Table of ContentsDedicationEpigraphAcknowledgmentsPrologue: Tammy, Newburyport, MassachusettsThe Offner-Bottner Family TreeMelly: Germany, 1920s and 1930sGenek: Lvov, 1920s and 1930sMelly: Amsterdam and AntwerpA Wedding: Belgium, 1938Melly: Married LifeGerman Occupation: Belgium, 1940–1941Melly: Life under OccupationThe Anti-Jewish Laws: Belgium, 1942Melly: A Desperate DecisionAndree Geulen and the Resistance: September 1942Melly: The Family DispersedBobby: 1942Belgium and Holland: 1943Melly: A Wartime BabyBobby: 1943Irene: Namur, 1943PicturesIn Hiding: Banneux, 1943Back in Lvov: 1939–1943Genek’s Luck Runs Out: Brussels, 1943–1944Melly: Visiting BobbyThe Tide Turns: Brussels, 1944Liberation: Spring 1945Melly: IreneAfter LiberationNathan’s Freedom: Cyprus and Palestine, 1947–1949Melly: Brussels and Palestine, 1945–1949Reflections on a CalamityEpilogue: SurvivalDescendants of Leopold and Gertrude Offner: Full Family TreeSources and Further ReadingFurther Holocaust MemoirsColophonWhen her son was born, Tammy Bottner experienced flashbacks of being hunted by the Nazis. The strange thing is, these experiences didn’t happen to her. They happened to her grandmother decades earlier and thousands of miles away.During the dark days of the Holocaust, a Jewish family struggles to survive.When her son was born, Tammy Bottner experienced flashbacks of being hunted by the Nazis. The strange thing is, these experiences didn’t happen to her. They happened to her grandmother decades earlier and thousands of miles away.Back in Belgium, Grandma Melly made unthinkable choices in order to save her family during WWII, including sending her two-year-old son, Bottner’s father, into hiding in a lonely Belgian convent. Did the trauma that Tammy Bottner’s predecessors experience affect their DNA? Did she inherit the “memories” of the war-time trauma in her very genes?In this moving family memoir, told partly from Melly’s perspective, the author, a physician, recounts the saga of her family’s experiences during the Holocaust. This tale, part history, part scientific reflection on epigenetics, takes the reader on a journey that may read like a novel, but is all the more fascinating for being true.During the dark days of the Holocaust, a Jewish family struggles to survive.When her son was born, Tammy Bottner experienced flashbacks of being hunted by the Nazis. The strange thing is, these experiences didn’t happen to her. They happened to her grandmother decades earlier and thousands of miles away.Back in Belgium, Grandma Melly made unthinkable choices in order to save her family during WWII, including sending her two-year-old son, Bottner’s father, into hiding in a lonely Belgian convent. Did the trauma that Tammy Bottner’s predecessors experience affect their DNA? Did she inherit the “memories” of the war-time trauma in her very genes?In this moving family memoir, told partly from Melly’s perspective, the author, a physician, recounts the saga of her family’s experiences during the Holocaust. This tale, part history, part scientific reflection on epigenetics, takes the reader on a journey that may read like a novel, but is all the more fascinating for being true.