Finding Your Roots

Henry Louis Gates Jr: I'm Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Welcome to "Finding Your Roots".

In this episode we'll meet comedian Larry David and Senator Bernie Sanders.

Two men forever linked by one hilarious impersonation... Larry David: We're doomed, we need a revolution.

Bernie Sanders: He does a better Bernie Sanders than I do.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: We'll reveal that they have much more in common than meets the eye.

They are bound by shared places ... And a shared desire to know more about their family trees.

Bernie Sanders: For 100 different reasons, there was no understanding of where our people came from.

Larry David: I asked, I never got uh never got any answers.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: To uncover their roots, we've used every tool available.

Genealogists help stitch together the past from the paper trail their ancestors left behind, while DNA experts utilize the latest advances in genetic analysis to reveal secrets hundreds of years old.

Larry David: Wow, look at this.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: And we've compiled it all into a book of life.

A record of our discoveries.

Bernie Sanders: You're leaving me speechless.

Larry David: What, are you kidding?

You can see why my father didn't want to tell me anything about his family.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: In this episode, Larry and Bernie will take a journey from the streets of Brooklyn to the distant reaches of a now vanished European empire.

We'll bring their family trees to life introducing them to ancestors they never even knew existed and reshaping the way they see themselves.

(Theme music plays) Henry Louis Gates Jr: Larry David is a comedic genius.

He was the co-creator of the beloved sitcom "Seinfeld" and is the driving force behind the wildly acerbic HBO series "Curb Your Enthusiasm".

Larry David: You're a bit of a numbskull, aren't you?

Nothing seems to register.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Larry's also created an impersonation of our second guest Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders... Larry David: I own one pair of underwear.

That's it.

Some of these billionaires, they've got 3, 4 pairs.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: An impression so uncanny that it set social media on fire.

I was so surprised to see "Larry" playing "Bernie" because I've gotten so used to watching Larry playing himself... Larry David: I can't stand the sound of the human voice.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: His TV persona has fascinated me for years.

A man who says exactly what he feels and always does exactly what he wants when he wants.

But it turns out, even Larry himself can't live that way... Larry David: I love Larry, okay?

I can't say that I love this Larry sitting here, but I definitely loved being that Larry because he's totally honest.

Um, he's not a, he's not really afraid.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Well, how are you different?

Larry David: I'm exactly the opposite of that.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Oh, you're totally the opposite.

Larry David: Completely dishonest, completely afraid of everything.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Larry told me that his TV persona is sort of an idealized version of the way he'd like to be.

As for the way he actually is?

Well, Larry says his true character was forged in his childhood home an apartment in Sheepshead Bay, in Brooklyn where many of his neighbors were actually members of his own extended family... Larry David: I was always surrounded by, uh, cousins and aunts and uncles, and my grandmother lived in my building.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: What's it like, living surrounded by your family?

Larry David: There's no privacy, really.

The door's open all the time, people always coming in and out.

Everybody knowing everything about your business, uh, everybody, overhearing everything you were saying and a lot of screaming.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Lot of screaming.

Larry David: Yes, everybody screamed.

Uh, I felt, um, violated.

(Laughs).

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Growing up, Larry's performance in school left a lot to be desired.

He was an indifferent student with few ambitions.

Even his parents had no inkling of the success that one day he'd achieve... Larry David: My mother wanted me to work in the post office.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: The post office, how come?

Larry David: She wanted me to be a, uh, be a mailman, because she didn't think I could do anything, really.

She had no confidence in my intellect or abilities, and she thought that being a mailman would be a terrific job for me.

The hours were great, you get a pension, "What could be bad, Larry?"

You know, they, you know, they begged me to take a civil service test.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Did you take it?

Larry David: I took the civil service test, yeah and I believe I flunked it.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Larry said that he didn't even think about a career in comedy until college at the University of Maryland, where he discovered that he could get a laugh... Simply by being himself.

What happened in college that made you?

Larry David: I was sort of novel there, as opposed to what I was in Brooklyn.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Which is regular.

Larry David: Yeah, which is just regular, right, the same as everybody else, but in college, somehow, I was a novelty, and, um, I started to develop my take on things, which I didn't have in Brooklyn.

And uh, a lot of people started laughing at things I was saying, for the first time.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Larry was hooked.

He spent more than a decade grinding away at stand up on the comedy club circuit.

That's where he met a fellow up-and-comer named Jerry Seinfeld.

The two clicked and the rest, as they say, is history... How did your folks respond to the success?

Larry David: Oh, well, well, well, yes, well, quite a difference, quite a difference.

They were pretty proud, yeah.

My mother could barely contain the kvelling, which is a Yiddish word, it means to swell with pride.

But even though the show was number one in the country, she still had no confidence that I was doing okay, and that they were going to keep me.

"Did they like you, Larry?

What did they say?

Did they say you're doing a good job?"

Yeah?

Ma, we're the number-one show in the country, we're okay.

Bernie Sanders: This country needs a political revolution.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders energized voters young and old like few politicians I've ever seen.

Some thought he was too radical.

Some didn't think he could be elected.

