Can celebrities really manifest their dream roles through style choices?
Polanski managed to escape the Krakow Ghetto in 1943, but both his parents were deported. The filmmaker's mother was killed in Auschwitz, but his father survived Mathausen concentration camp.
The sister of the famous French fashion designer was also a Holocaust survivor. Catherine Dior was a French resistance fighter during World War II.
The controversial film director was born in France but his family moved to Poland when he was three. His father was Polish painter Ryszard Liebling, and his mother was Russian actress Bula Liebling
She was eventually captured by the Gestapo, and sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp until May 1945. Two years later, Christian Dior named his debut fragrance Miss Dior as a tribute to his sister.
Unfortunately, other family members of the rock star didn't make it. "I did my own research and found out just how terrible it was. I’ve tried to talk about it, but she just won’t do it. She saw her mother walk into the gas chambers. Her whole family was destroyed. My mother was the only one left alive. And she was 14," said Simmons.
The Kiss co-front man is known for being proud of his Jewish heritage. But what you might not know is that his mother, Flora Klein, was a Holocaust survivor.
"My whole family was in the Holocaust. My grandparents passed [meaning they lived] and not many survived. After the Holocaust, in Russia, you were not allowed to be religious. So my parents raised me to know I was Jewish. You know who you are inside..."
The late former Secretary of State and US ambassador to the United Nations was the daughter of Holocaust survivors.
Albright's parents fled Czechoslovakia in March 1939, shortly after the Nazi occupation. They first moved to London, and then to the US.
Kushner's grandmother, Rae Kushner, escaped to a refugee camp in Italy and then managed to move to the US with the help of relatives
Donald Trump's son-in-law is the grandson of Holocaust survivors.
The anchor of CNN's 'The Situation Room' was born in Germany to Cesia and David Blitzer. His parents were both from Poland, and they both survived Auschwitz.
Tommy Ramone's parents, both professional photographers, survived the Holocaust. They managed to hide with the help of neighbors. They eventually moved to New York City in 1957.
Thomas Erdelyi, better known as Tommy Ramone, was a Hungarian-American music producer, musician, and songwriter. He was the drummer of the influential punk rock band Ramones for the first four years of its existence.
The director is known for movies such as 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' (1975). He, too, was the son of Holocaust survivors.
The famous actress was born in Ukraine to Jewish parents. Kunis' family had to move to the US as refugees for fear of religious persecution. Her grandparents were Holocaust survivors.
They eventually reunited after the war, got married, and moved to Canada in 1947. Lee once asked his mother what she thought about being liberated. “She didn’t believe [liberation] was possible. She didn’t believe that if there was a society outside the camp how they could allow this to exist, so she believed society was done in,” Lee said about her response.
The front man of Canadian rockers Rush lost a few family members in the Holocaust, but his parents, Morris and Mary Weinrib, survived. The two were both imprisoned at Auschwitz when they were teens, but they were later separated, and transferred to different concentration camps.
The actor, better known for voicing Olaf in the 'Frozen' franchise, is the son of an Afghan-born Jew who eventually moved to Israel. Gad's grandfather, Joseph Greenblatt, was a Holocaust survivor.
In a tribute to his grandfather, Josh Gad said: "Born in 1919, he fought through and survived the unthinkable during the Holocaust. After watching his entire family get slaughtered, he defied pure evil, and survived against all odds to meet my grandmother, another survivor, and build a whole new life in New York."
The late Israeli-born guitarist was one of the founding members of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Both his Polish mother and his Yugoslavian father survived the Holocaust.
When asked about the US welcoming Muslim refugees, Blitzer clearly could relate. He said: "As a son of Holocaust survivors who came to the United States as refugees after World War II, I strongly believe in refugee resettlement. This country welcomed my parents, who went on to establish a wonderful life in Buffalo."
Reitman's family history influenced his filmmaking. When asked about it, the director stated: "Look, I'm an immigrant. I escaped Czechoslovakia with my parents in 1950. We're Holocaust survivors. So my whole thrust was to entertain."
Not much is known about the RHCP former guitarist's parents, other than that they settled in Israel after the war and then moved to the US when Slovak was four.
Sources: (Grunge) (Ranker) (Reuters)
In a tribute to her grandfather on Holocaust Remembrance Day, Gadot said: "He lost his entire family because they were the 'wrong race' in someone else's opinion, and miraculously avoided his own untimely death 9 times!"
The Israeli actress, known for playing Wonder Woman, is the granddaughter of Holocaust survivor Abraham Weiss, who was still a teenager when he was imprisoned at Auschwitz.
In Budapest, Flora Klein survived a ghetto and three different concentration camps during her teen years. She was 19 when the war ended in 1945.
The Hollywood filmmaker, known for blockbusters such as 'Ghostbusters' (1984), was born in Czechoslovakia in 1946 to Holocaust survivors Leslie and Clara.
But he didn't find out about it until after the war. Forman's adoptive parents, Anna and Rudolf Forman, died in separate concentration camps. But his biological father was a Jewish architect named Otto Kohn, who had in fact survived and fled to Ecuador.
The Holocaust, the genocide of an estimated six million Jewish people between 1933 and 1945, was a tragedy of immense proportions that will never be forgotten. But while countless lives were lost, there are also stories of those who, against all odds, managed to survive. Some happened to be family members of future famous individuals.
Browse through the following gallery and find out which celebrities have family members who survived the Holocaust.
These celebrities are descended from Holocaust survivors
Their family histories are truly remarkable
CELEBRITY History
The Holocaust, the genocide of an estimated six million Jewish people between 1933 and 1945, was a tragedy of immense proportions that will never be forgotten. But while countless lives were lost, there are also stories of those who, against all odds, managed to survive. Some happened to be family members of future famous individuals.
Browse through the following gallery and find out which celebrities have family members who survived the Holocaust.