- [Presenter] Coming up on "Legacy List" with Matt Paxton.

- Greeted immediately with the shofar.

- [Jeff] Can't miss it - [Presenter] The team is in Atlanta, Georgia, where they make a house call on a doctor and his wife.

- This is completely on my kids.

- [Presenter] The couple are soon to be empty nesters with a house filled with family heirlooms, including some priceless items that belonged to relatives with an amazing story of survival.

- [Matt] I'm Matt Paxton.

- Let's do it, man.

- [Matt] My team of specialists, Jamie, Mike, and Avi, help me help people downsize their homes and settle estates.

As the largest population of baby boomers in American history transition towards retirement, they and their families face the overwhelming task of emptying their homes to move.

We help them sift through a lifetime of possessions- - Bingo!

- heirlooms, and collectibles.

And we have literally found- - And here it is.

- a piece of history.

To help them find the missing family treasures that mean the most to them.

- Oh, my!

- Jackie Robinson.

And along the way, they'll discover that the most important museum in the world may be in their family's basement.

- Oh!

- Oh!

- I've never seen that.

That is cool looking.

- From attics to cellars, closets to cupboards, we uncover the memories they want to preserve.

This is living history.

This is what we're here to find.

- [All] Let's go.

- [Matt] And discover the compelling, personal, and often historical stories spanning generations that are their family's legacy.

(upbeat music continues) - [Announcer] Funding for "Legacy List" is provided by Wheaton World Wide Moving.

Wheaton's number one goal is to help you, your loved ones, and your belongings get to your new home quickly and safely.

You can find us at wheatonworldwide.com.

Wheaton World Wide Moving, we move your life.

FirstLight Home Care committed to providing safe and compassionate home services for you and your family.

FirstLight believes personal relationships and engagement are as important as mobility, bathing, and personal hygiene.

Details at firstlighthomecare.com.

(upbeat music) - Today, I'm in Atlanta, Georgia to visit my friends, Ellen and Jeff.

They're two very busy professionals that need a little help downsizing.

In 3000 square feet, this house is filled to the brim with stuff they're gonna have to go through before they put the home on the market.

Ellen and Jeff are what we call practical downsizers.

They're doing it earlier than most.

Their kids are gettin' ready to graduate, and they've just realized they don't need this much space, so they're gettin' ahead of it.

(car humming) (upbeat music) (door knocking) (latch clicks) - Ellen.

- Hey.

- [Matt] How are you?

Good to see you in person.

- Good to see you.

- Jeff, nice to meet you, man.

- Nice to meet you.

Welcome to the home.

- Very good to meet you.

Hey, it's a beautiful home.

- Come on in.

- [Matt] Greeted immediately with the shofar.

- Can't miss it.

It's right there.

That's a special piece right there.

That's actually Ellen's grandfather, who was Holger Nathansohn, who was one of the first saxophone players in all of Denmark.

He was able to escape during the Holocaust to Sweden.

And that was a concert that was played in Sweden.

- [Matt] Where are we in the downsizing process?

- Well, we have a kid who's a senior.

We have two who moved out.

- A senior in high school.

- A senior in high school.

So we are done with five bedrooms, three floors.

We wanna downsize and move - to a smaller home.

- So right at the end?

- Yeah, we're sort of in a weird state in that I, after 23 and a half years with the CDC, with the federal government, I'm retiring at the end of this year.

So there's that phase of my life that's ending.

Both of our dads passed away, so we have two older moms.

Ellen's mom is in Toronto.

My mom is in Southern California.

I mean, they've got huge homes filled with stuff, and I think- - Okay, so we haven't downsized either mom yet?

- No.

- Nope.

- And you guys are already ready to get out of this house.

- We're so ready, yeah.

- All right, so this is interesting.

- We figure what we learn, we can pass on.

(laughs) - Apply.

Okay, I love it.

(gentle guitar music) What is that piece over there?

- The Rabbinic Assembly.

It refers to the Torah.

Every time we take out the Torah scroll from the ark, we say these words.

- [Matt] What do you do for a living?

- So, I'm a rabbi.

I have a very small member organization that I was working for, gifted me this piece of art.

- [Matt] All right, well, I wanna see like the whole house.

- Okay.