While others mourn the fact that he's not occupying the Oval Office today.

But his passion and vision brought him within reach of the United States presidency... And no matter where you stand, I think it's hard not to admire his intense commitment to his ideals... Bernie Sanders: Social, economic, racial and environmental justice... Henry Louis Gates Jr: When he agreed to be in the series, I was delighted.

I flew up to meet him in Burlington, Vermont where he lives and works.

Bernie Sanders: I really don't have much of a sense of family history.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Burlington is a beautiful, idyllic place, but our conversation quickly turned elsewhere... Bernie grew up just miles away from Larry David, and it was immediately clear that much like Larry, Bernie is a product of his Brooklyn childhood... Bernie Sanders: We spent our lives, our lives out on the street.

On Saturday mornings, 9:00 in the morning, we would go out to the schoolyard, we would play basketball, we would play handball, we would play what was called Chinese handball.

We played box ball.

And one of the extraordinary things which has had a profound impact on my life, we had no adult supervision.

We were out there on our own, choosing up our own teams, making our own rules.

And at the end of the day, when kids play every day together, you can't fool me.

I don't care how much money your parents have, you are not a great basketball player.

There is nothing that is gonna convince me that you are, because I've seen you playing for years.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Meritocracy.

Bernie Sanders: Absolutely.

And by the way, it was also democratic in the sense that we needed everybody.

People were involved.

Uh, and, uh, it was a wonderful way to grow up.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Unfortunately, the happiness Bernie felt in the schoolyard was offset by troubles at home.

His parents struggled financially throughout his childhood and when he was in high school, his mother became gravely ill.

She died at age 46, when Bernie was a freshman at Brooklyn College.

Desperate to get away, Bernie left Brooklyn for the University of Chicago where he found solace in a new world of books, ideas, and student activism.

Bernie Sanders: I probably learned a lot more about life outside of the classroom while I was at Chicago than when I was in the classroom.

I got involved in the Student Peace Union, I got involved in the Young People's Socialist League.

I became involved in the Civil Rights Movement.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: You attended the March on Washington.

Bernie Sanders: I sure did, remember it distinctly.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Were you aware that you were listening to the speech of the century when Dr.

King spoke?

Bernie Sanders: No, no, what I was aware of was not only his brilliance, but his incredible courage.

As you will remember, by the end of his life, he had gone beyond just being a civil rights leader.

He was in opposition to the war in Vietnam, which cost him a lot of support from the establishment.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: It did.

Bernie Sanders: He began to talk about income and wealth inequality, and at the end of his life it was the March on, the poor people's march, black, white, Latino, Native Americans who said we have got to change our national priorities.

Nobody wanted to hear it.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Now, he was moving to a socialist position without a doubt.

Bernie Sanders: Absolutely.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Even the March on Washington was called the March on Jobs.

Bernie Sanders: People forget that.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Yeah, they forget... Bernie Sanders: March for jobs, because what he said is sure, we can desegregate everything, what difference if you don't have the money to go into the restaurant?

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Right.

Bernie Sanders: So all of that, uh, activity certainly shaped my life.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Though Bernie may have heard his calling at a young age, the road from student activist to U.S.

Senator was long and winding.

It started when he moved to Vermont soon after college.

He agitated for socialist causes and worked intermittently as a freelance journalist, before trying his hand in politics.

It took him years to gain traction.

Bernie Sanders: First time, I got 2% of the vote.

Now, that was a special election.

A little while later, there was the general election.

I ran for governor.

I got 1% of the vote.

I was heading in the wrong direction.

Then I ran for state senate again and I got 4%.

I ran for governor again, I got 6% and I said, "Okay, that's it, I'm out."

But a good friend of mine, he was looking at some of the statistics.

He said, "You know, you got 6% statewide, but you got 12% here in Burlington.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Ah.

Bernie Sanders: "And in the low income and working-class areas, you got more than that."

Henry Louis Gates Jr: There you go.

Bernie Sanders: "And if you just focus on Burlington, you know what?

I think you got a shot to win."

Henry Louis Gates Jr: In 1981, Bernie was elected mayor of Burlington by ten votes.

It was the first step in a remarkable career.

A career that's made him a national icon.

But, in a sense, Bernie has never moved very far from his roots.

He's still motivated by the life he lived back in Brooklyn over fifty years ago... Bernie Sanders: I grew up in a family where, uh, lack of money caused a lot of financial stress.

In our family, it was the source of a lot of arguments between my parents, and had an impact on my life and my brother's life.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: How did that affect your politics?

Bernie Sanders: Well, it affected my politics profoundly.

Uh, it made me understand that as we speak, uh, many, many, many millions of American families are struggling right now to put food on their table, to make sure that their kids get a decent education, that they can put away a few bucks for retirement.

I know about that, I lived through that.

So, it's something I've not forgotten.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Larry David and Bernie Sanders were profoundly shaped by the place where they were raised.

Their outlooks are as unique to Brooklyn as Coney Island and Nathan's franks.

Yet their roots lie elsewhere.

