21No.
14:24That photo was taken at your grandmother's house in Sheerkote sometime around 1948.
14:31So that's two years before your father was born.
14:34Wow.
14:36This is a beautiful place.
14:39I mean, like, if you look at the archway of that, that's incredible.
14:43Well, guess what?
14:45Your father told us that in the back of the house, there were quarters to house elephants.
14:49What?
14:50Yes.
14:51And your aunt remembers that they owned two adult elephants and a baby elephant.
14:58What do you mean, they owned elephants?
14:59They just had elephants?
15:00Yeah, I mean, like you have a dog.
15:02Do you have a dog, a cat?
15:03No, I don't have a dog.
15:03We have a rabbit.
15:04They had elephants.
15:05This is so weird because when I was a kid, I asked my dad, well, my sister really wanted
15:17a dog.
15:18Mm-hmm.
15:19And he was like, no pets.
15:21We have Hassan.
15:23And he had a, in his family, they had elephants?
15:26Three.
15:27Two adults and a baby at the time that photograph was taken.
15:30Oh, my God.
15:32Mm-hmm.
15:34That's awesome.
15:35That's really cool.
15:36I think it's cool.
15:36It's so cool.
15:39We wanted to learn more about Najmi's family, but we faced a huge roadblock.
15:45Few historical records survive in northern India.
15:48And those that exist are often difficult to locate because they lack filing systems or
15:55indexes.
15:57This problem is compounded by the fact that the widespread use of permanent surnames within
16:03India is relatively new.
16:06And many unrelated families share the same surname because they were initially derived from
16:13trades or professions.
16:14So doing genealogy in this part of the world can be extraordinarily tricky.
16:21But we got lucky when we discovered that the surname of Hassan's grandmother is Begum,
16:28which has unusual roots.
16:31Did you know that?
16:32No.
16:34Begum is an Urdu word with roots in a Turkish word for princess.
16:39And historically, it was given to women who were the wife or daughter of a Beg, meaning
16:46a lord or a chieftain.
16:48Ever thought of your family as maybe having royal roots?
16:51I know in your fantasy, when you look in a mirror, you see a prince.
16:54But...
16:54You know, I got cousins that have egos like that.
17:00But I don't know if we are related in that way.
17:04Well, we didn't find any evidence that any of your ancestors were royalty, except etymologically.
17:10But it's certainly possible because of that, that they were.
17:13What's it like to think about that?
17:17It's pretty incredible.
17:18And it's pretty amazing to just understand who you are and where you come from and what
17:33generations before may have been doing.
17:35It is.
17:36Yeah.
17:37Riding around those elephants in the backyard.
17:39Yeah, riding elephants, sir.
17:41Yeah.
17:41Though we couldn't connect Hassan's family to royalty, we did uncover something fascinating.
17:50Hassan's relatives told us that his great-grandfather, a man named Sibgit Ullah, was a prominent landowner.
17:58And as we combed through the archives in his home region, we uncovered a British publication
18:05that seemed to confirm this.
18:07The town of Dampur is the seat of several well-known families who own land.
18:14Mm-hmm.
18:15Muhammad Sibgit Ullah, the principal shaykh resident of the place.
18:21That name sound familiar?
18:24That's my great-grandfather.
18:25We can't be certain, but we spoke with a scholar about this at length, and we think this may be,
18:32indeed, your great-grandfather.
18:34The names are similar.
18:35And Dampur is about five miles from Sherkot.
18:40Wow.
18:41And this is from a newspaper.
18:42The Biznor Gazetteer.
18:44Yeah.
18:45Which is a geographical index.
18:46Yeah, Biznor.
18:47My dad has talked about Biznor just casually.
18:49Oh, yeah?
18:50When he talks about Sherkot and Biznor, but it just sounds like he's describing different
18:54regions from Game of Thrones.
18:56I'm like, I don't know what that territory is.
18:58This index not only indicates that Sibgit owned land, it also describes him as being the principal
19:08shaykh of his town, which was potentially a very significant find.
19:14The term shaykh refers to a social class of Muslims in northern India, a group that claims Arab descent
19:23through the prophet Muhammad, and two of the founding caliphs of Islam, Abu Bakr and Omar.
