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Th e memoir, which mostly unfolds Bank’s childhood and
time in undergraduate and law school, is the third book in what
Bank calls an “inadvertent trilogy.”
He published “Feig” and “I Am Terezin” in 2014 and 2017,
respectively, and while the former is fi ction and the latter,
non-fi ction, ‘Tree of Sorrow’ is a work of creative nonfi ction, and
a personal one at that.

Despite growing up with an “oma” and “opa” who survived
Th eresienstadt and a mother who was a refugee of the Holocaust,
Bank knew surprisingly little about his family’s experience of
the Shoah.

Th ough Bank could speak some German to communicate
with his grandparents, they skirted the topic of the Holocaust.

“Th ey never spoke about it. My mother never spoke about it.

Her sister never spoke about it. Th e family never spoke about it,”
Bank said.

Despite his grandmother living until he was 21, Bank never
asked her about her time in Th eresienstadt.

He published “I Am Terezin” about the camp without know-
ing that he also had an aunt on his mother’s side who died in
Th eresienstadt. Four other great aunts and uncles — his grand-
father’s siblings — also died in the Shoah. He had no idea until
he spoke with his mother shortly before the book’s publication.

“I grew up with the idea that you don’t ask,” Bank said. “Th at’s
why I’m writing so much about it now — because I do want to
know about it, and I want to share with others, so that other
people know about it and don’t take that same attitude.”
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16 DECEMBER 16, 2021
Hayden Bank (center) with his grandparents, Francine (left) and
Richard Bank.

Courtesy of Richard Bank
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“We’ve always been like the same
person. But when I got to read his
book, that’s when I realized we
basically have the same exact
characteristics as each other.”
HAYDEN BANK
Bank is still committed to learning more about his family
history, largely thanks to his grandson.

Hayden, 13, inspired by an older cousin’s family tree on
a different side of his family, took on the responsibility of
creating a Frank family tree in September 2020 as a project
during COVID.

“I wanted it done; I didn’t want anyone else doing it,” Hayden
said. “And I felt like this was my opportunity to do it.”
With the help of Bank’s cousins, Hayden uploaded his family
tree to Ancestry.com. Hayden and Bank then received an email
from Roland Paul, a historian who had been in contact with
Bank’s mother, whom he met during her trips back to her home-
town of Odenbach, Germany after the Holocaust. From there,
the family tree grew even larger.

The family tree now spans eight generations, with over 120
entrees. Hayden hopes to share the updated family tree with
Bank’s cousins and extended family at a family reunion next
spring. Hayden’s great grandmother and Bank’s mother died when
Hayden was 9 years old, but Hayden remembers visiting his
great grandmother’s apartment and finding a photograph of the
Frank family from 1914. Before his family tree research, Hayden
could only identify a few of the relatives in the photo. Now he can
identify almost all of them.

At the pending family reunion, Hayden will meet some of
Bank’s cousins for the first time. Bank will be meeting some of
them for the first time too.

Hayden calls his grandfather every day and has read ‘Tree of
Sorrow’ and the books that preceded it. As time goes on, Hayden
thinks he gets more and more similar to his grandfather.

“We’ve always been like the same person,” Hayden said. “But
when I got to read his book, that’s when I realized we basically
have the same exact characteristics as each other.”
Bank insists that when he gave Hayden Ludwig Frank’s watch
and the Tree of Sorrow, he had no agenda for what he believed
Hayden should do with it.

And Hayden has a fierce loyalty to Bank: “I always tell him
to this day, ‘I’m going to make sure I take care of you one day.’”
Because of Hayden’s commitment to his family, Bank has no
concerns about the fate of his grandfather’s watch.

“He’s already fulfilled his responsibility to the watch,” Bank
said. “Maybe one day he’ll want to pass it on, and then he’ll pass
on the story of the watch and the memory of the Holocaust.” l
srogelberg@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0741
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