All the branches of their family trees stretch back to Jewish communities in Europe communities that were almost completely destroyed, many of their stories lost.

I wanted to help bring them back.

I started with Larry David.

Larry told me that even though he grew up surrounded by relatives, he knew almost nothing about his family's history.

His mother Rose, he said, was especially guarded about her past.

I heard that your mom was secretive, was a word that was used to describe her.

Would you say that was right?

Larry David: Yes, you know, she was older than my father?

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Right.

Larry David: I never knew that until she died.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Oh okay, so there you go.

Larry David: It's always puzzled me how little I knew.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: It turns out, Larry's mother was concealing more than just her age.

Her parents were immigrants and she kept their stories from her children... Henry Louis Gates Jr: Did your mother talk about family history, ever?

Larry David: No.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: No.

Larry David: No.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Why don't you think you ever heard about any of your ancestors?

Larry David: I don't know.

Nobody told me anything.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: It's like they took a sponge on a blackboard of your family tree and go (swishing noise) we are starting over.

Larry David: Yeah, I don't know, I asked.

I never got any, uh, I never got any answers.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Tracing Larry's maternal family beyond Brooklyn was a serious challenge.

Records revealed that his mother's parents were born in Austria in the 1870s.

At that time, "Austria" could refer to anywhere in what was then known as the Austro-Hungarian empire.

And that was a problem because the empire was huge!

It included what is now Austria, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Croatia, and Serbia as well as parts of Poland, Ukraine, and Italy.

Without more information, finding Larry's family would have been like looking for a needle in a haystack... You go, "I'm from Austria," which is the Austro-Hungarian empire.

You go, "good luck."

Like, "I'm from the pacific ocean."

So, we were completely stumped, we're looking at this enormous place, we had no idea where your ancestors are from.

We didn't even know where to start looking, too many archives to look through.

Larry David: Yeah, well, this is gonna be very impressive if you can come up with it.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: One of our researchers noticed a tiny little thing.

Would you please turn the page?

Larry David: Really?

Whoa, well, well.

Let's look at this, what do we have?

Henry Louis Gates Jr: The key to our search lay in documents filed by Larry's grandmother Sara Brandes when she became a United States citizen.

They told us that her maiden name was "Superfein" and they revealed the place where she and her husband Leib were born... Larry David: Oh wow, look at that!

Oh this is so cool.

"I am 61 years old.

I was born in Tarnopol, Poland.

The name of my husband is Leib, he was born in Tarnopol, Poland in 1876."

Well, there you go.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: There you go, how 'bout that?

Larry David: Poles.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Neither Larry nor I had ever heard of Tarnopol, but it's the ancestral home of his mother's family.

When his grandparents were born, it was a small city on the edge of the Austro-Hungarian empire.

Its population was very poor and densely crowded.

Today, many of the surviving records of its Jewish community are stored in Warsaw, Poland... They turned out to be a gold mine for our researchers allowing us to document multiple generations of Larry's ancestors and reveal one very surprising secret... Larry David: "Date of birth: March 16, 1911.

Name of child: Regina.

Mother: Sara Golda Superfein."

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Right, that is your grandmother Sara giving birth to her daughter Regina.

Larry David: Okay, I have no aunt Regina.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: You don't have an aunt Regina?

Larry David: No.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Wow, so you think we made a mistake?

Larry David: No, I don't think you made a mistake.

I think she must have left somebody there, or maybe she died.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: That's your mother's name.

Your mother's name was Regina.

(Gasping) Larry David: Oh Regina?

Oh my God, you're kidding.

That's a great name, why didn't she use that name?

Henry Louis Gates Jr: I have no idea.

Larry David: Don't you like that name?

Henry Louis Gates Jr: I love that name.

Larry David: I cannot believe that I didn't know her real name.

That's astounding.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Yeah.

Larry David: It's so typical of my mother to, uh, to withhold something like that.

Yeah, huh, well, you're full of, uh, you're full of treasures here.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: And did you know your mother was born in Europe?

Larry David: No, I did not.

You see, this is why... Henry Louis Gates Jr: She had secrets.

Larry David: Yeah, secrets, yeah.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Larry wanted to know more about his family in Tarnopol.

Fortunately, we found the documents that we needed.

Census records allowed us to take him back to his great-grandparents Israel Brandes and Blume Bogner who had a very large family... Henry Louis Gates Jr: Your great-grandparents, Israel and Blume, had ten children.

Larry David: Oh my goodness.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Children of Israel Brandes and Blume Bogner.

Larry David: All these are their children?

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Yeah, look at that.

Larry David: Wow, holy cow.

Hirsch Brandes, Joseph Chaim Bogner, Reise Bogner, Itzyk Brandes, Marjem, Marjem Elke Bogner, Pessie Ronie Bogner, Perl Bogner... And those are all siblings?

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Yeah, they're all Leib's siblings.

Larry David: Of my grandfather.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: All of Leib's siblings.

Isn't that amazing?

Larry David: Yeah, this is big news!

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Unfortunately, the story of Larry's family in Tarnopol has a tragic ending.

Of Israel and Blume's ten children, we believe that Larry's grandfather Leib was the only one who immigrated to the United States.

