2022年12月08日 DNA VOA慢速英語：幫助大屠殺幸存者重建家譜

  The United States-based Center for Jewish History is launching a project to provide genetic tests to Holocaust survivors and their children. The testing is aimed at helping such families learn more about their histories.
總部位于美國的猶太歷史中心正在啟動一個項目，為大屠殺幸存者及其子女提供基因測試。該測試旨在幫助這些家庭更多地了解他們的歷史。
 
The Holocaust was the genocide of European Jews by Germany's Nazi government during World War II. About six million Jews were killed. Many families were split up and sent to different places, never to hear from each other again.
大屠殺是二戰(zhàn)期間德國納粹政府對歐洲猶太人的種族滅絕。大約六百萬猶太人被殺。許多家庭被拆散并被送到不同的地方，從此再也沒有消息。
 
Jennifer Mendelsohn and Adina Newman are genealogists: expert researchers of family histories. They have been doing this kind of work for several years. They currently run a social media group about Jewish DNA and family histories.
詹妮弗門德爾松和阿迪娜紐曼是系譜學家：家族史的專家研究人員。他們從事這種工作已有好幾年了。他們目前經(jīng)營著一個關于猶太人 DNA 和家族歷史的社交媒體小組。
 
The DNA Reunion Project operates from New York City. It offers free DNA testing kits through its website. Mendelsohn and Newman offer help on investigating family history based on the DNA results.
DNA Reunion 項目在紐約市運作。它通過其網(wǎng)站提供免費的 DNA 檢測試劑盒。門德爾松和紐曼根據(jù) DNA 結果幫助調(diào)查家族史。
 
Newman said that DNA technology has opened new possibilities along with paper records and archives to help these individuals find out more about lost family members.
紐曼說，DNA 技術與紙質(zhì)記錄和檔案一起開辟了新的可能性，可以幫助這些人更多地了解失去的家庭成員。
 
"There are cases that simply cannot be solved without DNA. There are times when people are separated, and they don't even realize they're separated. Maybe a name change occurred so they didn't know to look for the other person," Newman said.
“有些案件沒有 DNA 根本無法解決。有些時候人們分開了，他們甚至沒有意識到他們分開了。也許發(fā)生了名字變化，所以他們不知道尋找另一個人， ” Newman 說。
 
This happened to Jackie Young. He is now 80 years old and lives in London. He had been searching for a connection to his biological family all his life.
這件事發(fā)生在 Jackie Young 身上。他現(xiàn)年 80 歲，住在倫敦。他一生都在尋找與親生家庭的聯(lián)系。
 
He was orphaned as a baby and spent his first few years in a Nazi concentration camp in what is now the Czech Republic. He was taken in by a new family and given a new name. Then, he was taken to England at the end of World War II.
他還是個嬰兒時就成了孤兒，最初幾年是在位于現(xiàn)在捷克共和國的納粹集中營中度過的。他被一個新家庭收留并取了一個新名字。然后，他在第二次世界大戰(zhàn)結束時被帶到英國。
 
He did not know much about his birth family. He had a little information about his birth mother. She was killed in a Nazi death camp. And he did not know anything about his father. He was not even named on Young's official birth document.
他對自己的出生家庭了解不多。他知道一些關于他生母的信息。她死于納粹死亡集中營。而他對父親一無所知。 Young 的官方出生文件上什至沒有他的名字。
 
But with the DNA test results, the genealogists were able to find a name and some family members that Young did not realize he had.
但是根據(jù) DNA 測試結果，系譜學家能夠找到 Young 沒有意識到的名字和一些家庭成員。
 
The effort, he said, "opened the door that I thought would never get opened."
他說，這種努力“打開了我認為永遠無法打開的大門。”
 
The project's Jennifer Mendelsohn says one of the early mysteries she worked on was for her husband's grandmother. She had lost both her parents, six siblings and a grandfather in a death camp. Mendelsohn discovered the existence of aunts and cousins her husband's family had never known about.
該項目的詹妮弗門德爾松說，她早期研究的一個謎團是為了她丈夫的祖母。她在死亡營中失去了雙親、六個兄弟姐妹和一位祖父。門德爾松發(fā)現(xiàn)了她丈夫的家人從來不知道的阿姨和表親的存在。
 
Mendelsohn got a call from her husband's uncle after she shared her findings. "You know, I've never seen a photograph of my grandmother," he told her. "Now that I see photographs of her sisters, it's so comforting to me. I can imagine what she looks like."
門德爾松在分享她的發(fā)現(xiàn)后接到了她丈夫的叔叔打來的電話。 “你知道，我從來沒有見過我祖母的照片，”他告訴她。 “現(xiàn)在我看到她姐妹們的照片，這讓我很欣慰。我可以想象她的樣子。”
 
Mendelsohn was deeply moved.
門德爾松深受感動。
 
"How do you explain why that's powerful? It just is. People had nothing. Their families were erased. And now we can bring them back a little bit," she said.
“你如何解釋為什么它如此強大？它就是如此。人們一無所有。他們的家人被抹殺了?，F(xiàn)在我們可以讓他們恢復一點點，”她說。
 
The center cannot guarantee that they will find family who is still living, but there is still a chance. Mendelsohn, Newman, and the center are urging people to take that chance, particularly as time goes by and there are fewer living survivors of the Holocaust.
中心不能保證他們會找到仍然在世的家人，但仍有機會。門德爾松、紐曼和該中心敦促人們抓住這個機會，尤其是隨著時間的流逝，大屠殺幸存者越來越少。
 
Gaviel Rosenfeld is the president of the Center for Jewish History. He said, "It really is the last moment where these survivors can be given some modicum of justice."
加維爾·羅森菲爾德是猶太歷史中心的主席。他說，“這真的是最后一刻，可以為這些幸存者伸張正義。”
 
Newman agreed, "We feel the urgency of this. I wanted to start yesterday, and that's why it's like, no time like the present."
Newman 表示同意，“我們想感受到這件事的緊迫性。我想從昨天開始，這就是為什么現(xiàn)在是時候了。”
 
Rosenfeld said the center had set aside $15,000 for the DNA kits for this first project. That covered about 500 kits. But he said that if there is more interest, then they could add more money for the kits.
Rosenfeld 說該中心已經(jīng)預留了 15,000 美元用于第一個項目的 DNA 試劑盒。這涵蓋了大約 500 個套件。但他說，如果有更多的興趣，那么他們可以為套件增加更多的錢。
 
Ken Engel is the leader of a group for children of Holocaust survivors in the state of Minnesota. He thinks there will be a lot of interest, especially from his group.
肯·恩格爾 (Ken Engel) 是明尼蘇達州大屠殺幸存者兒童團體的負責人。他認為會有很多興趣，尤其是來自他的團隊。
 
Engel said that he has been wanting to know more about his family history all his life.
恩格爾說他一生都想知道更多關于他家族的歷史。
 
"Family is everything, it's the major pillar of life in humanity," Engel said.
"家庭就是一切，它是人類生活的主要支柱，”恩格爾說。