19:31Did you ever think you might have Arabic roots?
19:36No.
19:38What's it like to think of that possibility?
19:40That's, um, you know, in our faith, the prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, and, um, Abu Bakr
19:52and Omar, the caliphah, are extremely important in our faith.
20:00Yeah.
20:01And they're like the tent poles of what became Islam and the spread of Islam around the world.
20:08So, no, this is, um, this is extremely, um, very powerful and very, um, I had no idea.
20:32There were no records to test this theory, so we turned to DNA.
20:39While most modern-day Indians do not have any genetic ties to the Arab world,
20:46Hassan's admixture reveals that 2.3% of his DNA comes from West Asia,
20:53which includes what is now Iran, and 0.3% comes from the Arabian Peninsula.
21:00That is a significant result.
21:07So you have a DNA connection to Iran and to the Arab world.
21:13For most other Indians, oh, wow.
21:17So what's it like to learn this?
21:19Yeah, this is very powerful stuff, uh, both spiritually and historically.
21:24Yeah.
21:25What's your father going to say?
21:27Oh, he's going to, he's going to love this.
21:29This is going to blow my dad's mind.
21:31This is going to mean, I can't, I cannot tell you this is going to mean so much to my, my family.
21:36It means so much to me.
21:37We had one more detail to share with Hassan.
21:43It concerns what's called the First Battle of Paniput.
21:48The battle was fought near the city of Delhi in April of 1526
21:52and marked the start of the Mughal Empire, the last Islamic empire to rule India.
22:00It's a seminal event, memorialized in countless poems and paintings.
22:07And you may well have had an ancestor who fought in that battle.
22:15That's pretty cool.
22:16Yeah, this is a wild painting.
22:23Yeah, it's totally wild.
22:24There's like guys on horseback, there's a dude getting beheaded.
22:29But it's very beautiful.
22:30The painting is very beautiful.
22:32But what's it like to think of that possibility?
22:35And to be introduced to the complexity of your genetic makeup.
22:40I mean, it's surreal.
22:40This is one of the most epic stories of, you know, the greater Indian subcontinent in its history.
22:48Yeah.
22:48When you go to Delhi, you can still see those old Mughal forts.
22:52Yeah.
22:52And so to know that we have a connection to that is pretty epic.
22:56Does it change the way you see your father?
23:00100%.
23:01Yeah.
23:01Yeah.
23:02This is...
23:03Yeah, there's a level of depth to this that I did not anticipate.
23:25Much like Hassan, Lizzie Kaplan was about to discover a hidden depth to her family.
23:35The story begins on her mother's side, with Lizzie's great-grandfather, a man named Abraham Miodovnik.
23:45Abraham was born sometime around 1892, in what was then the Russian Empire.
23:53But he didn't stay in Russia for long.
23:56We found him in New York City when he was 19 years old, applying for American citizenship.
24:05That's amazing.
24:09That's amazing.
24:1119.
24:17That's crazy.
24:19What's it like to see that?
24:20I've tried to, you know, imagine what that would, you know, I haven't spent a ton of time trying to imagine it, but I have thought about, you know, what it would be like to be on a boat coming to a place where you knew nobody, not a soul.
24:42And for whatever reason, I never imagined it as a 19-year-old kid.
24:48And I know 19 was different then than it is now, but man, I just...
24:52It's like children having to make these monumental decisions.
25:00Mm-hmm.
25:00It's wild.
25:03We don't know what motivated Abraham to come to America.
25:06But that decision forever altered his life, and we found the passenger list of the ship that brought him here, giving Lizzie a glimpse of her ancestor at that crucial moment.
25:21Name in full, Abram Miodovnik, nationality, Russia, race or people, Hebrew, whether in possession of $50 and if less, how much, $3, whether going to join a relative, sister Anna Miodovnik, New York, 16th East 118th Street.
25:47That is Abraham arriving in the United States of America.
25:53So, does this say he had $3?
25:57Yep.
26:01It says, do you have at least $50?
26:04The answer, no.
