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Finding Your Roots - Season 12 - Episode 04: The Road We Took
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00:00Viewers like you make this program possible.
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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
00:24and comedian Hasan Minhaj,
00:27two 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
00:45coming to a place where you knew nobody.
00:49Yeah.
00:50It's totally unimaginable.
00:53To uncover their roots,
00:54we've used every tool available.
00:58Genealogists comb through paper trails stretching back hundreds of years.
01:02Oh, 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,
01:19a record of all of our discoveries,
01:22and 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.
01:31Yeah.
01:33It's making me think about a lot of the decisions that I made in my life,
01:37and 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,
01:49and build a new life in a new country.
01:52In this episode, we're going to retrace those journeys
01:56and recover what was lost along the way.
02:38Hasan Minhaj is on a roll.
02:41The mercurial comedian has won two Peabody Awards
02:45and garnered a legion of fans
02:48by blending stories about himself and his family
02:51with keen observations about Muslim life in America.
02:55My dad sits everybody down at the dinner table,
02:57and he's like,
02:58all right, Hasan, whatever you do,
03:00do not tell people you're Muslim,
03:01do not talk about politics.
03:03I was like,
03:03all right, Dad, I'll just hide it.
03:04Cool.
03:05It's a brilliant act,
03:07and he's been refining it since he was a child.
03:11Growing up in Sacramento, California,
03:14Hasan was a class clown,
03:17often in trouble with his teachers,
03:19perhaps because his home life was quite restrictive.
03:25Hasan's mother had returned to India soon after his birth
03:28to finish her studies.
03:30So he spent his first eight years in the care of his father,
03:34a man who had a lot of rules.
03:39So how do you think that affected you?
03:42To me, that would be a nightmare.
03:43I mean, my parents are dead.
03:44I love you, Daddy, but I wanted my mama love you.
03:48So, you know, with me and Dad, you know,
03:50look, Doctor, we can get into this,
03:51and I don't know if you do psychology,
03:53but the level of draconian law is pretty crazy.
03:57That's because he had a crazy kid.
03:59You know, you're out of control.
04:00Yeah, but no touching the thermostat, no video game consoles,
04:03no cable television.
04:05Oh.
04:06Oh, yeah.
04:07We're getting closer to...
04:08Oh, yeah, Sacramento.
04:09You know how hot Sacramento is, Doctor?
04:11It's incredibly hot.
04:12We can't touch the AC.
04:13There's oscillating fans in the house.
04:15Four oscillating fans don't touch the thermostat.
04:18So even though I lived in the suburbs,
04:21our house was like a trap house
04:23without all the fun of cooking cracker meth.
04:27You know, this is the type of man this guy was.
04:30Though Hassan didn't know it yet,
04:32his father would actually help launch his career.
04:36He started doing stand-up in college
04:39with material drawn from his family.
04:42But fearing that his parents wouldn't approve,
04:45he tried to conceal it.
04:48My mother and father did not know
04:49I was doing this at the time.
04:51Uh-huh.
04:51So if they didn't know, when did they know?
04:53They found out when I took my dad's car
04:56and I totaled it on the way to a comedy gig.
04:59Then, unfortunately, they found out.
05:00I said I was at the library,
05:02but I was on the way to Tommy T's Comedy Club
05:04in Pleasanton.
05:05How old? When was this?
05:07I'm like maybe a junior in college.
05:09Yeah, yeah.
05:10And my dad, I had to call my dad to come get me.
05:12And he goes, wow,
05:13we're about 40 miles from the library.
05:17You sure you're going to the library?
05:18All right.
05:20All right.
05:21With his secret out in the open,
05:23Hasan was able to devote himself fully to his craft.
05:28After college, he began releasing videos on YouTube,
05:31which led to a spot on The Daily Show
05:35and a breakout special on Netflix,
05:39featuring a routine that was largely focused on his childhood.
05:43The only problem?
05:45His 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.
05:59So by the time it was up and running, they finally...
06:02So what was their reaction?
06:03Because it's about them.
06:05Yeah.
06:06Um...
06:07Were they hurt?
06:08I would say it's very complicated because it's a lot.
06:14Mm-hmm.
06:15On one hand, they're proud.
06:17Mm-hmm.
06:18Like, I remember seeing my parents at the show.
06:21They're looking at other people to be like,
06:24wait, they're all here to see him?
06:25Right.
06:25So they're acknowledging that.
06:27Right, right.