- Okay.

- [Matt] Let's go that way.

(upbeat music) - [Ellen] So this is our dining room.

- I love it.

Everywhere I look, there's something cool.

(all chuckling) What is this?

- In Hebrew, it's a called a ketubah, or a Jewish marriage certificate.

It's a contract that you enter into with the family.

We commission this by an artist who lived in Maryland at the time, and this was all hand done and illuminated by her.

My grandparents had them, and I know they're around the house here somewhere.

- Oh, so you have generational ones?

- We have generational ones.

- Cool.

- Yeah, if we could find those, that would be really cool.

- This is really, really cool.

- I know they're here somewhere.

- All right, where are you wanna show me next?

- Okay.

(upbeat music) - [Jeff] These are the back stairs.

(shoes clacking) - Now brace yourself.

I love it.

(Ellen laughing) - Alrighty.

- Okay, good, a normal attic.

- Yeah, it's normal except for the two kids who left, who went off to colleges and university.

They rummaged through and got some things that they wanted and this and that.

- And left a lot behind.

- And it's kind of a disarray, obviously.

- For the record, we're blaming this on the kids.

This is completely on my kids.

Well, you saw the rest of my house.

- No, the house is spotless, (Ellen laughs) honestly.

And this is, I'll call this a living attic.

Clutter was pretty much in one room, the attic.

Ellen was very clear to tell us that the stuff was not hers.

But as you get up in the attic, you learn like in every house, it's pretty much a little bit of everybody's.

So, what's the goal for this room?

- Truthfully, we're ready to get rid of a lot of stuff.

There's a lot of things that we don't need.

We don't use.

- Honestly, you guys are about five years younger than most people in the process.

We're gonna say at the same time, we're both gonna say the number we actually think percentage wise that we can get rid of.

One, two, three.

- 90%.

- 50%.

- Okay, so we got some work to do.

(Ellen and Jeff laughing) 90 and 50, okay.

I'll get Mike and his crew up here, but first, we need to go downstairs and go through the legacy list.

- [Ellen and Jeff] Okay.

Okay.

- Sounds good.

- Great.

- All right, I'm gonna follow you guys down.

- Okay, cool.

- Great.

(upbeat music) - So what's the timeline for downsizing here?

Probably a year away, you think?

- Maybe less, yeah.

- Yeah.

Yeah, I think one of the things that's important to us is as we let go of the stuff that we've accumulated, there's a way to do it that also reduces the footprint.

We'd like to do that rather than just filling landfill.

- Love it.

So as much as we can recycle, the better.

We can repurpose it.

Then for me, I just wanna hear the stories.

That's like really the most important part.

- [Jeff] For sure.

- So a legacy list is a list of items that are important to telling the family's story.

Some families need us to find the stuff.

Sometimes they just need us to find out more information.

- I think mostly our stuff is to find it.

(chuckles) - Okay.

All right, so let's start.

Give me your list.

- Well, one of the things that I'd like to see again is my dad's medical bag.

My dad was also a doctor, and at the time when he went to medical school, which was back in the 50s, and I guess, early 60s, that was a time when, you know, doctors still made house calls.

Dad actually practiced surgery for his entire career until he got sick.

- What's gonna be in that bag when we find it?

- I don't know (chuckles) if there's anything in there.

It's old.

- All right, let's go to the next one.

What have you got?

- So, mine's a little lighter.

My father, he was a very popular higher math teacher at his Highschool.

And he was teaching One day and suddenly the class erupted in like hysteria and laughter and he was like, "What's going on?"

And apparently, my father used to like sort of pace while he was teaching, and every now and then, he would kick the little trash can.

And so they had a pool with time slots you could purchase.

(Matt laughing) And then when he...

If he kicked it in your time slot, you would win it.

And apparently, he hadn't kicked it in several weeks.

And then when he did kick it, the class went berserk 'cause some guy won- - Somebody won a lot of money.

- Yep, a pot of cash.

They actually turned into him a little booklet, which was the kick the can rule book for this- (Matt laughs) - That's awesome.

- This sport that they had made up.

- What did he feel like when he came home that day?

What did he say?

- He was like, pretty proud, you know, like, "My students went to all of this effort for me."

- That is a lot of effort.