26:05How much do you have?
26:06I have $3.
26:08He came here with three bucks.
26:11Unreal.
26:13I mean...
26:15Yeah, I don't even...
26:18Like, how do you even make this decision?
26:21Because you have no other choice, I suppose, in many situations.
26:25But that, I mean...
26:28Just the idea that he was coming to join his sister, who I've never heard of.
26:33Yeah.
26:33And even just the correspondence that would be required to make those plans and how long that would take and how, I mean, it's...
26:42It's crazy.
26:44I keep saying that, but it's crazy.
26:45It's crazy.
26:48We now set out to learn about Abraham's life before he immigrated.
26:53Lizzie had long been told that her mother's ancestors were Russian Jews.
26:57But that was not exactly true.
27:02At the time of Abraham's birth, Russia was a vast empire, covering much of Eastern Europe.
27:09And Abraham's hometown was a village called Zaviyerke.
27:14It lies on land that we no longer consider to be Russian.
27:21Have you ever heard of this place?
27:22No.
27:23That is your family home.
27:25It's located in the south of modern-day Poland.
27:29Huh.
27:29So you've thought of yourself as Russian.
27:32Yeah.
27:32Did you ever think of yourself as Polish?
27:34No.
27:34You're Polish.
27:35Yeah!
27:37You're going to visit?
27:38Yeah.
27:39Yeah.
27:39I'm booking my flight.
27:40You've got deep roots there.
27:42I know.
27:44When Lizzie visits Abraham's hometown, she will likely find few traces of the world Hindu,
27:52as it was almost completely obliterated by wars in the first half of the 20th century.
28:00But in the Polish State Archives, we found documents that helped bring Abraham's world briefly back to life.
28:08On the 24th of August, 1890, came in Benjamin Miodovnik, baker from the village of Zaviyerke, 33 years old,
28:20and presented a male infant stating that he was born in Zaviyerke on August 17th of this year to his lawful wife, Dobra Zizla.
28:31Mm-hmm.
28:31The child was circumcised and given the name Abram Leib.
28:35Mm-hmm.
28:36That is your great-grandfather's birth certificate.
28:391890, crazy.
28:45Yep.
28:46And Benjamin and Dobra are your great-great-grandparents.
28:50You have DNA from these people.
28:52Yeah.
28:52This is your biological kin.
28:54And we're back in Poland over 130 years ago.
28:57What's it like to see that?
28:58Yeah, I mean, look, I'm sure he'd be thrilled to share the information that he was circumcised on television 130 years later.
29:07Yeah, it's like, yeah, in a village, he was a baker.
29:12It's just, this is like a...
29:13Did you know you had any bakers in the family?
29:15No, although, probably could have guessed.
29:17Can you bake?
29:18Yeah, of course.
29:19Okay.
29:19Abraham's parents, Benjamin and Dobra, were married in 1883.
29:29By 1900, they had had at least six children together.
29:34But their happiness didn't last.
29:38Dobra died on August 23, 1900, six days after giving birth.
29:47Wow.
29:49Dobra was just 40 years old, and she left seven children behind, including a newborn baby.
29:55Can you imagine?
29:58No.
30:01Of course not.
30:03I mean, no.
30:05I don't even know...
30:08Like, what is a baker...
30:10I hope that there was other family around.
30:12Mm-hmm.
30:13I'm also just thinking about this...
30:16Yeah, Abe being so young and losing his mom.
30:19Abraham lost his mother when he was just 10 years old.
30:23He was three years younger than you when you lost your mother.
30:27How do you imagine this loss affected him?
30:31I imagine that there probably wasn't a lot of time to talk about how it affected him at the time.
30:39I imagine that would be very, very lonely.
30:43Yeah.
30:44And how about Dobra's husband, Benjamin?
30:47Yeah.
30:47How do you think he coped?
30:48He was left alone with seven children, including a newborn baby.
30:52I know.
30:52I mean, but yeah, as...
30:54I mean...
30:54Women, I'm sure, you know...
30:57Dying in childbirth, yeah.
30:59I have never really thought that through, that the infant is then left with the father...
31:04Mm-hmm.
