From ghettos of Lithuania to salvation in Israel, Tuvia Sheres made it his mission to defeat the German Nazis during World War II.
His family lives in Boca Raton and recently started digging into the Holocaust survivor's past. The more they found, the more they wanted to learn.
"One of the ways he helped displaced victims get back on their feet was by being a social worker, while at the same time being a spy working with different organizations," says Robert Sheres, Tuvia's grandson who is doing a lot of the research for the family.
It's stories like Tuvia's that the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum wants to preserve. A curator from the museum is in South Florida this week to meet with Holocaust survivors and their families.
"The museum is in a race against time to rescue this evidence," explains Curator Kyra Schuster. "We think of these materials as silent witnesses to the horrors of the Holocaust."
Schuster is going through passports, identification papers, pictures and other documents with the Sheres family.
Robert discovered a lot about his grandfather after he stumbled upon a sketch of Tuvia on the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum's website. Now, the family wants to donate some other artifacts to the museum for its archives and collection.
"Everyone is going to know what happened. And the goal is to make sure nothing like that ever happens again," Robert Sheres says.
The Sheres family is chairing a fundraising luncheon February 22 at the Boca Raton Resort and Club. Jennifer Teege, the author of My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me: A Black Woman Discovers Her Family's Nazi Past, will be the featured speaker. To reserve a ticket, click here.
Schuster will be back in South Florida from February 21 to February 26. To schedule a time to meet with her, email her at KSchuster@ushmm.org
