Book details mission to reunite Holocaust survivors

It was spring 2011 and Edith Westerfeld Schumer was an 86-year-old Holocaust survivor living in Skokie, dreaming of reconnecting with the best friend she met in 1938 when both were 12-year-olds fleeing Nazi Germany.

It was a typical day in 2011, and Fern Schumer Chapman was speaking about her book, "Is It Day or Night?" to an eighth-grade class at Madison Junior High in Naperville, excited the students read her piece about her mother's journey to escape the Holocaust.

It was near the end of the school year in 2011 and Catie O'Boyle was pleased she'd trained her students to be critical analysts of data from primary sources and respectful listeners to author presentations like Chapman's.

None of them foresaw the result that would come from Chapman's visit to O'Boyle's classes. But in a tale that proves connections in life come from the most unexpected people, 150 of Boyle's students became heroes.

In only two days of online research, the eighth-graders did the unthinkable. They found Schumer's long-lost friend.

The story of Edith Westerfeld Schumer and Gerda Katz Frumkin reconnecting after decades comes alive in a new book by Chapman, "Like Finding My Twin," which she and her mother will discuss during a free event at 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 14, at Anderson's Bookshop in downtown Naperville.

Chapman says the efforts of O'Boyle's students helped her mother find the only person who truly understands what it was like to leave everything and everyone behind as a preteen, fleeing religious persecution to the unknown stresses of a foreign world.

Chapman's own efforts to locate Gerda had been short-lived, and she had to admit that to O'Boyle's students when one of them asked.

"I had actually tried to find her and didn't have her last name. I didn't look too hard. I was concerned about what kind of news I might learn and I didn't want to upset my mother any more in any way than her history already had," Chapman said.

The students didn't see an obstacle posed by the lack of a last name.

"These are kids of the social media age, and they absolutely felt like you should be able to find anybody you want to find anywhere in the world," Chapman said.

The students were moved to act because they realized searching for Gerda was one thing they could do to ease the suffering of a Holocaust survivor who already had been through so much. O'Boyle confessed to her students the feeling of helplessness that comes from discussing such a horrible event that's trapped in the past.

"I talked about how emotionally draining it is talking about something that I could do nothing about," O'Boyle said. "A student named Jessica raised her hand and said, 'Why don't we do something about it?' She said, 'Why don't we try to find Gerda?'"

For a noncredit community service project, the students agreed to search online for where Gerda went and who she became. No source was ruled out.

"We had the strangest sources of information," O'Boyle said. "White pages from Canada, a fabric softener review on Amazon."

Students zeroed in on four women named Gerda Katz whom they tracked online. In the end, a subdivision newsletter from a suburb outside of one of the major cities in Washington state provided the answer.

The newsletter named a Gerda Katz Frumkin who had escaped the Holocaust as a child. When O'Boyle and her students read it over lunch two days after Chapman's visit to the class, they knew they'd found their mark.

"The students were just about Edith's age when she came to this country," Chapman said. "So they deeply identified with the idea of leaving everything behind as well as what it would be like to leave behind your best friend at the age of 12."

That connection to the story motivated the students, who stood by as O'Boyle left voice mails for Gerda explaining their project and their connection to Edith.

Soon, Chapman got a frenzy of communication from her mother, who only uttered one word when they spoke: "Gerda."

Her friend had come to life again.

Gerda had lost a card listing the address in Chicago where Edith was going to live with relatives after the two disembarked from the ship aboard which they both traveled to America. But now the pair could meet again and console each other.

Edith told her daughter, "It was like finding my twin," and the book Chapman eventually would pen about the whole glorious tale had its name.

"They're obviously not twins, but historically they shared this deep, uprooting loss that nobody understood," Chapman said.

When Chapman and Edith speak in Naperville about the book, O'Boyle's students will continue their connection to the story.

Although now freshmen in college, at least five of the students whose research helped make the Edith-Gerda connection will be on hand Saturday for the event. And O'Boyle's current students will be live-tweeting the occasion, documenting it to provide a record.

Some of O'Boyle's 2011 students have taken their research experience and built it into a passion for journalism, a field they're now studying. Others have told their former teacher they gained much confidence from witnessing the problems they could solve and the power of what they could accomplish, even as eighth-graders.

"They've learned that the most powerful thing you can do is question. It seems like a research skill, but it's more of that life skill of seeking the right question to ask," O'Boyle said. "The question was, 'What can we do?'"

If you go

What: "Like Finding My Twin" author discussion and book signing

When: 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 14

Where: Anderson's Bookshop, 123 W. Jefferson Ave., Naperville

Cost: Free admission; must buy book to join the signing line

Info: (630) 355-2665 or andersonsbookshop.com