A happy scene in Vienna before it all changed forever. Grandma Ricky, Grandpa Paul and Dad around 1936.
History Uncovered
Welcome
Hello and welcome to my site. I am a second-generation Holocaust survivor on a search for the stories of my ancestors. I am thrilled to bring along family, friends and other inquisitive individuals on an exploration of our family history, long-hidden and ready to be revealed.
Beginning with my childhood in New Jersey, I trace the roots of our family to Austria, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and a nearly forgotten land known as Moravia. Along the way, I encounter a lineage of rabbis and scholars, the promise of prosperity and assimilation, and the devastation of the Shoah with rippling impacts upon generations. With these exciting discoveries, ancestral wounds long buried, finally find the light and have an opportunity to heal.
Grandma Ricky, Dad, an unidentified woman, and Aunt Berta somewhere along the Ringstrasse
The name of this site is Karen Ford Feilbogen. Ford is my birth name, it is the only name I have ever known, but my father was born Thomas Heinz Feilbogen, a name that means bow and arrow in German (phile bogen). This is the name he was born into. It is a name with a legacy that stretches back no less than nine distinguished generations to 1585.
Shortly after they found safety in the USA from the Nazis, our family made the decision to anglicize their name, and they certainly had their reasons. I am forever a “Ford” but is my goal here to reclaim some of my family’s original history and in the process, reestablish a connection with what was lost.
Thank you for taking part in this journey with me.
Thomas Heinz Feilbogen
The stories of our ancestors need to be told. We deserve to find our rightful place in the great continuum.
History is Healing
I am grateful to be the voice for my family’s history. Throughout this process I have found meaning in the critical importance of unearthing our personal stories, and therefore finding our place within our shared lineage.
-Karen Ford
My recent visit to Vienna. I’m posing with both my US and new Austrian passport. The memorial stone is for my great-grandmother Fanni Feilbogen and her neighbors. This was in front of the building where she lived.
This is my first blog post.