Last April, I wrote a feature for the Tribune’s Spiritual Life section about Judi Gyory Missel of Mesa and her being chosen to be among the first 40 people active in the Jewish Genealogical Society allowed to do some research in Germany. Her group examined Nazi records of Jews who were arrested, put into concentration camps and murdered.  The International Red Cross Tracing Service established the archives in 1955 after getting control of the Nazi files. They were as systematic at keeping records of their victims as they were in putting them to death.

Her talk is titled, “My Trip to the Bad Arolsen Holocaust Archives.”

Missel lost as many as 20 relatives in the camps and ovens during the Holocaust. That included all four of her grandparents.  She was allowed into six buildings near Frankfurt, Germany, where about 40 million index cards contain information on the people the Nazis found worthy of the “final solution.”

Missel has talked to private groups about her findings during her week of research in Germany.  But this Thursday night, April 23, she will give her first public talk about  her discoveries and observations.  She will speak 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Valley of the Sun Jewish Community Center, 12701 N. Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale.  If you need more information, call (480) 215-6150.

For more than 20 years, Missel, who works for the Mesa Public Schools, has regularly pored through microfilm and online data at the Mesa Family History Center, operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Much of her research dealt with ancestors who were largely in the area of Budapest, Hungary.                                                       

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