Those who remained behind suffered terrible consequences.

(Explosions) in September of 1939, Germany invaded Poland.

The Nazi forces wasted little time repressing the Jewish population: shuttering businesses... Confiscating property... And forcing Polish Jews into urban ghettos... By July of 1941, Hitler's armies had reached Tarnopol.

At the time, roughly 17,000 Jewish people lived in the city.

Within a week, more than 5,000 of them had been murdered.

Those who survived were crowded into a squalid ghetto, where thousands more died or were sent to Belzec the notorious extermination camp.

By war's end, Tarnopol's entire Jewish population had been reduced to a few hundred.

We don't know for certain what happened to Larry's family.

But the records held at Yad Vashem repository of the world's largest database on the Holocaust suggest that none survived.

We found that there are 170 victims listed in the Tarnopol area who have the surname Brandes, and 62 listed victims with the surname Bogner.

Larry David: I wonder if they, if they knew what happened, my grand, my grandmother and grandfather.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Oh, yeah, I wonder.

They had to presume.

Larry David: Again, I never, I never heard of that.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Yeah, Leib died in '49.

He had to know.

Larry David: Right.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: I mean, these are his siblings, for Christ's sake... Larry David: Sure, he had to know that his family was killed.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: But think about how lucky your grandparents were.

Larry David: Yeah.

Well, they made the decision to, to leave.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: They could have stayed and if they had stayed.

Larry David: Yeah.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: In a sense, you only exist because your grandparents were so determined to get out of Tarnopol.

What do you make of that?

You know, it's kind of curious to think about it, you know?

Just one decision, maybe they were arguing the night before.

"I want to stay."

"I want to go."

Larry David: Yeah, these, these little things that happen every day in our lives, little decisions... Henry Louis Gates Jr: Yeah.

Larry David: Affect everything.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Yeah.

Larry David: But I, I would... It would have been nice if they had told somebody what was behind that decision, and it was passed on in family lore.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Of course... Larry David: But there is no family lore.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: No, but the weight, can you imagine?

Leib is living with the death of all these people... Larry David: I know.

How do you not, how do you not tell your, your children and grandchildren about that?

Henry Louis Gates Jr: How does it not kill you?

I mean, just think of the guilt, the remorse, the pain... Larry David: Yeah, very secretive family.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Much like Larry David, Senator Bernie Sanders grew up hearing very little about his ancestors.

Bernie knew that his father Elias Sanders had emigrated from Poland as a teenager.

But further details eluded him.

Indeed, most of Bernie's memories of his father concern the sacrifices that Elias made in America... Henry Louis Gates Jr: There's your father.

Bernie Sanders: Yup, there he is.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: There's your father looking... Bernie Sanders: Looking very debonair, if I must say so myself.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: How are you like your father?

Bernie Sanders: I'm tight with money, I worry about money.

Kind of conservative in not being terribly bold and going out in new ventures.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: You?

Bernie Sanders: I know, you would think that's strange, but it really, if you know me, I mean that's one part of me.

But there's another part of me which is not, which is more conservative.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: A door-to-door paint salesman, Elias Sanders logged thousands of miles driving up and down Long Island, trying to support his family.

His struggles left a deep impression on his son... Bernie Sanders: He made his living based on commissions, and his fear was being unemployed and not having any money and not being able to take care of his family.

My mother had to push him very, very hard to make more money.

He was content with where he was, and she had to push him, "Go out, you can do more, you can make more money and he said, "I got a job, and I'm making a living.

Leave me alone, that's good enough."

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Elias died when Bernie was just twenty years old taking with him the untold stories of his life before he came to America.

Bernie told me that he has always wished he knew more.

In 2013, he and his brother Larry even traveled to their father's birthplace a small town called Slopnice in what is now southern Poland.

But little trace of his family remained.

To reconstruct it, we had to go back in time, back to the early 20th century, when Bernie's father was just a child and Slopnice was part of Galicia a heavily-Jewish province in the Austro-Hungarian empire.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Did your father ever talk about what it was like at the time?

Bernie Sanders: He did and God, do I wish he were here now to tell me more.

I mean, he, we talked a little bit about it, that there were troops coming and troops going, and they were occupied one day by one army and occupied the next day by the other army, but, he didn't talk about it a whole lot.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: As it turns out, Elias's reticence was understandable.

His childhood was marked by tragedy... He lost his father when he was roughly five years old and he grew up in a world shaped by hunger.

Galicia suffered terrible famines when he was a child with thousands dying each year from starvation and disease.

And that was just the beginning.

When Elias was nine, world war I engulfed Europe.

Within months, a Russian army entered Galicia and began to terrorize its Jewish population... Murdering and plundering.

Soon after, the Russians ran headlong into an Austrian army and another kind of terror was unleashed.

Elias' homeland became a war zone.

Bernie Sanders: "Horrors of a battlefield in western Galicia.

The Austrians brought up great masses of cavalry and placed heavy artillery on the mountains.

Every day there was a shifting, a readjustment, an advance here, a retreat there."

