One day Eliot Rudnicki ’90 was just a guy working in finance and marketing, raising a family, and when his mind drifts back, remembering the connection and love he had for his paternal step-Bubbie — the Yiddish term for grandmother — who died in 2005. 

In 2012 all of that changed when a mysterious letter arrived from Germany. The surprise correspondence led Eliot on a journey that uncovered his Bubbie’s dark secrets, in addition to his struggles of coming to terms with her hidden past. 

He recently published a book, My Bubbie The Nazi:  My Jewish Grandmother’s Hidden Past, about the deep connection with his step-grandmother, a proclaimed Auschwitz survivor who became his family’s religious matriarch.  

“It was a rollercoaster of discovery and emotions — but like all good roller coasters, although it was scary, thrilling, a bit nauseating, and exciting,” Eliot said in an interview, “I am very happy I rode it.”  

Eliot's paternal grandparents fled Germany before the arrival of the Nazis. His paternal grandmother died before he was born, and in 1979 his paternal grandfather, or Zaydie in Yiddish, married a woman he had known for years from the tight-knit Jewish community of Brooklyn, N.Y., in which he lived.  Bubbie Molly integrated into the family, as Eliot says, seamlessly and lovingly for the next 26 years until her death. She became beloved. 

The letter that Eliot’s family received in 2012 was from a German woman named Margret who purported to be Bubbie Molly’s abandoned daughter. In the letter and the subsequent correspondence between Eliot and Margret, he learned that Bubbie Molly was not Jewish, but was raised as a member of a German family that supported the Nazis. Her brothers were members of the Wehrmacht, the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany. Margret also shared that Bubbie Molly gave birth to her out of wedlock when she was 16 and, a few years later, left Margret to be raised by Bubbie Molly’s parents. At 23 Bubbie Molly left war-torn Germany for Brooklyn. She never saw or talked to her daughter again and never revealed that part of her life.  

In his book, Eliot wrestles with expressing and processing the feelings that the revelations about Bubbie evoked in him, and he searches for explanations for her actions. Why did she abandon her daughter? Was she affiliated with the Nazi party, or did she help the Nazi cause in some way, either by omission or commission? Who was the real Bubbie Molly? 

“The process of writing the book raised many emotions, as you might imagine, the most visceral and daunting of which I faced at the beginning of my discovery when I first received the letter.” Eliot says. “Obviously, the discovery about my Bubbie's past was inconceivable, to say the least.  My family was so shocked and affronted that they refused to be involved in my correspondence with Margret. I took the time to process how it made me feel, and frankly, I am not always sure about my conclusions.”  

Throughout the book, Eliot describes a journey to figure out who Bubbie Molly really was and to satisfy a daughter's search for information about her mother. But that journey was cut short. Soon after engaging in correspondence with Margret, Eliot received a letter from a friend of Margret's informing him that Margret had died after being accidentally struck by a car. 

“I was truly gutted that, after a lifelong journey to find the mother who abandoned her, Margret’s search was only partially requited,” Eliot said. “I felt that I had failed her. The answers to her questions were within my grasp, but I couldn't deliver them. It took some time for me to recover from that disappointment and readdress this surreal discovery.” 

Eliot's path to writing a book was as winding as the story itself. When Eliot shared the story with friends, the common response was, “You should write a book.” While mowing the lawn one day in 2025, he was listening to the World War II history podcast We Have Ways of Making You Talk, in which the hosts invited listeners to share a personal story related to the war. Eliot sent in a synopsis of his story. It was featured on one of the podcasts and led to an invitation for him to speak at the We Have Ways Festival in England in September of 2025. The festival brings together historians, authors, and experts. There Eliot ultimately made connections that led him to Barnthorn Publishing, an independent book publisher in England. 

“The book is so much more than an engaging recitation of the facts of this ‘truth-is-stranger-than-fiction story,’” Eliot says. “It is a thriller/mystery, a historical nonfiction, as well as an autobiography of sorts and an origin story. It is at times funny, sad, touching, and shocking. It is a love story to my Bubbie Molly and all of my Bubbies and Zaydies as well as an ode to Margret.” 

In the acknowledgement section of his book, Eliot gives credit to Loomis Chaffee: “Looking at some of the ingredients in the chapters I wrote, it is incumbent upon me to also thank my teachers. Many from … the Loomis Chaffee School, Mr. [Adrian] Bronk, Mr. [Fred] Seebeck and Mr. [Bert] Thurber, in particular. These are teachers who have filled my head with wonderful lessons on critical thinking and history.”  

Lessons that helped him ride this roller coaster.  

As Eliot writes in the book, “Many of the details and stories of Bubbie Molly's life and treatment of her biological family and as well as the family into which she married, will forever remain unresolved and drive great despair and angst.” 

Yet, he also writes of Bubbie Molly, “I still and always have loved her. ... In my final analysis, love is what Margret and Bubbie Molly wanted and needed. It is a shame they could not provide it for each other. I hope my relationship with Margret and Bubbie Molly gave them some of the love for which they yearned.”