Family Portrait

Embedded in the images of an old photograph was a family history waiting to be revealed to Ann Helen Wainer. Family Portrait documents Ann’s journey of discovery that led her to learn more about the people in the photograph, and ultimately, about herself. Ann’s family, the Kuperwassers, lived in Poland during Hitler’s rise to power and cautiously watched the events unfold in Nazi Germany. Like other Jewish families at the time, they faced an uncertain future. On the eve of one of the world’s greatest atrocities, the Holocaust, Ann’s grandfather gathered his clan for a family portrait, one that would survive its subjects-who either perished in Nazi death camps or disconnected from the family.

Amazingly, the photograph survived, as did the story of the Kuperwassers. In this extraordinary memoir, Ann reconstructs her family’s story by means of extensive research, countless interviews with family, friends, and other survivors, as well as from an oral history recorded by an uncle. In the process, Ann discovered a lifetime of treasures in the stories and information about her family, and Family Portrait guarantees that they will endure for generations to come.