31:05...in 1900.
31:09I don't know how you would cope, how one would cope.
31:12I can't even imagine.
31:14I completely can't imagine.
31:15There is, of course, no way to know how Benjamin processed his loss.
31:22But we do know that he moved on.
31:25Soon after Dobra's death, he remarried and transplanted his family to the town of Cetstehova,
31:33about 30 miles away.
31:36Your great-grandfather Abraham would leave for America from there in the summer of 1906.
31:43Wow.
31:43He likely never saw his father again.
31:48What do you think that was like for him?
31:51I just...
31:52I can't even begin to fathom what that family relationship would be like with all of those kids.
31:59Mm-hmm.
32:02Very limited resources.
32:04I mean, who knows?
32:05You can only, like, speculate what he thought about his own mother, let alone this stepmother.
32:11Maybe it was lovely and it was horrible to leave, and maybe it was horrible and it was a great escape.
32:20I'm out of here.
32:20Yeah.
32:21I mean, who could never, never know?
32:24Wow.
32:25Lizzie, let's just take a moment to think about the sheer magnitude of your great-grandfather Abraham's decision to move to the United States with how much in his pocket?
32:35Three dollars.
32:36Three dollars.
32:37That singular, brave decision completely changed his fate and, by extension, your fate.
32:44Yep.
32:44Think about what could have happened had he decided, uh, I don't speak English, I ain't got no money, you know, I like, uh, the vodka here.
32:54Yeah.
32:56You know?
32:56What's it like to realize that, to think about that, you know, two roads diverge in the yellow wood, you know?
33:05Yep, that's it, right?
33:06It's, you are the product of a bunch of decisions made by people that you've never met before.
33:11Mm-hmm.
33:13It's impossible not to think that there's some kind of cosmic plan or fate or something.
33:20Mm-hmm.
33:20And even if it's all just random, it's still miraculous.
33:26We'd already traced Hasan Minhaj's father's roots, revealing a surprising connection to Islamic India in the 1500s.
33:37Now, turning to his mother's family, we found the surprise in the much more recent past.
33:43The story begins with Hasan's grandmother, a woman named Tosif Rizvi.
33:51Hasan remembers her as a stern but loving disciplinarian who rarely spoke about her own childhood.
34:00And we think we know why.
34:04Tosif was born in Mehrot, a district in northern India.
34:08Her parents were farmers, but she wasn't raised by her parents.
34:15Instead, soon after her birth, she was adopted by her mother's childless elder sister.
34:23So you're telling me my grandmother, Tosif Rizvi, was raised by...
34:28Her aunt.
34:30Wow.
34:30Wow.
34:34She was a sign-in trade, like in the NBA.
34:36And you've never heard this story before?
34:39No, I've never heard this story before.
34:41It's like a fairy tale.
34:42Yeah.
34:44This adoption would affect Tosif in ways her family never could have predicted.
34:51At the time, India was a colony of Great Britain, ruled by a government informally known as the Raj.
34:58And Tosif's aunt was married to a doctor who spent much of his career working for the Raj, including two terms in a government-run jail.
35:09We found a description of the jail, offering a glimpse into Tosif's highly unusual childhood.
35:20The district jail is at Ray Boreli and Civil Lines.
35:24It was formed out of some of the abandoned barracks and is somewhat larger than most of the Oudh jails, having been originally designed as a divisional jail.
35:33It is, as usual, under the charge of the civil surgeon.
35:38According to your family, your grandmother and her parents lived in a government house next to the jail, with inmates doing chores in their home and even growing their vegetables.
35:48This explains why she was so strict with me.
35:50Could be.
35:52Your grandmother never talked about this.
35:55Never talked about this, no.
35:56Do you know what civil lines refers to?
35:59I have no idea.
35:59Well, under the Raj, civil lines were areas within cities where the British Civil Administration resided.
36:05Why?
36:06Where the white people lived.
36:07British officers and administrators lived within them in European-style bungalows.
36:13Same in Africa.
36:14Tea was served on verandas, and leisure activities included horseback riding and, of course, cricket.
