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Lisa Kudrow

Actress Lisa Kudrow traces her roots in the US version of the celebrity genealogy series, travelling to Belarus to uncover the truth behind what happened to her great-grandmother.

Since childhood, Lisa has known that her grandmother Gertrude had a tough life; two of her three children died in childhood, her husband died young, and her mother, Meri, perished in the Holocaust. Lisa's father Lee recalled hearing about Meri's death when a cousin from Europe, Yuri Barudin, visited him and Gertrude in New York in the late 1940s. The family never heard from Yuri again. 60 years on, Lisa is determined to find out what became of Yuri, and uncover the truth of what actually happened to her great-grandmother.

In New York, Lisa meets with her father's cousin, who provides her with crucial information about Yuri. In Belarus, Lisa travels to IIya, the village where her great-grandmother lived. Here she uncovers the awful truth of how Meri died. Although the Nazis destroyed much of the evidence, Lisa unearths documents and eyewitness testimonies describing what happened to her great-grandmother and the other Jews of Ilya in March, 1942. Later, while visiting the memorial to those who died, Lisa pays her respects and finds it hard to hold back the tears.

Intent on finding out what happened to Yuri, Lisa travels to the Polish city of Gdynia, his last known residence. Here, she discovers a heart-warming story that she cannot wait to tell her father.

44 minutes

Credits

Role Contributor
Participant Lisa Kudrow
Director Christopher Bruce
Executive Producer Lucy Carter

Broadcasts