- He was very, very popular teacher, yeah.

- Okay, what else do we have?

- One of the pivot points in my career at the CDC was the Ebola crisis that happened in West Africa.

And one of the things that commemorated the work that we all did as part of that response, the CDC minted a a challenge coin.

- So we're looking for a challenge coin, or is it a- - It is a challenge coin.

I have other challenge coins, but that one in particular marks my involvement in the Ebola- - I love 'em.

And they're a great way to memorialize whatever you've done.

- [Jeff] Right.

- All right, what else do we have?

- So, my paternal grandmother, when she was a teenager and things weren't looking so hot in early 30s in Poland where she lived, decided to leave and be a pioneer in Palestine in the 30s.

I talked to my father's brother because I asked him about this pendant that she gave me a long time ago.

It's silver, and it's got like Moses holding the two tablets.

It's not something that I would typically wear, but what's interesting to me is when you turn it over, it's marked "Palestine."

She thought it was a cool necklace back then.

She didn't know there was gonna be this state of Israel.

She's bought it in Palestine.

- Super cool.

- So, yeah.

- Who thought she would have a granddaughter that would become a rabbi?

- She never had no clue.

- That's super cool.

- [Ellen] Yeah.

- And what's the next item?

- My mom was born in Denmark in 1943.

She had four older siblings.

My great grandparents did not go into hiding and did not go across to Sweden.

And so they were among the 500 Danes who were Jewish who were captured by the Nazis and taken to Terezin, a concentration camp.

This particular grandmother of my mom's and my Aunt Ruth, she received a package of Red Cross meat.

There were beggars who were from the community who would be at the fence, you know, begging.

And my grandmother gave this woman meat, and she gave her this chain.

That came back to Denmark.

Then it went to my Aunt Ruth.

And my Aunt Ruth wrote a really poignant little story of this necklace and said it belongs with Ellen because she, um... (Ellen sighs) 'Cause it matters to her.

And so she gifted it to me, and it's up there somewhere.

And the note is there somewhere too.

- Do we have anything else on the list?

- I think there's some artwork around the house that maybe we'd like to know a little bit more about.

There's a couple of yarn paintings that were actually gifted to me by an art dealer, so I don't really know very much about them.

- But the good news, my friend, Lex, is in town this week- - Cool.

- so I will have him come over and look at all of the artwork.

- Oh, awesome.

- All right, I've got my marching orders.

I know what to do.

We will sit down in the next couple days and go over everything that we found.

- Fantastic.

- Super.

Thanks.

- Thank you.

- Thank you.

Ellen and Jeff are are poised to do what we all joke about.

I mean, they could put this house on the market the day after their son graduates from high school.

(upbeat music) - [Mike] Oh, man, look at this place.

- [Jaime] I know.

- [Avi] Yeah, this is awesome.

- The first impression of the house was that it really made a statement sitting up on a hill.

The front lawn was taken care of.

- [Mike] It's like a little oasis.

(sighs) - [Jamie] It is.

- [Avi] I love this backyard.

- [Jaime] I could spend some summer nights back here.

- [Avi] Oh yeah.

- What's up, guys?

- Hey, what's happenin'?

- How are you?

- Welcome to Atlanta.

- This is beautiful.

- Yeah, innit?

- Lovin' it.

- It's like their chill spot.

- Lovin' it.

- I mean, all these tall trees provide so much shade, which I hear it gets hot here.

- Yes.

We're in hot Atlanta.

- Yes.

(Jamie laughs) I live about 20 minutes up the road, and we don't have this shade.

It is super hot.

(all laughing) This is actually a pretty awesome house.

All right, so a really cool couple, Ellen and Jeff.

They're about to retire.

He's a doctor at the CDC.

She's a local rabbi.

They've got like... Everything that's happening in downsizing, most of their kids have gone to college.

They got one left that's a senior.

Both of their fathers have passed away in the last two years.

And they are just itching to get out of this big house.

But they're both super busy, and they don't really have a lot of time to go through everything.

What'd you think about the legacy list?

- I mean, we talk about family stories.

- Yeah.

- That doctor's bag, I really wanna find that.

- Yep, both of them have inspirational stories about their dads that ended up making them kind of choose the careers they have now.

- [Avi] That's cool.

