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02/02/2022 07:30 AMImagine not knowing anything about your family history as an adult. For Orlene Weyland, this was a reality. However one discovery made decades ago led her on a path of discovery that has led to a new book chronicling her discovery of her Jewish heritage and the tragic fate of her family in Europe under the Nazis.
What started with a small revelation eventually led to years of research and, in mid-2021, the publishing of her first book, Hiding in Plain Sight.
The book is currently on display in the United States Holocaust Museum, which Orlene calls “pretty cool that they wanted it. If not for the research staff, there would be no book.”
Closer to home, Orlene has given several lectures about the book and the journey it led her on at libraries from around the state and in her hometown of Old Saybrook.
“I’m hoping to do more of these in future,” Orlene says.
Due to uncertainty with COVID-19, Orlene says interested people should check the local library websites to see if in-person or virtual events are added.
Orlene describes the book as “a personal account of uncovering my Jewish heritage and the tragic past of my family, shrouded in mystery for decades.
“Finding out that my parents were Jewish was only one revelation; their families’ fate was another. Over five years, my family research took me on a relentless search for answers and around the globe, meeting people and being in places I never could have imagined,” she continues.
The story begins in 1994. Orlene’s mother was passing away and a grieving Orlene was charged with getting documents in order for her mother, who was born and raised in Europe. One of those documents caught her eye.
“The first thing I saw I was my parent’s marriages certificate was signed by a rabbi. There have never been a mention of Jewish heritage in my family and my sister and I had no idea about this,” Orlene explains during a recent conversation with the Harbor News.
Going from the discovery of the marriage certificate to the publishing of the book was not a straight shot. Orlene says she put the documents aside for years as her life got busy, but still she would occasionally wonder what more information was out there about her family that she didn’t know.
Then in 2013, she retired.
“The questions started gnawing at me. Finally one day I went on Ancestry.com and it was truly going down a rabbit hole,” Orlene says.
In the beginning, Orlene says she had some more information about her father’s side of the family to go on, and some information she was able to get from a visit to a rabbi. However Orlene remained undeterred as each discovery lead her to another.
“The United Sates Holocaust Museum was a huge service,” Orlene notes.
During the course of about five years, Orlene’s research took her on trips literally around the world from America to the U.K., Slovakia, and Vancouver. Though she admits there was some frustrations, all along the way, she says he met people who were more than willing to jump in and help.
“Every single person I met along the way dropped what they were doing to help. We hear about the horrible and there’s plenty of that people are still good I do believe that,” says Orlene.
Orlene says she finally got her research organized and began writing in 2019, “which took the better part of year.”
“Once I started writing it was an unbelievable time,” says Orlene.
As exciting as it is to have the book published and displayed, Orlene acknowledges that much of the revelations and messages found within it are somber.
“My hope in writing this is that people don’t forget what happened in the Holocaust. I want people to know the story,” says Orlene.
“The hardest part of writing was going in with the understanding that the information was most likely going to lead to the fact someone was murdered by the Nazis. And even though I knew that going in, every time I found a name of a relative on a deportation list, for example, it was a fresh feeling of grief like it just happened yesterday,” says Orlene.
Orlene credits her husband John with being a support system during the writing process.
“My husband really encouraged me to keep working and spur me on and he would listen to me and he must have read it about 1,000 times every time I asked,” says Orlene,
“My favorite part was when I was done with the first draft and I could see it in my head coming together,” Orlene says of the writing process.
Though they both grew up elsewhere in the country, Orlene and John have called Old Saybrook home for 10 years. While looking for a house on the shoreline from Guilford to points east, Orlene remembers, “As soon as we found this house we were in love with it and we knew it was the one.”
In fact, they loved it so much they were even married in the house in 2011.
Now, Orlene says her and John are both semi-retired, Orlene from a career in consulting and John from the hospitality and property management field. Now, Orlene is a principal at Gallops Consulting, which helps businesses and employees cope with some of the stresses that come from COVIID.
“I still love doing it,” says Orlene.
In her spare time, she and john like traveling, trips to see shows in New York, scrabble games, and spending time with Orlene’s daughter Bonnie Weyland Smith and her grandkids Camile, Claire, and Weyland.