One in Six Million is the third, and most serious, book by author Amy Fish. [https://amyfishwrites.com/]

The newly released book is entitled One in Six Million: The Baby by the Roadside and the Man Who Retraced a Holocaust Survivor’s Lost Identity, while the man it refers to is a Canadian ceiling salesman-turned-genealogist willing to lend a hand.

This is the story of Maria and Stanley, told by their Montreal-based biographer.

Amy Fish is a writer and Ombudsperson at Concordia University in Montreal. [https://amyfishwrites.com/]

One in Six Million is the real-life retelling of a baby found in a ditch in Poland in 1942 on the day the Jews in the local town were rounded up and put on trains. A couple walked by, heard something strange, and looked to see an actual baby, so they picked her up, aware the Gestapo were nearby, and raised her as their own.

That baby, Maria, grew up always wondering who she truly was and what led to her being stashed in a ditch. The only clue she had about her identity was a note that had been tucked in her blanket with a birthday and name. So, it remained a mystery until a genealogist from Montreal [Stanley Diamond] cracked the case.

Stanley was, of all things, a ceiling salesman. He sold decorative light-up ceilings throughout the Middle East. Equally, he was a very persistent and resilient person who never heard the word “no,” the kind of guy who would find a misplaced bus pass, drive it to the owner’s house, and return it. Most crucially for the story, he also developed one of the largest databases of Jewish vital records in the world.

Stanley Diamond was something of a celebrity in that [American actress] Gwyneth Paltrow, [American legal scholar] Alan Dershowitz and [former Second Gentleman of the United States] Doug Emhoff all used his services [to trace their heritage]. In the case of Maria—in her 70s by the time her [adoptive] parents passed away and the Iron Curtain fell—Stanley found her relatives on all four of her grandparents’ sides, and actually managed to find some of those relatives who were still alive.

About why she wrote the book

I met Stanley himself at a Shiva—a post-funeral gathering—and he started telling me about his work as a genealogist. I wasn’t expecting to get pulled into a rabbit hole, so no one was more shocked than me when I decided to write a book on it.

One of the reasons I wanted to write One in Six Million is because there is so much kindness throughout the story, from the people who picked up this baby and looked after her—despite knowing she was probably Jewish and putting their lives at risk as a result—to all the genealogists who helped Maria uncover who she truly was.

Stanley devoted so much time and energy, completely altruistically, to reunifying a family so many years after the war ended. It’s so inspirational and motivational to me, and I hope readers of One in Six Million will feel inspired and motivated, too.

This abridged interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.