It's exactly what my father said.

"The Russians appear to have been out-generaled at every important point until at last, they were forced to undertake an extensive retreat northward."

Holy moly.

On top of everything else.

Think about a battle of this horror being waged outside of your door.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Oh my God.

I mean, what effect do you think that had on your father to witness that kind of death and destruction?

Bernie Sanders: God, who can only imagine it, and then, then the fear is that if one side won, you don't know what will happen.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Oh yeah.

Bernie Sanders: What I'm learning now is that the situation was far, far more dire than I had fully appreciated.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Bernie's family survived the war, but the peace brought no relief.

The allied victory in 1918 led to the break up of the Austro-Hungarian empire and much of Galicia was incorporated into the newly-reconstituted nation of Poland.

This unleashed a wave of fervent Polish nationalism.

Among the victims, were Jews.

Who were now seen as outsiders.

Within days, just miles from Slopnice, the town of Dobra was consumed by anti-Semitic violence... Bernie Sanders: "Since Monday the worst kind of pogroms against Jews have spread to Dobra.

In the assaults, residents of Dobra took part.

Every one of the 40 Jewish families, without exception, was plundered.

The militia also took part in the plunder."

Oh, God.

You know, this is the first, you know, I hear about the specifics, but you think about how vulnerable, who's there to protect you?

Henry Louis Gates Jr: No.

Bernie Sanders: I mean, there's no law and order, there's no police that you can go to, 'Cause the police may be turning on you, no government that gets your protection.

You're totally vulnerable.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Right.

Bernie Sanders: God, I tell you, I'm gonna turn this page with hesitation here, because what I'm seeing is so horrific.

I don't know what you got here next.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: The attacks in Dobra were the start of something much larger.

In the ensuing months, more than 60 pogroms broke out across Galicia making headlines around the world.

Bernie Sanders: "Brzesko, assaults, looting, and murder by armed peasants Lemberg, the most savage and destructive pogrom.

73 Jews killed, 49 houses and synagogues completely burned to the ground.

Limanowa.

Plundering and injurious assaults by local villagers."

See, what gets you here is, as ugly and horrible as war is, that's kind of organized.

There's an army that comes in.

This is by local villagers.

This is by the person living across the street from you.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Yeah.

Bernie Sanders: And so my father grew up in a community where you did not know who you can trust.

Maybe the person you bought something from in two days would be ransacking your house.

I mean, how do you live in that kind of environment?

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Oh, yeah.

Bernie Sanders: I mean I knew that it was tough, but wow.

Add all of that together that is a hell of a place to grow up in.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: What impact did this have on your dad?

I mean, it had to be a traumatic.

Do you think that helps to explain why he was risk-averse?

Bernie Sanders: Absolutely, it does.

Man, you could have been working for nothing in the United States, and you're doing 1,000 times better than there.

So, he had something, he had a job.

Why in a million years, after going through this, why would you give a thought about the possibility of losing your job, when you had something?

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Bernie's father emigrated to the United States in 1921 when he was just sixteen.

Arrival records show he traveled alone with only $25 to his name.

But Elias was able to build a life for himself in America and seven years later, he did something that showed just how important that life had become to him... Bernie Sanders: "Be it remembered that Elias Sanders on the 14th day of February it was thereupon ordered by the said court that he be admitted as a citizen," as a citizen, of the United States of America."

Henry Louis Gates Jr: That is your father's certificate of naturalization.

Bernie Sanders: My dad was a very, very proud American, not somebody who ever talked about it a whole lot, he didn't wave flags, but he loved this country in a very, very deep way, and discussions that we've had today made me realize all the more why he loved this country and the opportunities that it gave him, especially from where he came from.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Oh yeah.

Bernie Sanders: And it's not something that he ever conveyed to us.

He wanted us to grow up in a very different environment.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Sure.

Bernie Sanders: So, you think about his kids playing, you know, punch ball, baseball, or football in the schoolyard all day long, what a different, different world.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: I bet sometimes he watched you guys playing box ball or... Bernie Sanders: Could not believe it.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: You kids, you don't even know.

Bernie Sanders: You don't even know, of course not.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: You don't want to know.

Bernie Sanders: And I, I think in fairness to him, he did not want us to know.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: No.

Bernie Sanders: He wanted us, to shield us from that horror.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: We had already traced Larry's maternal roots back three generations to Jewish communities in eastern Europe.

Now, we wanted to see what we could find out about his father's family.

Larry David: Wow, look at that.

Look at that handsome man.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Look at that.

Larry David: That's my father, uh, Mortimer.

Hey, Morty!

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Your father was a clothing salesman whom you've described as a happy-go-lucky guy.

Larry David: Yeah, look at him.

Very, that's exactly what he was like.

Happy-go-lucky.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Just like you.

Larry David: Until he met my mother.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: How are you most like your father?

Larry David: Oh, I, I don't know.

I'm, I'm, I'm much more like my mother than my father.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Well how, I mean, how are you different than your father?

Larry David: He wasn't neurotic.

He was very confrontational.

If he didn't like something at a restaurant, "These peas are cold, the peas are cold," you know?