06:28And then at the same time, there's a level of like,
06:31hey, 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.
06:39Right.
06:39And why are you doing that?
06:41So there's all these layers to it, which is,
06:44there is this simultaneous, like, wonder?
06:49Mm-hmm.
06:52Curiosity, 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 center 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.
07:10And also, you just want, like, these are people that I love.
07:13Mm-hmm.
07:14You know, they're ultimately the people that I really love,
07:15and 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.
07:24Yeah.
07:25My second guest is actor Lizzie Kaplan, who came to fame in the cult classic Mean Girls.
07:33Yes!
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?
07:50Lizzie 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.
08:06She 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.
08:19Yeah.
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, you never really have any lasting memories of that person.
08:37That's its own tragedy.
08:39And then for me, I was 13, you know, right on the cusp of womanhood, like an adolescent.
08:45And that was pretty bad.
08:48That was a pretty bad time for it to happen.
08:50I was very close with my mother.
08:52All of my siblings were.
08:53She definitely was the center of the family that kept everybody together.
08:58And 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, that in my sort of angst-ridden teenage
09:45brain, I was actively trying to make sense of my mother's death.
09:50Why 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.
09:58I 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.
10:25Lizzie 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.
10:47He introduced me to this manager he knew, but it was, like, the lowest assistant on the totem pole of
10:56this 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, like, in my mind, I was going to be the
11:11lead 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.
11:36Huh.
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
11:44I'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.
11:52But I also just genuinely love doing it.
11:57I 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.
12:03My 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.
12:20It was time for that to change.
12:23I started with Hassan and with his father, Najbin Minaj.
12:29Najbin 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.
12:43I went to his retirement party and his coworkers gave speeches and we cut Costco sheet cake.
12:50And then they were like, thank you for the 35 years.
12:52Did he cry?
12:54No, he didn't cry.
12:56But I was really moved.
12:58Mm-hmm.
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.
13:10Hmm.
13:11You know?
13:11Oh, wow.
13:11It'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, but he did that all
13:24for 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
13:35potential.
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
13:49honor, because he really sacrificed a lot.
13:53Perhaps because of his sacrifices, Najmi chose to focus on the future, not on the past, and rarely discuss the
14:03life he'd left behind in India.
14:04We set out to recovery, beginning in Sheerkot, the city in northern India, where his mother's family has deep roots.
14:18Have you ever seen that photo?
14:21No.
14:23That photo was taken at your grandmother's house in Sheerkot sometime around 1948.
14:31So that's two years before your father was born.
14:34Wow.
14:36This is a beautiful place.
14:38I mean, like, if you look at the archway of that, that's incredible.
14:43Well, guess what?
14:44Your 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.
15:00I mean, like you have a dog.
15:02Do you have a dog?
15:03No, I don't have a dog.
15:03We have a rabbit.
15:04They had elephants.
15:13This is so weird, because when I was a kid, I asked my dad, well, my sister really wanted a
15:18dog.
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.
15:31Oh, 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.
15:38We wanted to learn more about Najme's family, but we faced a huge roadblock.
15:45Few historical records survive in northern India.
15:49And those that exist are often difficult to locate, because they lack filing systems or indexes.
15:57This problem is compounded by the fact that the widespread use of permanent surnames within India is relatively new.
16:05And many unrelated families share the same surname, because they were initially derived from trades or professions.
16:15So doing genealogy in this part of the world can be extraordinarily tricky.
16:20But we got lucky when we discovered that the surname of Hassan's grandmother is Begum, which has unusual roots.
16:31Did you know that?
16:32No.
16:34Begum is an Urdu word with roots in a Turkish word for princess.
16:41And historically, it was given to women who were the wife or daughter of a Beg, meaning a lord or
16:47a 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, but...
16:57You know, I got cousins that have egos like that, but I don't know if we are related in that
17:03way.
17:03Well, 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.
17:18Yeah.
17:20And it's pretty amazing to just understand who you are and where you come from and what generations before may
17:34have been doing.
17:35Mm.
17:36It is.
17:36Yeah.
17:37Riding around those elephants in the backyard.
17:39Yeah, riding elephants, sir.
17:41Yeah.
17:42Though we couldn't connect Hassan's family to royalty, we did uncover something fascinating.
17:49Hassan'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 that seemed to confirm
18:07this.
18:09The 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
18:31indeed your great-grandfather.
18:34The names are similar.
18:35And Dampur is about five miles from Shercoat.
18:40Wow.
