12 | JANUARY 7 • 2021
W
hen I was little, my mother told me a story about her
“Bonpapa:” my great-grandfather, Otto Schirn. During
her college graduation ceremony, Otto circled names
in the program he thought were Jewish. He wanted to prove other
Jews had survived.
Otto died before I was born. When I began studying at the
University of Michigan in 2017, I knew only a few other facts
about his life. I knew that he and his wife, Yvonne, managed to
obtain two of the few emergency visas granted by the United States
to Jews in 1941. I knew that she gave birth to
my great-uncle Bob on the boat ride to the
United States, and that his young family spent
four months on Ellis Island waiting for Bob’s
immigration status to be resolved.
In October 2019, while looking through
my grandmother’s photo album, I got my
first hint of the tragic and courageous life
Otto once lived. I learned of the letter he
received in 1945 that told him of the death
of his parents, Josef Schirn and Taube Kriss-
Schirn. The letter referred to them as num-
bers 61 and 62 — two entries on a Nazi
transport list from Malines, France.
I also learned from a newspaper clip-
ping that Otto was “a journalist in Austria
[who] had spoken out against the Nazi
government.
” As an investigative report-
er for U-M’s student newspaper, The
Michigan Daily, I felt a connection in that
moment that extended beyond my genes.
I vowed to do all I could to understand
Otto’s life.
The first article I found about him was
in the Detroit Jewish News Foundation’s
William Davidson Digital Archive of
Jewish Detroit History. It announced a
SAMMY SUSSMAN
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
IN
THE
JEWS D
ON THE COVER
Mightier
than the Sword
Thicker
than Water,
U-M student’s research
reveals his ancestor’s
courageous journalistic
legacy in Nazi-
dominated Europe.
obtain two of the few emergency visas granted by the United States
to Jews in 1941. I knew that she gave birth to
my great-uncle Bob on the boat ride to the
United States, and that his young family spent
four months on Ellis Island waiting for Bob’s
immigration status to be resolved.
In October 2019, while looking through
my grandmother’s photo album, I got my
first hint of the tragic and courageous life
Otto once lived. I learned of the letter he
received in 1945 that told him of the death
of his parents, Josef Schirn and Taube Kriss-
Schirn. The letter referred to them as num-
bers 61 and 62 — two entries on a Nazi
transport list from Malines, France.
ping that Otto was “a journalist in Austria
[who] had spoken out against the Nazi
government.
” As an investigative report-
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Otto
Schirn
Otto’s 1936 Belgian press
pass, which he used to cover
Nazism’s rise in Austria.
COURTESY OF SAMMY SUSSMAN