On her recent appearance on PBS show Finding Your Roots, Alanis Morissette discovered that her great-uncles died in the Holocaust.
The show which aired its first episode of its 10th season on Tuesday (January2), saw the ‘Hand In My Pocket’ singer appear as one of the guests, where she discovered that her great-uncles Sandor and Gyorgy Feuerstein, died in the Holocaust.
Hosted by Henry Louis Gates Jr, a synopsis reads, “In each episode, celebrities are presented with a “book of life” that is compiled with information researched by professional genealogists that allows them to view their ancestral histories, learn about familial connections and discover secrets about their lineage”.
“unfathomable”
According to research carried out at the World Holocaust Remembrance Centre, Yad Vashem, Finding Your Roots ascertained that Alanis Morissette’s great-uncles Gyorgy and Sandor were seemingly sent to “work camps” to serve in the Russian military during World War II.
The pair reportedly died in slave labour camps in Russia.
Alanis Morissette had already been aware that her grandfather, Imre Feuerstein was a Holocaust survivor, of Hungarian and Jewish descent.
Imre had also relocated his family, which included Morissette’s mother from the Soviet Union to Ontario, Canada in 1953. The singer’s mother was six years old at the time.
These findings have also left Alanis Morissette stunned.
“It’s unfathomable for me”, she said of the conditions that her great-uncles laboured in.
“I did not not know this”
Morissette was also asked if she could imagine what her grandfather must have gone through, in carrying the burden of losing his brothers.
“Not knowing where your sibling is, if they’re alive or dead … No, God”, she exclaimed.
According to archives, Morissette’s grandfather had never stopped looking for his brothers, even organising a search party with the Red Cross.
“I did not know this”, was the singer’s reply.
She added, “There’s just so much intense stuff happening. You think about their resilience and their ability to keep going in the face of tragedy, it’s pretty poignant”.
“in their bones”
Elsewhere, Alanis Morisette also revealed that she did not discover that she was Jewish until she was 28 years old.
“I think there was a terror that is in their bones, and they were being protective of us and not wanting anti-Semitism,” Morissette said of the Feuersteins. “They were protecting us, keeping us in the dark around it”.
The ‘Ironic’ singer also said that she is proud of her Jewish background.
“I had no idea how super Jewish I am. I feel welcomed into a community that I always had a crush on. I’ve always had a crush on Judaism, and I would just show up at Passover and at seder. Now I know why. It was like, come home”, she stated.
Last month, Alanis Morissette also performed a live rendition of ‘Last Christmas’ on an episode of The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon. Check that out here.