18:40And 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 Shercoat and Biznor, but it just sounds like he's describing different regions from Game of Thrones.
18:56I'm like, I don't know what that territory is.
19:00This index not only indicates that Sibgit owned land, it also describes him as being the principal shaykh of his
19:09town, which was potentially a very significant find.
19:15The term shaykh refers to a social class of Muslims in northern India, a group that claims Arab descent through
19:24the prophet Muhammad, and two of the founding caliphs of Islam, Abu Bakr and Omar.
19:32Did you ever think you might have Arabic roots?
19:36No.
19:37What's it like to think of that possibility?
19:45That's, you know, in our faith, the prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, and Abu Bakr and Omar the Khalifa
19:55are extremely important in our faith.
19:59Yeah.
20:01And they're like the tent poles of what became Islam and the spread of Islam around the world.
20:13So, 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 turn to DNA.
20:39While most modern day Indians do not have any genetic ties to the Arab world,
20:45Hassan's admixture reveals that 2.3% of his DNA comes from West Asia, which includes what is now Iran,
20:56and 0.3% comes from the Arabian Peninsula.
21:03That is a significant result, so you have a DNA connection to Iran and to the Arab world.
21:12For 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 gonna say?
21:27Oh, he's gonna, he's gonna love this.
21:29This is gonna blow my dad's mind.
21:31This is gonna mean, I, I can't, I cannot tell you this is gonna mean so much to my, my
21:35family.
21:36It means so much to me.
21:38We had one more detail to share with Hassan.
21:42It concerns what's called the First Battle of Paniput.
21:47The battle was fought near the city of Delhi in April of 1526,
21:53and 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.
22:15It's pretty cool.
22:21Yeah, this is a wild painting.
22:23Yeah, it's totally wild.
22:24There's like guys on horseback, there's a dude getting beheaded.
22:28But it's very beautiful.
22:30It is.
22:31The 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?
22:39I 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?
23:00A hundred percent.
23:01Yeah.
23:01Yeah.
23:02This is, uh...
23:12This is, uh...
23:13This is, um...
23:21Yeah, there's a level of depth to this that I did not anticipate.
23:27Much 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
23:43Miodovnik.
23:45Abraham was born sometime around 1892, in what was then the Russian Empire.
23:52But 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.
24:11That's amazing.
24:11That's amazing.
24:17That's crazy.
24:19What's it like to see that?
24:24I've tried to, you know, imagine what that would...
24:29You know, I haven't spent a ton of time trying to imagine it, but I have thought about, you
24:33know, what it would be like to be on a boat coming to a place where you knew nobody, not
24:42a soul.
24:43And 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... like children having
24:56to make these monumental decisions.
25:00Mm-hmm.
25:00It's wild.
25:03We don't know what motivated Abraham to come to America, but that decision forever altered
25:09his life.
25:10And we found the passenger list of the ship that brought him here.
25:14Giving Lizzie a glimpse of her ancestor at that crucial moment.
25:22Name in full, Abram Miadovnik.
25:27Nationality, Russia.
25:29Race or people, Hebrew.
25:31Whether in possession of $50, and if less, how much?
25:35$3.
25:37Whether going to join a relative, Sister Anna Miadovnik, New York.
25:46East 118th Street.
25:48That is Abraham arriving in the United States of America.
25:54So, does this say he had $3?
25:57Yep.
26:01Yeah.
26:01It says, do you have at least $50?
26:04The answer, no.
26:05How much do you have?
26:06I have $3.
26:07He came here with three bucks.
26:12Unreal.
26:14I mean, yeah, I don't even, like, how do you even make this decision?
26:21Because you have no other choice, I suppose, in many situations.
26:25But that, I mean, just the idea that he was coming to join his sister, who I've never heard of.
26:33Yeah.
26:34And even just the correspondence that would be required to make those plans and how long that would take.
26:40Mm-hmm.
26:40And how, I mean, it's, it's crazy.
26:43I 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.
26:58But that was not exactly true.
27:01At 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 Zawierke.
27:15It 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, 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 gonna visit?
27:38Yeah.
27:39Yeah.
27:39I'm booking my, I'm booking my flight.
27:40You got deep roots there.
27:42I know.
27:44When Lizzie visits Abraham's hometown, she will likely find few traces of the world Hindu,
27:53as it was almost completely obliterated by wars in the first half of the 20th century.
27:59But in the Poli State Archives, we found documents that helped bring Abraham's world briefly back to life.