He was a guy like that.

I'm not; I'm not like that.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: If Larry's mother had been guarded about her family history, Larry's father was downright evasive... Larry David: I would ask him a question, he would repeat it.

He would repeat the question.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Like a psychiatrist.

Larry David: Yeah, exactly.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: And you never heard any stories about your David ancestors?

Larry David: No, not one.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Our search for Larry's father's family was less complicated than the one we conducted on his mother's side, but it was no less surprising.

We started with Larry's great-grandfather, a peddler named Julius David who immigrated to New York sometime in the 1860s.

His naturalization papers reveal that he came from what was once an independent state known as "Hesse-Darmstadt" which today is in Germany... Larry David: "I, Julius David, renounce forever all allegiance and fidelity to the duke of Hesse-Darmstadt."

Henry Louis Gates Jr: You ever hear of that place, Hesse-Darmstadt?

Larry David: No, no.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: That's where the David's are from, right there.

Larry David: From Hesse-Darmstadt.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: That is your ancestor's homeland, man.

That's it.

Larry David: All right.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Right there.

Larry David: So I'm, uh, I'm a German boy.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: You're a German boy.

Larry David: I'm part German.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Larry is actually more than part German... Much more!

Indeed, his father's family on almost every line came from places in modern-day Germany or in what was once known as Prussia.

And most settled in New York City.

It's a remarkably consistent bunch with one notable exception... Larry David: What, what?

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Look at where your great-grandmother, Henrietta was born.

Larry David: Alabama.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Alabama.

Did you have any idea that you had family from Alabama?

Larry David: Absolutely not.

What the hell is that?

That's unbelievable.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Larry's great-grandmother whose name Henrietta Bernstein was born in Mobile, Alabama.

Her parents Henry and Bertha were Bavarian Jews who settled in Mobile in the early-1850s.

The family's very existence was a total shock to Larry... This is so cool, look at this.

This is a census, federal census for 1860, the year before the Civil War.

Larry David: I just don't understand how you people can find this stuff, it's incredible.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: The census was recorded in Mobile, Alabama in 1860.

Would you please read the transcribed section?

Larry David: Uh, "Henry Bernstein, age 31, occupation: shoe merchant.

Value of real estate: $3,000.

Value of personal estate, $5,000" that's not bad.

Uh, Bertha Bernstein, age: 24.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: They are your great-great-grandparents on this line.

Larry David: That is very cool.

Oh, there's a photograph.

A photograph, don't tell me that's Henry.

Is that Henry?

Henry Louis Gates Jr: That's your ancestor.

Larry David: Wow, hey look at that.

That's the great-great... Henry Louis Gates Jr: Great-great-grandfather.

Larry David: Wow, wow.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Did you have any, even in your wildest dreams, that you had southern roots?

Larry David: Never.

I'm a little more exotic than I thought I was.

Alabama exotic, I don't know.

Germany, exotic, I've got some of the probably most racist places in the world connected... Henry Louis Gates Jr: Yeah, anti-Semitic married to anti-black racism.

Larry David: Right, yeah.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Larry's family opened a window into something that most of us know little about the Jewish community of the pre-Civil War south.

As it turns out, Mobile was one of its hubs.

The city had a small Jewish population only about 100 people as of 1860.

Nevertheless, the community had planted roots and even built their own house of worship temple Sh'aari Shomayim... Larry David: Wow, there's a temple in Mobile, Alabama.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: It was founded in 1844.

Larry David: Holy mackerel.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: You recognize any names?

Larry David: Yeah, sure, sure, Henry Bernstein.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Yeah, they were members of the congregation.

Larry David: Wow.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: That is where your ancestors worshiped.

Larry David: Holy, alright, this is getting cool.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: To this point, the story of the Bernstein family had been totally unexpected.

But what we discovered next was a plot twist so absurd, it seemed like something Larry David himself might have dreamed up... Larry David: "H. Bernstein, private, captain... Charles A. Herts company... Appears on a pay roll of the organization from March 26th, 1862."

Are you telling me that my great-grandfather fought for the south in the Civil War?

What, are you kidding?

See, that, now that's something, that's something.

I can't, that's mind-blowing to me.

I can't believe it.

That's, wow.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: You're looking at a Civil War muster roll.

Larry David: Wow.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: In 1862, your great-great-grandfather signed up to fight for the confederacy.

Larry David: All right.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: In all, only about 3,000 Jewish men served in the confederate military and Henry Bernstein was one of them.

Larry seemed to be struggling to wrap his head around the story.

Larry David: This is just such an odd combination on my father's side, of the Germany and the south.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Yeah.

Larry David: Two places that we have fought against as a country.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Yeah right.

Larry David: Oh my goodness.

I hope no slaves show up on this?

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Please turn the page.

Now Larry, this is another part of the 1860 census.

Larry David: Oh, oh, you did it, you did it.

I knew it, I knew it, unbelievable!

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Unbelievable.

Larry David: Boy.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: That's unbelievable.

Larry David: Oh boy, oh boy.

"Name of the slave owner: Henry Bernstein."