- They don't have a lot though.

That's the good news.

Like, there's one area above the garage where she claims the kids messed it up so much (all laughing) that I'm not sure the kids actually messed it up.

For you and your team, Mike, there's a lot of, I mean like an insane amount of books.

I need you to speak with them directly to make sure we've got the books going to the right places.

- Okay.

- Green cleanout as much as possible.

We're gonna put all three of you in that one spot.

- Wow.

- Is it an attic or a garage?

(Jaime laughs) - It's an upstairs garage, yes.

(all laughing) - Not air conditioned?

- I think it might be air conditioned actually.

I'm not sure.

All right, I'll let you three focus on the attic.

- Okay.

- All right.

- All right, I'll see you guys.

- I'll see you later.

- See you in a bit.

(upbeat music) - [Jaime] It's definitely not gonna be easy.

- [Avi] Yeah, easy equals hard.

- Matt is giving us our assignments, and I realize, Wait a minute, for the first time ever, Avi, Jamie, and myself are gonna gonna be in the same attic at the same time.

- [Avi] This is great art on the wall.

- [Mike] Yeah.

- [Jaime] I know.

I love all these- - It's a beautiful house.

- like original door knobs too.

- [Avi] Oh, man.

- [Mike] I'll tell you what, Matt said this was gonna be easy.

It better be easy.

- [Jaime] It better be.

I don't really, oh.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

(all laughing) - Thanks, Matt.

- This is Matt's version of easy.

- I like that.

- 'Cause he's downstairs.

- 'Cause where is he?

- Yeah.

(laughs) - [Jaime] Yeah.

- Seeing Jeff and Ellen's attic reminded me of every American's attic.

I mean, it was all the things that they had when they moved that they never opened up.

You know, that's where it ends up.

That attic is the catchall.

- [Mike] I'll just start over here.

- [Jamie] Okay.

- [Mike] There's an air conditioner over there, so that was- (Avi laughing) - a big deciding factor.

- That's why you chose that side.

- [Avi] That helped your decision, huh?

- I'm gonna go over here.

Check out this clothing rack.

- Yeah, and I think it's...

There's a lot of little individual pieces over there, so I'll probably jump on this side too.

- The whole house is pretty organized, so walking into the attic, I knew immediately that this was gonna be the place where we were gonna find the items that we were looking for.

(gentle upbeat music) - Ooh.

(paper rustles) I got some letters over here.

- Look at this.

This patch says "Public Health Service."

- Oh, wow.

All right.

- [Jamie] This is probably Jeff's.

(metals clanking) - A ton of medals.

Atlanta Urban Debate.

- [Jaime] This is like a graduation gown.

- Let's see, "If You give a Skeleton a Pickle," written and illustrated by Carmi.

Fascinating.

- Oh.

(paper rustling) I found a hat box with vintage wedding items that, I mean, must have belonged to someone in the family.

They've kept them all these years.

(upbeat music) - I had a Avi, Jamie, and Mike search through the attic while I picked some of the closets.

(objects clattering) This is one of the cleaner houses I have been in.

I mean, I found lots of office supplies labeled and in bins.

And everything I found was just super organized.

And it says a lot about the people that live in this home.

We got all these cards.

(gentle upbeat music) (paper rustling) - [Mike] But I tell you, I think you guys got the easy side.

Like this is all papers and- - [Avi] Did you say the easy side?

- That's how we planned it.

- [Mike] I think so.

- [Avi] Oh, guys.

- Oh.

- Whoa, whoa, whoa.

- [Jamie] You found it.

- [Mike] There it is.

- [Avi] Gary Nemhauser M.D.

- [Jaime] That's awesome.

- [Mike] Let's see what we have here.

- Some instruments.

- Oh, ho, ho, ho.

Anybody want a reflex test?

- For your reflex.

- I got one too.

(laughs) - Whoa, whoa whoa, whoa.

- All right, Avi, you're in trouble now.

(all laughing) - He's got two knees.

- My knees!

(all laughing) The doctor's bag is one of those opportunities to really link a family legacy.

Jeff's father was a doctor, then he became a doctor.

But to actually see some of the items that his dad might have used going to make these house calls, it's pretty cool.

- I'll tell you, I love the wear on this bag.