28:10On the 24th of August, 1890, came in Benjamin Miodovnik, baker from the village of Zawierke, 33 years old, and
28:20presented a male infant stating that he was born in Zawierke on August 17th of this year to his lawful
28:29family.
28:29His wife, Dobra Ziesla.
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.
28:421890.
28:43Crazy.
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.
28:53And we're back in Poland over 130 years ago.
28:57What's it like to see that?
28:58Yeah.
28:59I mean, look, I'm sure he'd be thrilled to share the information that he was circumcised on television 130 years
29:06later.
29:07Yeah.
29:09It's like, yeah, in a village, he was a baker.
29:12It's just, this is like...
29:13Did you know you had any bakers in the family?
29:15No.
29:15Although, probably could have guessed.
29:17Can you bake?
29:18Yeah, of course.
29:19Okay.
29:22Abraham'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 23rd, 1900, six days after giving birth.
29:46Wow.
29:49Dobra was just 40 years old, and she left seven children behind, including a newborn baby.
29:55Can you imagine?
29:58No.
30:00Of course not.
30:03I mean...
30:04No.
30:05I don't even know...
30:08What is a baker...
30:10I hope that there was other family around.
30:12Mm-hmm.
30:13I'm also just thinking about this, yeah, Abe being so young and losing his mom.
30:19Mm-hmm.
30:20Oof.
30:20Abraham lost his mother when he was just 10 years old.
30:22He 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.
30:58Mm-hmm.
30:59The childbirth, yeah, I have never really thought that through, that the infant is then left with the father.
31:04Mm-hmm.
31:06In 1900.
31:08Yeah.
31:09How...
31:10I don't know how you would cope, how one would cope.
31:12I can't even imagine.
31:13Uh, completely can't imagine.
31:17There is, of course, no way to know how Benjamin processed his loss.
31:22But we do know that he moved on.
31:25Soon after Dobre's death, he remarried and transplanted his family to the town of Cetstehova, about 30 miles away.
31:35Your great-grandfather Abraham would leave for America from there in the summer of 1906.
31:43Wow.
31:45He likely never saw his father again.
31:47What do you think that was like for him?
31:51I just, I can't even begin to fathom what that family relationship would be like with all of those kids.
31:59Mm-hmm.
32:00Um, very limited resources.
32:04I mean, who knows?
32:05You can only, like, speculate what he thought about his own mother, let alone this stepmother.
32:11Um, maybe it was lovely and it was horrible to leave and maybe it was horrible and it was a
32:19great 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
32:32to the United States.
32:34With how much in his pocket?
32:35Three dollars.
32:36Three dollars.
32:36Three dollars.
32:37That singular, brave decision completely changed his fate and, by extension, your fate.
32:44Yep.
32:45Think about what could have happened had he decided, uh, I don't speak English, I ain't got no money, you
32:52know?
32:52I like, uh, the vodka here.
32:54Yeah.
32:56You know?
32:57What's it like to realize that, to think about that, you know, two roads diverge in the yellow wood, you
33:04know?
33:05Yep, that's it.
33:06Right?
33:06Yeah.
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.
33:44The story begins with Hasan's grandmother, a woman named Toseif Rizvi.
33:50Hasan remembers her as a stern but loving disciplinarian, who rarely spoke about her own childhood.
34:00And we think we know why.
34:04Toseif was born in Mehrot, a district in northern India.
34:09Her 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, Toseif Rizvi, was raised by...
34:28Her aunt.
34:30Wow.
34:34She was a sign in trade, like in the NBA.
34:37And you've never heard this story before?
34:39No.
34:40I've never heard this story before.
34:41It's like a fairy tale.
34:42Yeah.
34:44This adoption would affect Toseif in ways her family never could have predicted.
34:50At the time, India was a colony of Great Britain, ruled by a government informally known as the Raj.
34:59And Toseif's aunt was married to a doctor who spent much of his career working for the Raj, including two
35:07terms in a government-run jail.
35:10We found a description of the jail, offering a glimpse into Toseif's highly unusual childhood.
35:20The district jail is at Ray Bareilly and Civil Lines.
35:24It was formed out of some of the abandoned barracks and is somewhat larger than most of the Oudhe jails,
35:30having been originally designed as a divisional jail.
35:34It is, as usual, under the charge of the civil surgeon.
35:37According to your family, your grandmother and her parents lived in a government house next to the jail, with inmates
35:45doing chores in their home and even growing their vegetables.