36:20And the only Indians permitted to live in civil lines were household staff or high-ranking Indian officials, such as judges and doctors.
36:28So your family was living alongside the British in these compounds.
36:33Wow.
36:35So what do you think that was like for your grandmother?
36:37I could only imagine that.
36:38I mean, for my nani, code-switching and going between two worlds and trying to understand how to navigate both
36:47certainly probably shaped her understanding of how to survive and make it.
36:55Mm-hmm.
36:57She definitely made sure that, on my mom's side, everybody was extremely educated.
37:04Mm-hmm.
37:04So I'm sure that living within these civil lines shaped perhaps her emphasis on education.
37:11Mm-hmm.
37:12Like, this is the way you make it, and this is how you succeed.
37:15Hassan is not alone in his opinion of Tosif.
37:19His family gave us a poem that she memorized as a child.
37:24It was written by her adoptive father and recited by her at a school function to mark the departure of one of her teachers.
37:35Antiquated yet entertaining, the poem shows her immense enthusiasm for her own education.
37:42This news is dreadful.
37:45What will happen to me after your departure?
37:48You are indeed leaving, but please forgive me if I was ever insolent after receiving your guidance.
37:54I understand the teacher-student relationship.
37:56Once respectful manners are learned, a little jest is allowed.
37:59Who will now teach arithmetic, algebra, and history like you?
38:03Examinations are near, and you are no longer here.
38:05Remember this always.
38:06It is praise for you.
38:07My writing is a small token of appreciation.
38:09So, this is two things, like, to me.
38:15Number one, you know, kudos to her guts to stand up on stage.
38:21Sure.
38:22Number two, this is definitive proof that Indians in our DNA are teacher's pets.
38:32This is the most overachieving, pick me, can I get extra credit, dear professor energy.
38:40Which is why it's so crazy that I'm a comedian.
38:42Like, this is, you know, this is in my blood.
38:45Your family told us that your grandma could still recite that poem from memory at the age of 93.
38:51Yes.
38:52That's amazing.
38:53Yeah.
38:54How does it feel to read this?
38:55Is that the first time you've read it?
38:56This is the first time I've read it.
38:58This is the second time I've heard it.
39:00The first time my uncle performed it.
39:01Oh, that's cool.
39:02And it was really beautiful to hear him perform it.
39:04Did you know that your grandmother went to a high school that had only 10 female students?
39:10No.
39:11She studied arithmetic, English, Hindi, history, geography, and Urdu, and even played badminton.
39:18I didn't know that.
39:20Isn't that cool?
39:20Yeah, yeah.
39:21Because by the time, you know, I got to know her, she was, she was a small, you know, the way all grandmothers are.
39:28She was just a Golovkin at that point.
39:29You know, she's like a small, cute, little, round babushka.
39:32She graduated in 1946 and then went back to Sonota, where she married your grandfather in 1950.
39:40Wow.
39:41She had a tumultuous childhood, but she persevered and thrived.
39:45You feel a connection?
39:46I feel a huge connection to her.
39:48And she regularly, during my birthdays, would give me money for my birthday present.
39:58But it could only be used to buy something that would help me in my pursuits.
40:05So she helped me buy my first MacBook Pro that I edited my first sketches on.
40:10Yeah.
40:10So that's because of my grandmother.
40:12Oh, that's cool.
40:12My grandmother, yeah.
40:14We had one more story to share with Hassan.
40:18Returning to Tosif's hometown in Mehrut, we were able to trace her husband's roots back two generations
40:26and place Hassan's ancestors at ground zero for what's often called India's first war of independence,
40:35a troop rebellion against the British that led to uprisings across the nation.
40:42Though it was ultimately crushed, the rebellion lives on in memory even to this day.
40:50And it began in Mehrut.
40:52So how does it feel to know that you have ancestors, your third-great-grandparents,
40:58who may have been there at the very start?
41:01It's really powerful.
41:03And I'm out here complaining when the Wi-Fi goes down.
41:08But in all seriousness, it's like I can only imagine what they witnessed and what they went through
41:14and saw in their life, and it makes me feel really proud.
