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39 FALL 2021 A firmly grabbed both my shoulders and started to cry uncontrollably. I'm not sure if it was her wailing that helped me begin to recognize her, but in the course of that afternoon, through the shrieks, the lamentations, the admonitions, the incessant tears and condemnations of the Germans who had destroyed her Albert, my cautious sense of denial melted into a warm feeling of belonging and total recognition. ■ Albert Hepner '79 sent his memoir to TCNJ as part of the college's Oral History Project. To share your own story, please call our partner, PCI, at 866.257.6168. I had allowed myself to think about her, or anyone else I had been con- nected to before my terrible journey had begun. Abraham Vinnik, a dear friend of Albert's father, arranged to take Albert back to his mother, who had her own survival story of moving from place to place in the nearly five years she and Albert were apart. Their reunification was a surprise to Albert's mom. Vinnik and the rest of his family could not have been a more eager audience. All stood nearly breathless while this still-strange woman and I just looked at each other. Their great anticipation was no doubt disappointed as this woman and I unexpectedly and absurdly just kept looking at each other, with no reaction. After what seemed like an eternity of standing frozen and gazing blankly, Vinnik broke the silent but echoing vacuum and loudly asked her, "You don't rec- ognize him?" She said, "What! What!" Again, he nearly shouted, "You don't recognize him?" with the emphasis on him. She had no reason to look at me closely until then, nor did I have any reason to think she was the woman who was supposed to be my mother since she hadn't jumped up to greet me. Impatiently, Vinnik yelled at her, "C'est Albert!" This alien yet some- what recognizable woman jumped up out of the chair shrieking, "Albert?" Rather than hugging me, as I had somehow expected, she gently but Facing page: Albert with Rachel Friedland, also a hidden child. This page: The Hepner family reunited after the war from L to R: brother Max, sister-in-law Fanny, mother, Mirla, and Albert.