35:48This explains why she was so strict with me.
35:50Could be.
35:53Your grandmother never talked about this.
35:55Never talked about this, no.
35:57Do you know what civil lines refers to?
35:59I have no idea.
36:00Well, under the Raj, civil lines were areas within cities where the British Civil Administration resided.
36:05Wow.
36:06Where the white people lived.
36:07British officers and administrators lived within them in European-style bungalows, same in Africa.
36:14Tea was served on verandas, and leisure activities included horseback riding and, of course, cricket.
36:19And the only Indians permitted to live in civil lines were household staff or high-ranking Indian officials, such as
36:27judges and doctors.
36:29So 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.
36:55Um, she 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.
37:11Like, this is the way you make it and this is how you succeed.
37:15Hasan 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
37:32one of her teachers.
37:34Antiquated, yet entertaining, the poem shows her immense enthusiasm for her own education.
37:44This 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.
37:53I 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 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.
39:16And 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
39:26way all grandmothers are.
39:28She was just a Golov Jackman 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.
39:39Wow.
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.
40:05Hmm.
40:05So she helped me buy my first MacBook Pro that I edited my first stitches on.
40:10Oh, yeah?
40:10Yeah.
40:10So that's because of my grandmother.
40:11Oh, that's cool.
40:12Yeah.
40:13Yeah.
40:14Yeah.
40:41We had one more story to share with Hassan.
40:43While it was ultimately crushed, the rebellion lives on in memory, even to this day.
40:50And it began in Mehrut.
40:54So how does it feel to know that you have ancestors, your third great grandparents, who may have been there
40:59at the very start?
41:01It's really powerful.
41:02And 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 and saw
41:15in their life.
41:18And it makes me feel really proud.
41:24And I feel really overwhelmed with gratitude and humility that this is my family and I'm lucky enough to be
41:37their great, great, great grandson.
41:40We'd already traced Lizzie Kaplan's mother's roots from Poland to New York, revealing how her great grandfather Abraham came to
41:51America.
41:52We now turn to a darker side of this story.
41:57In 1926, Abraham's younger brother, a man named Wolf Miodovnik, moved from Poland to Belgium, likely hoping to find the
42:08kind of opportunities that had drawn Abraham to the United States.
42:14But those hopes would be dashed.
42:17On May 10, 1940, Belgium was invaded by Nazi Germany.
42:24Wolf was 30 years old at the time.
42:26His wife, Leba, was 23.
42:30Can you imagine?
42:31No.
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.
42:48Mm-hmm.
42:49But, so I guess it's, with all of the siblings, it's not completely surprising, but I do, you know, growing
42:58up it was my friends whose grandparents had survived the Holocaust and we were very aware of who those grandparents
43:03were and my grandparents were not in that group.
43:06Mm-hmm.
43:06So this is news to me.
43:10Wolf and Leba are Lizzie's great grand-uncle and aunt.
43:13And though the details of their story were not passed down, its outlines would prove painfully familiar.
43:23After the German invasion, they watched helplessly as 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, the family was arrested and their
43:43situation became unimaginably worse.
43:47They were sent to a transit camp in northern Belgium called Mechelen.
43:53And then, they were put on a train called Transport Number 24.
43:59And guess where Transport Number 24 was heading?
44:03I, uh, God, I, where, I don't even, where, where.
44:12Please turn the page.
44:15Yeah.
44:17Auschwitz.
44:18Yeah, I had no idea I had relatives in Auschwitz.
44:22Ugh.
44:23Yeah.
44:24It's, uh, it's so awful.
44:29And you see, like, in these pictures, which I've seen so many times, so many kids, and, yeah, it's, uh,
44:38it is different when it's your own, when you know it's your own people, family.
44:46Roughly 1.1 million people were murdered in Auschwitz.
44:52The vast majority were killed upon arrival in gas chambers.
44:56The rest were consigned to slave labor, and generally died of starvation or disease.
45:05Precise records were not kept.
45:07But the fates of the people on Transport 24 are set down in what's known as the Auschwitz Chronicle,
45:16a documentation of daily life in the camp written by a Polish historian.
45:23Most were immediately sent to the gas chambers.
45:26A small percentage were selected for labor.
45:29And none of the 54 children who were on this transport appeared to have been admitted to the camp,
45:35so you know what that means.
45:37Ugh.
45:40Oh, 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, and then I don't know how you
45:54recover from,
45:55or forget recover, but, like, go on from that.
