Tennenbaum family in Nazi Vienna; departing on the Queen Mary ship

Marcus (Mark) Tennenbaum was instrumental in securing exit visas and making other emigration arrangements for most members of his family. Marcus, Ernestine, and Robert escaped Vienna via the Queen Mary which left Cherbourg, France on March 19, 1939 and arrived in New York on March 23.

Edith [now Edie Ostern], her brother George (not in the film), mother Dora, and grandparents Malka and Leib arrived in the U.S. in November 1939. Their cousin Paul Beller was rescued by the Americans, Gil and Eleanor Kraus, and arrived in Philadelphia without his parents in 1939 as part of the Fifty Children initiative. Edith's father, Emil Tennenbaum, was arrested on Kristallnacht and imprisoned in Dachau for several weeks. He eventually made it to the U.S. in January 1940. Paul's mother Mina (Dora's sister) also escaped to the U.S., but his father Leo failed a health exam and was rejected by the U.S. Consulate. Leo Beller departed Europe on a ship bound for Palestine but was intercepted by the British and imprisoned on the island of Mauritius for several years before making it to the U.S. after the war. Edith's maternal grandmother, Sara Austein, was briefly interned in Gurs, a camp in southern France.

Leo (Simche Leib) Beller was from an agricultural family in Poland and arrived in Vienna in 1915. He married Mina Tennenbaum on November 18, 1928 in the Siebenbrunnen-temple of Vienna. He was employed in a hardware store and taken in as a partner in the Tennenbaum family's established plywood business. Since he was not an Austrian citizen and considered stateless, he decided to undergo (unnecessary) appendix surgery and escaped to Bratislava. He waited out the war in a British detention facility on the island of Mauritius, where he had been sent after being caught trying to enter Palestine illegally. After the war, he was allowed to immigrate to the United States, sailing on a freighter that arrived in Baltimore in July 1946. Mina arrived in the US in late January 1940.

Paul Beller was born around 1932 in Vienna to Leo and Mina (Tennenbaum) Beller. He was one of the Fifty Children (the 50 children) rescued in 1939 by the Americans, Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus. Paul lived with the Amram family in Feasterville, Pennsylvania, for about a year. His mother, Mina, obtained a visa for the United States, arrived in late January 1940, and settled in New York City. His father, Leo, waited out the war in a British detention facility on the island of Mauritius, where he had been sent after being caught trying to enter Palestine illegally. After the war, he was allowed to immigrate to the United States, sailing on a freighter that arrived in Baltimore in July 1946 Paul attended City College of New York and later obtained a master's degree in public administration from New York University. He spent two years int he U.S. Army, after which he began a forty-year career with the federal government, most of it working for the national Medicare office his Maryland. Paul and his wife, Glenda, have three children, seven grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. They live in New Jersey.