41:22And I feel really overwhelmed with gratitude and humility that this is my family,
41:36and I'm lucky enough to be their great-great-great-grandson.
41:39We'd already traced Lizzie Kaplan's mother's roots from Poland to New York,
41:47revealing how her great-grandfather Abraham came to America.
41:52We now turn to a darker side of this story.
41:55In 1926, Abraham's younger brother, a man named Wolf Miodovnik,
42:04moved from Poland to Belgium,
42:07likely hoping to find the kind of opportunities that had drawn Abraham to the United States.
42:14But those hopes would be dashed.
42:16On May 10th, 1940, Belgium was invaded by Nazi Germany.
42:24Wolf was 30 years old at the time.
42:27His wife, Leba, was 23.
42:30Can you imagine?
42:32No.
42:33Genuinely, no.
42:37Just what a terrifying time.
42:39Did you ever think you had a personal, familial connection to this?
42:43I thought maybe it was odd that I didn't.
42:49But, um, so I guess it's, with all of the siblings, it's not completely surprising,
42:56but I do, you know, growing up, it was my friends whose grandparents had survived the Holocaust,
43:01and we were very aware of who those grandparents were,
43:04and my grandparents were not in that group.
43:06So this is news to me.
43:10Wolf and Leba are Lizzie's great-granduncle and aunt.
43:13And though the details of their story were not passed down,
43:18its outlines would prove painfully familiar.
43:22After the German invasion, they watched helplessly
43:27as the Nazis began seizing Jewish property and implementing anti-Semitic laws.
43:33Then, in March of 1944, just months after the birth of their first child,
43:40the family was arrested, and their situation became unimaginably worse.
43:46They were sent to a transit camp in northern Belgium called Mekkelen.
43:53And then they were put on a train called Transport No. 24.
43:58And guess where Transport No. 24 was heading?
44:03I, uh, God, I, where, I don't even, where, where?
44:12Please turn the page.
44:15Yeah.
44:17Auschwitz.
44:17Yeah, I had no idea I had relatives in Auschwitz.
44:22Ugh.
44:23Yeah.
44:25It's, uh, it's so awful.
44:29And you see, like, in these pictures, which I've seen so many times,
44:32so many kids, and...
44:33Um, yeah, it's, uh, it is different when it's your own,
44:40and you know it's your own people, family.
44:46Roughly 1.1 million people were murdered in Auschwitz.
44:51The vast majority were killed upon arrival in gas chambers.
44:57The rest were consigned to slave labor
44:59and generally died of starvation or disease.
45:05Precise records were not kept.
45:08But the fates of the people on Transport 24
45:10are set down in what's known as the Auschwitz Chronicle,
45:16a documentation of daily life in the camp
45:19written by a Polish historian.
45:23Most were immediately sent to the gas chambers.
45:26A small percentage were selected for labor,
45:28and none of the 54 children who were on this transport
45:32appear to have been admitted to the camp,
45:35so you know what that means.
45:37Ugh.
45:41Oh, my God, that's so horrible.
45:43Yeah, that's so horrible.
45:49I just, yeah, I don't know how you exist in that much fear,
45:52and then I don't know how you recover from,
45:55or forget recover, but like go on from that.
45:59Well, and what would be worse if they,
46:01if they were selected to work or if they were,
46:06I don't know how, I mean, somebody takes your baby from,
46:08I just, it's...
46:09You know, ripping the baby out of your arms.
46:11Wolf's six-month-old son, Benjamin,
46:13was likely killed immediately upon arrival,
46:16and since he was so young, could not walk,
46:19his mother, Leba, would have likely gone to her death alongside him.
46:24Just to carry him in?
46:25Mm-hmm.
46:29Ah.
46:31You two go this way, take your baby,
46:33and you lure them in.
46:37Yeah.
46:39And I'm...
46:41God, it's so, it's like, it's like such a...
46:44There's no good outcome here, no matter what.
46:49I'm glad, though, to hear
46:50they were together, mother and son.
46:56With his family dead,
46:58Wolf entered Auschwitz on his own.
47:00Incredibly, he would survive
47:03for more than eight months,
47:05only to face another horrifying ordeal.