45:59And what would be worse if they, if they were selected to work or if they were, I don't know
46:06how,
46:06I mean, somebody takes your baby from you, I just, yes.
46:09You know, ripping the baby out of your arms.
46:11Wolf's six-month-old son, Benjamin, was likely killed immediately upon arrival.
46:16And since he was so young, could not walk, his mother, Leba, would have likely gone to her death alongside
46:23him.
46:24Just to carry him in?
46:25Mm-hmm.
46:29Ugh.
46:31You two go this way, take your baby, and you lure them in.
46:37Yeah.
46:40And I'm, God, it's so, it's like, it's like such a, uh, there's no good outcome here, no matter what.
46:49I'm glad, though, to hear they were together, mother and son.
46:55With his family dead, Wolf entered Auschwitz on his own.
47:01Incredibly, he would survive for more than eight months, only to face another horrifying ordeal.
47:09In January of 1945, with the war almost over and Russian armies advancing across Poland,
47:19the Nazis were desperately trying to cover up their crimes.
47:24Auschwitz was abandoned, and Wolf was eventually transferred to Bergen-Belsen,
47:30a notorious concentration camp in northern Germany.
47:34From there, he was shipped some 400 miles south to Dachau, yet another camp.
47:44So how do you think Wolf found the strength to keep going?
47:47I don't know.
47:49It's just human will to survive, because, like, what is this life?
47:55Mm.
47:56Why would you want to keep going?
47:59Just, like, shuttled from one of these horror shows to the next?
48:04It's...
48:04And just think of the terror.
48:07That's it, right?
48:08Yeah.
48:08Constant, constant terror.
48:11Mm-hmm.
48:11With no end in sight.
48:15I...
48:15Yeah.
48:18They were tougher than we were.
48:20Than we are.
48:23Dachau was liberated on April 29th, 1945, almost two months after Wolf arrived.
48:32He was likely emaciated and very close to death.
48:37But as it turns out, Wolf had a great deal more life left in him.
48:43After the war, Wolf returned to Belgium, where he married a fellow Holocaust survivor.
48:50They welcomed a daughter in 1949.
48:54And then, three years later, moved one final time to America.
49:01Wolf Miodovnik, nationality, stateless, race, Hebrew, age 41,
49:07final destination in United States, Mr. Charles Meadow, 1138 Wooster Street.
49:16God, it's so crazy to see just, like, the map of the concentration camps and then...
49:24Wooster in LA.
49:26Like, that's crazy.
49:28Yeah.
49:32Yeah, that's...
49:35That's pretty nuts.
49:37That's a miracle.
49:38It is.
49:42Absolutely.
49:47Wolf was 42 years old when he arrived in the United States.
49:53Incredibly, he had survived at least four concentration camps.
49:58And lost a wife and a child.
50:01As well as countless friends and relatives.
50:05But he was able to build a new life for himself.
50:08A life that would be celebrated right up until the end.
50:13As evidenced even by his grave.
50:17Wow.
50:19Wolf lived to be 93 years old.
50:22Nice, Wolf.
50:24He died November 10th, 2003, and is buried along with his second wife, Mala, in Colma, California, just outside of
50:35San Francisco.
50:36Golden mensch.
50:38How about that?
50:39I love it.
50:42What'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.
50:49...on his tombstone. Like, that's...
50:53He was loved.
50:55Yeah.
50:57They both were. Oh, my God. This is amazing.
51:01The paper trail had now run out for Lizzie and Hasan.
51:06It was time to unfurl their full family trees.
51:10Now filled with people whose 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 to reflect on the sacrifices that shaped their families and forged their identities.
51:28When you see your parents struggling and working hard and clipping out coupons, you don't think you're someone or from
51:38somewhere.
51:39You know, you just think you're scrapping by and surviving.
51:41Mm-hmm.
51:42But when you see stuff like this, you're like, maybe I'm part of something bigger.
51:46The only way that I'm sitting here now is because of the decisions that they were either forced to make
51:51or that they chose to make.
51:52Mm-hmm.
51:52And I feel very lucky, like, in the dictionary definition of the word lucky, that they made those decisions.
52:04That's the end of our journey with Hasan Minhaj and Lizzie Kaplan.
52:09Join me next time when we unlock the secrets of the past for new guests on another episode of Finding
52:19Your Roots.
52:20That's good.
52:20The highway's第一oguestle has left here.
52:20And, look, the road of communication is really helpful.
52:21How can we lower the road?!
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