My great-grandfather was a slave owner.

Slaves: 1 female, age: 4, mulatto.

1 female, age: 17, mulatto."

Oh, oh professor, I, I'm so sorry.

You can see why my father didn't want to tell me anything about his family.

I, I don't know where you got this stuff.

This is really incredible.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Isn't that amazing?

Larry David: Holy cow.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Always look for why branches disappear.

You think, embarrassing, something happens, we don't talk.

Larry David: Right, right, that's, uh, that's amazing.

Well, Henry Bernstein, I hope you're proud of yourself.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Does it change the way you, you feel about your ancestors, or the way you think about the Civil War?

Larry David: It's definitely food for thought.

I don't know.

It hasn't all sunk in yet.

I don't know.

I, I tend to just, uh, take things in.

I'm, I'm, I'm a bit of a stoic, in a way.

You know, I don't sit with stuff for too long, and uh, it doesn't, things don't impact me a lot, but this, this has had just an effect on me.

I mean, I, I, the whole German thing and the southern thing, that's, that's pretty wild.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: It's pretty wild.

Larry David: Yeah.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: The Confederacy.

Larry David: Great-great-grandfather, owned slaves.

What the hell is that, yeah.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Yeah, what part of the Jewish experience is this?

Larry David: Yeah, exactly, yeah.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: The complexity of history comes alive when you do someone's family tree, and you can't make up the peculiarity of these individual examples, 'cause when you read a textbook, your, your, your family wouldn't be in the textbook 'Cause they don't fit.

Larry David: Exactly, it's pretty cool, the whole thing.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Yeah.

We had taken Bernie Sanders back to Poland and explored the reasons that his father Elias came to America.

Now we wanted to look at the family that Elias left behind.

Their stories had been lost, but Bernie recognized a few of his relatives in a family photograph... Bernie Sanders: The woman in the picture is, uh, my grandmother.

I am assuming that the gentleman with the beard is probably her, uh, not my father's father, but her husband.

Is that correct?

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Right, her second husband.

Bernie Sanders: Second husband.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Yeah.

Bernie Sanders: And I honestly, I'm not sure.

Is that Romek?

Henry Louis Gates Jr: That's Romek, your father's half-brother.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: The family often called him Romek.

But his birth name is Abraham.

Your brother Larry told us that the family doted on Abraham because he was the youngest, and also because he was born with a withered arm.

You never saw him before?

Bernie Sanders: No, I don't believe I ever saw this picture.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Taken in 1933, this photograph captures a family on the eve of destruction.

When Germany invaded Poland in 1939, roughly two million Jews found themselves trapped.

By the summer of 1941, much of Bernie's family was confined to the ghetto in the town of Limanowa.

Forbidden to work, with little food, and no possibility of earning a living they saw the world around them collapse and were plunged into abject poverty.

We discovered a desperate letter detailing their plight sent by the ghetto council or Judenrat to an aid organization... Bernie Sanders: "If the Jewish community from Limanowa will not receive any external support, they will be condemned to inevitable death from starvation.

Therefore, we beg your prompt help."

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Can you read the names of the members of the Judenrat who signed the letter?

Bernie Sanders: "Treasurer," uh, "Schnitzer, A. President of the board: Lustig, A. Henry Louis Gates Jr: You remember Schnitzer, A.?

That was your father's half-brother.

That's Abraham Schnitzer.

He was the treasurer of the Judenrat.

Bernie Sanders: Wow, so, he's the one who authored the letter?

Asking for help for a starving people.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Yeah, what do you think it must have been like for your father's siblings to endure that?

Can you imagine?

Bernie Sanders: There comes a point where you really can't imagine.

You really can't.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Right.

Bernie Sanders: How do we know what kind of horrors and pain people were feeling?

I mean it's impossible, I think, for any person to know how people in that moment were feeling.

But it was horrible.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Unutterably... Bernie Sanders: Unutterably horrible.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Did you have any idea that Abraham was part of the Judenrat, or do you know much about the Judenrat?

Bernie Sanders: No, honestly, I do not.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: The Judenrat occupy a controversial place in Holocaust history.

They served as intermediaries between Jewish communities and the Nazis and were responsible for enforcing order in the ghettos.

Although they were often loathed by their own people, some members believed they could use their positions for good.

For Bernie's uncle Abraham, his role in the Judenrat would force him to make a terrible choice.

On may 20, 1942, an SS officer named Heinrich Hamann demanded that the Judenrat turn over a group of resistors for execution.

Abraham refused and he paid the ultimate price.

Bernie Sanders: "Hamann ordered the shooting of twelve members of the Judenrat, adding the words, 'Come over here, you're just a cripple' to also shoot the Judenrat elder Schnitzer," and that was my uncle.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Yeah.

Bernie Sanders: So, these pigs decided that not only was he was a Jew that they hated him, but because he had a bad arm.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Yeah.

Bernie Sanders: He was to be hated as well?

Uh, "These thirteen Jewish people were led about 15 meters off the main road to a barn located there.

There they were killed with shots to the back of the neck.