47:10In January of 1945,
47:13with the war almost over
47:15and Russian armies advancing across Poland,
47:19the Nazis were desperately trying
47:21to cover up their crimes.
47:24Auschwitz was abandoned,
47:26and Wolf was eventually transferred
47:28to Bergen-Belsen,
47:30a notorious concentration camp
47:32in northern Germany.
47:35From there,
47:36he was shipped some 400 miles south
47:39to Dachau,
47:40yet another camp.
47:43So how do you think
47:45Wolf found the strength to keep going?
47:47I don't know.
47:49It's just human will to survive,
47:52because, like, what is this life?
47:54Why would you want to keep going?
47:59Just, like, shuttled from one of these
48:01horror shows to the next?
48:04And just think of the terror.
48:07That's it, right?
48:08Yeah.
48:08Constant, constant terror
48:11with no end in sight.
48:15I, yeah.
48:16They were, they were tougher than we were,
48:20than we are.
48:23Dachau was liberated on April 29th, 1945,
48:28almost two months after Wolf arrived.
48:33He was likely emaciated
48:34and very close to death.
48:37But as it turns out,
48:39Wolf had a great deal more life left in him.
48:43After the war, Wolf returned to Belgium,
48:47where he married a fellow Holocaust survivor.
48:50They welcomed a daughter in 1949,
48:53and then, three years later,
48:57moved one final time to America.
49:02Wolf, Mia Dovnik, nationality, stateless,
49:05race, Hebrew, age 41,
49:08final destination in United States,
49:11Mr. Charles Meadow, 1138 Worcester Street.
49:16God, it's so crazy to see
49:19just, like, the map of the concentration camps
49:22and then, Worcester, in L.A.
49:26Like, that's crazy.
49:28Yeah.
49:32Yeah, that's,
49:34that's pretty nuts.
49:37It's a miracle.
49:39It is.
49:43Absolutely.
49:47Wolf was 42 years old
49:49when he arrived in the United States.
49:53Incredibly,
49:54he had survived at least
49:55four concentration camps
49:58and lost a wife and a child,
50:01as well as countless friends and relatives.
50:04But he was able to build a new life for himself,
50:08a life that would be celebrated
50:10right up until the end,
50:13as evidenced even by his grave.
50:16Wolf lived to be 93 years old.
50:22Nice, Wolf.
50:24He died November 10th, 2003,
50:28and is buried along with his second wife,
50:31Mala, in Colma, California,
50:34just outside of San Francisco.
50:36Golden mensch.
50:38How about that?
50:39I love it.
50:40What's it like to see that?
50:44Oh, this makes me so happy.
50:46Because, like, he's got little funny things on his,
50:48Yeah.
50:49on his tombstone.
50:50Like, that's...
50:51He was loved.
50:55Yeah.
50:57They both were.
50:58Oh, my God.
50:59This is amazing.
51:01The paper trail had now run out
51:04for Lizzie and Hassan.
51:05It was time to unfurl
51:07their full family trees,
51:10now filled with people
51:11whose names they'd never heard before.
51:14That's incredible.
51:15For each, it was a moment of all.
51:17Wow.
51:19Offering the chance
51:20to reflect on the sacrifices
51:22that shaped their families
51:24and forged their identities.
51:28When you see your parents
51:30struggling and working hard
51:32and clipping out coupons,
51:33you don't think
51:35you're someone
51:37or from somewhere.
51:39You know, you just think
51:40you're scrapping by and surviving.
51:41But when you see stuff like this,
51:44you're like,
51:44maybe I'm part of something bigger.
51:45The only way
51:46that I'm sitting here now
51:48is because of the decisions
51:49that they were either forced to make
51:51or that they chose to make.
51:52Mm-hmm.
51:52And I feel very lucky,
51:57like in the dictionary definition
51:59of the word lucky,
52:01that they made those decisions.
52:04That's the end of our journey
52:06with Hassan Minhaj
52:07and Lizzie Kaplan.
52:10Join me next time
52:11when we unlock
52:13the secrets of the past
52:14for new guests
52:15on another episode
52:17of Finding Your Roots.
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