At 21, Gertie Neumann, junior Zoe Shook’s great‑grandmother, rode her bike from town to town in Germany, chasing down visas, passports and the last paperwork her family needed to leave.

“She was young, but she knew something bad was coming,” Jeremy Shook, Zoe’s father and Gertie’s grandson, said. “And once my great-grandfather died, she realized she had to do what she had to do to get them out.”

On Jeremy’s maternal side, the family’s American story begins in the late 1930s. Jeremy’s grandfather escaped Germany in 1937, and his grandmother followed in September 1938, just weeks before Kristallnacht, bringing her mother and 16-year-old sister with her.

“My great-grandmother was 21 when she sold the house, sold the business and got her mother and sister out,” Zoe Shook said. “Her father had been a proud German. He believed things would get better.”

In the years before she left, Gertie’s two older brothers were allowed to go ahead. Boys could leave, their father insisted, but the girls remained. Then, after a sudden heart attack took him at 50, Gertie was forced to lead.

“She had to figure it out without guidance,” Zoe Shook said. “Trying to get everyone’s passports together. She was basically a kid, and she was trying to get everyone out and safe.”

German restrictions barred Jews from taking money out of the country, forcing families to convert what little they had into physical goods before leaving. Gertie used that loophole to purchase furniture. Most of it was sold in America, but some pieces stayed with the family.

“We still have furniture pieces they brought on a boat,” Zoe Shook said. “That’s really cool to me.”

Those objects, including a china cabinet, old photos, scraps of family records and the repeated story of the family’s migration to the United States, keep Gertie’s memory alive.

“I heard about it quite a lot because I knew my great-grandmother,” Zoe Shook said. “There was such an effort to get here, it wouldn’t make sense to forget about it.”

On the other side of Zoe’s family, Elizabeth Shook, Zoe’s mother, describes how her grandfather escaped the Ukraine-Russia region.

“He evaded the Russian army,” Elizabeth Shook said. “He got himself and his entire family out of Ukraine and came to America.”

Although Jeremy and Elizabeth’s parents migrated for different reasons, both families were forced to leave and rebuild.

“We consider ourselves pretty new Americans,” Elizabeth Shook said. “My dad’s father came about 100 years ago. It’s still very much part of our story.”

At home, Elizabeth Shook’s grandparents maintained their traditions. Outside their home, they assimilated.

“They adopted really American first names,” Elizabeth Shook said. “Susan and Carol. They told us it was because those were the most popular American names at the time.”

At the same time, the family kept one identity that mattered most.

“Maintaining our Jewish identity was important,” Elizabeth Shook said. “They joined a temple, found a community, and held onto that part of who they were.”

For Zoe, Carol Neumann, her grandmother and Gertie’s daughter, made an effort to continue their Jewish traditions.

“She used to have us over every Friday night for Shabbat,” Zoe said. “She’s trying to ensure we have that part of our life.”

Additionally, the family adopted non-religious traditions, but they still stem from the same fears of the 1930s.

“One of the family rules is [that] everyone should have a valid passport,” Zoe’s mother said. “The minute our kids were born, they were getting passports, and we’ve never let ours lapse.”

Jeremy frames it less as paranoia and more as a lasting lesson, one that will always stay with the family.

“It’s very common in the Jewish community,” Jeremy Shook said. “You just make sure you’re always prepared.”

Some of these rules are more symbolic than practical, but that does not make them any less meaningful.

“We would never own a German car,” he said. “That was something I was very aware of growing up.”

What Zoe inherits is not just a story of immigration, but a set of values forged by it.

“Family is very important, and you stick with your family,” Zoe’s mother said. “Loyalty is big, also being a person of your word, and telling the truth.”

The Shooks believe the story exists not to hold their family in grief, but to remember how much they sacrificed and to keep that effort alive.

“We have this great story of [the] success of immigrating,” Jeremy Shook said. “But it’s also a story of sadness.”