OUR LONG LA Alone, they thought they were the only ones in their family to survive the Holocaust. But one man spent 22 years tracking 3,000 relatives across 15 countries to hold a 500- strong reunion

FOR 70 years Girsh Kuklya believed all his family had been killed in the Holocaust.

The Nazis shot dead his Latvian dad and his grandfather was burned alive in the capital Riga’s Choral Synagogue in 1941.

But a single phone call last year transformed the 90-year-old Jew’s life and made him realise not all his relatives were among the six million killed by the Germans.

It was from British pop producer and distant relative Ian Levine, who had spent more than 20 years tracing his family tree.

Tears

Ian, 64, revealed Girsh had nearly 3,000 relatives across the globe.

And last week, Girsh joined 500 of them at an emotional reunion where Ian unrolled the family tree on paper. It stretched 180ft.

Kuklyas, from newborns to 92-yearolds, travelled hundredsndreds of thousands of miles to the Watford gathering from 15 countries,s, including Israel, Brazil and Australia. alia.

Girsh, who fleww from Atlanta with his daughter Lillian,n, told the Sunday People: “I was soo happy to find I have such a big family. I was in tears at the party,, tears of joy but also tears for the family we lost.”

Girsh, who was a mechanic after the Second Worldld War, said: “My father had said we had cousins but I never knew what happenedned to them until now. w. I thought they had d all been killed.” Ian, who worked with Take That in their early days, said: “Girsh survived the Holocaust and spent 70 years thinking all his immediate family had been wiped out. You can imaginene the tears he shed when he sawaw so many relatives.”

Lillian said: “To be introduced to so many family members we didn’t even know existed is such a wonderful, wonderful thing.”

She admitted she had tried to avoid Ian’s approaches as she thought it was a scam but her boss persuaded her to return his call.

She said: “Ian has completely turned my life upside down.”

Bobbie Henry, 75, of San Diego, California, was also suspicious untilntil Ian revealed details about longlost relatives. Soon she was reunited with cousin Roslyn Sukoff, 75, who she had not seen or heard from in 45 years.

Ian said: “WhenWhen the family tree was unwound around the building there was a mixture of shock and amazement. All my years of work putting my family back together had paid off. It was a good moment. “At least 10 people at the party had spent deca decades thinking they were t the last surviving mem member of their family –t– that everyone had b been wiped out in t the Holocaust. I’m not a religious man, but it’s a miracle so many s urvived b bearing in mind how many were wiped out.” Ian has also produced a 600- page book containing more than 5,000 photos, called The Kukla Chronicles. It tells his family’s story from the time of nine brothers born in Latvia in the early 1800s and their fight for survival. Ian Ian’s s epic task, made harder because the K evolved into spellings, wa of his matern Cooklin in 19

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