This is all honest wear.

(gentle classical music) - [Presenter] The doctor's bag.

It's one of the most iconic objects in the world of medicine.

Throughout history, healers have used medical bags in one form or another to carry the basic supplies needed to treat patients wherever they were.

So.

what was in it?

Pop open the clasp of a typical 19th century doctor's bag, and you might find it contains tools still used for checkups like the thermometer (whooshing) and the stethoscope.

(whooshing) There might also be some ammonia or smelling salt, and even opium.

Later came blood pressure cuffs and hypodermic needles.

Armed with a well worn medical bag, a traveling doctor was ready to bandage a wound or a deliver a baby.

They were a welcome site in rural America, (knuckles rapping) especially when the nearest hospital was hundreds of miles away.

The classic leather doctor's bag dates back to the Victorian era.

These bags were also known as Gladstone bags.

So named for the British Prime Minister William Gladstone, who supposedly preferred the lightweight sack to a bulky chest.

(cork popping) (gentle classical music continues) The black bag became a symbol of care.

During the 1918 flu pandemic, public health nurses like Lillian Wald made house calls to poor families in New York City tenements carrying her bag full of rattling tools.

She would climb across rooftops to avoid crowded streets.

By the 1970s, house calls were almost extinct.

New hospitals were equipped with advanced technology that couldn't fit in a bag.

Today medical bags harken back to an older approach to healthcare when patients welcomed the site of a doctor at their doorstep; they knew good health was in the bag.

(gentle classical music) - I mean, imagine that.

like he's taking his bag full of supplies to what he thinks might be the issue.

- He probably did a lot of improvising.

- Yeah.

- That kind of plays out in some of Jeff's work too, right?

- Exactly.

I was just gonna say that.

- I mean, it ties right in.

- This is cool, man.

- This is really cool.

- Yeah, and it's on the legacy list.

- Yeah.

(Avi laughs) (marker scratching) (bell dings) (upbeat music) - Oh, man.

You know, as I searched through all these closets, they were really, really neat, but I knew that this jewelry had to be somewhere in one of these closets.

(objects clattering) Oh man, here we go.

All right, I've just got a lot of jewelry in here.

That is a Moses pendant.

I think that says "Palestine."

I mean, to have jewelry that came from such an important part of your history was really important for me that I found some of this jewelry.

All right, that is definitely a legacy list item.

Holy cow.

(marker scratching) (bell dings) (upbeat music) - I found an old parking ticket.

- [Avi] Parking ticket?

- [Mike] How much was it?

- $25 from 2006.

(paper rustling) - Green.

We got watches.

Oh, how old is this?

(paper rustling) (upbeat music continues) All right, "This is the necklace that has been given to Ellen, my niece."

I found a lot of jewelry in this one area, but I still have not found the necklace, so I'm gonna have to look somewhere else in the house to find it.

There we go.

(footsteps clacking) (paper rustling) (upbeat music continues) - How cool is this?

- [Mike] Oh, let's see what you got.

- I know exactly what that is.

Do you?

- Tell me.

- [Mike] Oh, oh.

- [Jamie] It's a lionfish.

- A lionfish.

- Wow!

- So they're actually- - That's really cool.

- like very poisonous in real life.

They can sting you.

But if you catch them the right way and you filet them, you can actually also eat them.

They're actually an invasive species down in the Caribbean, and they're destroying the reef.

- Ooh!

- Yes.

- Naughty boy.

- So a lot of people, it's their goal to hunt the lionfish.

- Really?

You can really tell a lot about a person by the stuff they have up in their attic.

Who knew Jamie knew so much about fish?

- [Mike] So, sashimi?

- I don't know.

Yeah, you could do ceviche.

- [Mike] Okay.

All right.

- It's like a, oh, look at this.

- Hello.

(Avi laughing) This says "Public Health Service, United States of America."

Some type of metal.

- [Mike] Well, we're looking for challenge coins from the CDC, and that's not this, but it's still pretty cool.

- Yeah.

- This is really cool.

- It might mean we're gettin' warmer.

(gentle upbeat music) (door knocking) (shoes clacking) (latch clicks) - [Lex] Hello.

- [Jeff] Hey.

- I'm Lex.