Hamann pointed to the bodies, said they were members of the Judenrat, and one does not need to have guilty feelings.

Jews 'multiply like rabbits, while the soldiers on the front are bleeding to death by the thousands.

You know, it is, the savagery, what people descend into to do these kinds of things, again, it is, is, it's a little bit embarrassing to be a member of the human race, isn't it?

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Heinrich Hamann would later be charged with war crimes.

He was convicted of participating in the killing of an estimated 17,000 Polish Jews and sentenced to life in prison.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: There he is.

That's the man who had your uncle killed.

Bernie Sanders: You know, it just, you look at people who look normal, and you just wonder how people could descend to that type of barbarity, just wonder why.

These are normal people, right?

They have wives, they have children.

How could you go around starving people or shooting people because you think that they are inferior, or different than you are.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: What does it mean to you that one of your own family members stood up to the Nazis?

Bernie Sanders: You know, proud of his courage in willingly going to his own death in order to protect, uh, innocent people, so I'm very, very proud that, uh, I had a family member who showed that type of courage and decency.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: It's one of the bravest acts that I've heard of.

He had to know what... Bernie Sanders: I'm sure he did.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Consequences of his refusal.

Bernie Sanders: You know, we talked earlier about why I got involved in politics, and just, it is in order to prevent the descent of humanity into this kind of disgusting behavior.

How does it happen?

How can people do this?

And that's, you know, the struggle that we're all involved in and it just makes us realize how hard we have got to work to not descend into this type of barbarity and to create a world where people can love each other, and to do so many wonderful things together.

That's what this reinforces in me.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: We had now tracked Larry and Bernie's roots as far back as we could following the paper trail.

It was time to show them their full family trees and reveal the oldest ancestors we could name... Your family tree's so long man we'd have been here all year; until the next general election.

Bernie Sanders: Oh my God, beautiful.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: For Bernie, that meant introducing him to his 5th great-grandparents Kyla and Hersz Mlynarz likely born in what is now Poland, sometime in the early 1700s.

Bernie Sanders: Whoa, I'm really pretty speechless and I'm not often speechless.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Your great-great-great-great-great- grandparents.

We have wasps who can't go back.

(Laughing) Bernie sanders: We're closing in on the Mayflower here, huh?

Larry David: Oh, my gosh!

Look at this, look at this, this is something!

Henry Louis Gates Jr: These are all the ancestors that we found.

Larry David: Oh my goodness.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: And on your father's side, the oldest ancestor we found was your great-great-great-grandmother.

Larry David: What, that's insane?!

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Yup, (Inaudible) who was born in Germany, you ready for this, 1791.

Larry David: Wow, all right, look at that.

That's some tree.

What a tree, good for you, Larry.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Both Larry and Bernie saw their family trees extend back into Jewish communities of 18th century Europe and then disappear.

Now, I wanted to see what DNA could tell us about their more distant roots.

The first test will reveal how Jewish you are.

So, out of 100% how Jewish do you think you are?

Larry David: I'd say, uh, 85.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Okay, let's turn the page.

Can you read your percentage of Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry?

Larry David: Wow, 97.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: 97.8% Bernie sanders: 97.7 Ashkenazi Jewish."

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Basically you're like ivory soap.

Their percentages were similar, but there was one uncanny surprise in store for each of them.

Their genomes contained a startling finding.

While comparing their DNA results to the results of other people we've tested, we found one significant match.

Evidence within their own chromosomes of a relative neither suspected they shared.

We match your DNA against everybody who's been in any of my series.

If you have long identical stretches, that means you're cousins.

Larry David: Oh, I got some, I got some cousins?

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Yeah.

Larry David: I hope it's a good athlete.

What the hell?

Bernie Sanders: You're kidding.

Oh my... That is unbelievable.

It's true?

Henry Louis Gates Jr: It's true.

Larry David: Oh, that's so funny.

That is really funny.

That is amazing.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: That is amazing.

Larry David: Yeah, all right, cousin Bernie.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Cousin Bernie.

Larry David: Yeah.

Bernie Sanders: People say to me, they talk about Larry David, and I say he does a better Bernie Sanders than I do.

Oh my God.

Oh my God.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: Can you do a Larry David impression?

Bernie Sanders: Yeah, me, I'm doing it, I thought it's pretty good.

This is unbelievable.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: That's the end of our journey into the family stories of Larry David and Bernie Sanders.

Join me next time, when we unlock the secrets of the past for new guests on another episode of "Finding Your Roots".

Narrator: Next time on "Finding Your Roots" three A-list entertainers with deep family secrets.

Christopher Walken.

Christopher Walken: This is stuff that I'm hearing for the first time.

Narrator: Carly Simon.

Carly Simon: Wow, that is amazing!

This is such an eye opener.

Narrator: Fred Armisen.

Fred Armisen: What, why hasn't anyone told me this?

Narrator: Will their ancestors true identities redefine who they are?

Christopher Walken: He looks like a tough customer.

Henry Louis Gates Jr: It's like a movie!

Fred Armisen: It is like a movie.

Narrator: On the next, "Finding Your Roots".