These two happy faces just caught my eye on the bottom of page 8 of the January 8, 1947 Charlottetown Guardian:

What happened to Blanka and Anna after this photo was taken? Did they ever know they were in the newspaper? Did they settle in Chicago? Where was Mr. Zwern?

In 1947 I would have just had to wonder about these two and move on, but in 2022 I can quickly fast forward this story:

• Anna Zwern became Annie Birnbaum and donated family papers to the United States Holocaust Museum in 2019, including a clipping of this very same photo.
• Blanka became known as Blanche and gave her testimony as a Holocaust survivor to the USC Shoah Foundation in 1996.
• Blanche lived to be 89 and died in 2011, leaving behind Annie and her two siblings, her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Blanche’s husband of 50 years, Simon, predeceased her.

Born to a respected Jewish family in Krakow, Poland in 1922, she outwitted Nazi roundups through unflinching courage, intelligence, cunning and agility. Married to concentration camp survivor Simon shortly after the war, they immigrated to America with an infant daughter. Hope and love allowed her to leave her hatred and anger behind and begin to create a new life. She lived and taught deep wisdom to all around her, saying “as long as you have life, you have hope” and “to find happiness, take whatever hand you are dealt and make the best of it.” She turned her devastating hand into a beautiful, productive and love-filled family.

Obituary of Blanche Zwern, published by Atlanta Journal-Constitution on November 28, 2011.

I’m glad I lingered for a few minutes with Blanka and Anna, if only to be reminded that hope is what propels us forward, and love can make all things possible.