- [Jeff] Hey, Lex.

Jeff.

Nice to to meet you.

- Nice to meet you, Jeff.

- [Jeff] Yeah, Matt said you were gonna be coming by.

- Yes, he gave me a call, and he told me that you've got some interesting art that he wanted me- - Fantastic.

- to shed some light on.

- Yeah, excited to have you here.

Let me show you.

- Pleased to be here.

- First thing I wanted to share was these two pieces of art I got.

I was in San Diego attending a conference.

And in the airport in San Diego, they have a wall displaying this yarn art.

And the gentleman who had provided the art to the airport very generously gifted me these two pieces of art.

- Oh wow.

That's wonderful.

- I don't know much more about it than that.

- Well, it's interesting, when I first saw the yarn art, I assumed it was embroidered 'cause it looks like it's been embroidered.

But actually the process, it's the Huichol Indians near the Sierra Madre Mountains in Mexico.

And they were traditionally made by the shaman.

They were usually inspired by peyote.

- Oh, really?

- The hallucinogenic cactus.

These would be the visions that the shaman saw.

- Would have.

- And the shaman was speaking directly to the gods.

- Okay.

- And this would be the interpretation after the experience, and it would be put down into yarn.

It's a fascinating process.

And these are really nice ones.

So what I've always found really fascinating about Huichol yarn painting is the use of hallucinogens.

And in this particular case, it's peyote.

These were quite small, but they were very good.

But I see them once in a while.

They're not super common.

(upbeat music) - Okay.

Oh, (paper crinkling) got some photos.

- You got some photos.

What do you have?

- Yeah.

Mike, come check this out.

- [Mike] Okay.

(Avi laughs) Oh, I love a black and white photo.

- A celebration.

- Wow.

- Class of 1949.

Okay, we're looking for Nemhauser.

There it is.

- There it is.

- Old Garry.

Look at the guys- - How cute.

- with their little ties.

- I came across a box that was full of old family photos, and in it was this ketubah, which wasn't necessarily an item on the legacy list, but as soon as I pulled it out, I knew it was something significant.

So this is between Max- - [Mike] Zimmerman?

- Yep, Zimmerman and his bride, Frida Bilski.

- [Avi] This is cool.

- [Mike] This is Jeff's grandparents.

- You're right.

- Yep.

- Yep.

- [Mike] This is their marriage contract.

- [Jamie] I mean, it is so beautiful too.

Like all the color.

- All the colors?

- I mean, this is definitely something that they're going to wanna hold onto and probably have on display moving forward.

- [Avi] Yeah.

- So I'm gonna put it back with these other things back in the bag.

(gentle upbeat music) - So the other thing that I wanted to share were these two pieces of art.

Okay I was attending a conference in Thailand.

These two were from the temple of the Golden Buddha.

And there's a gentleman there who goes around, he puts the rice paper up on the image, and then he does a stone rubbing.

- Interesting.

Now, I'm gonna make an assumption.

I think I know what the story behind the image is.

- [Jeff] Oh, cool.

So the Ramakien is an epic story of King Rama and his wife, Sita.

I'm pretty sure that that is Thotsakan, who is God of demons, and he falls in love with Sita, Rama's wife.

- Okay.

- And he captures her hoping that she will fall in love with him, which of course, she doesn't.

And he kidnaps her.

- Interesting.

- So, I'm assuming this is then showing King Rama.

- [Jeff] Yes.

- [Lex] And he's defeating some of the demons.

And I'm pretty sure that that is depicting Sita being kidnapped by the king of demons.

- Yeah, fantastic.

Thank you so much.

- Yeah, and you're so welcome.

It was really wonderful working with Jeff.

One because he had the backstory to ease our object, and also, he had an enthusiasm that was contagious.

And when I'm with someone that's excited, it makes my job so much easier.

(upbeat music) - [Jamie] What are you finding over there?

- [Avi] Lots of books on immunology, human mycoses.

- Oh.

(metal rattles) - [Avi] The CDC handbook on domestic preparedness.

- [Jamie] Interesting.

- [Mike] All right, let's see.

(upbeat music continues) Got the old file cabinet here.

(papers rustling) Do you guys know if Ellen had written any books?

- [Jamie] I'm not sure.

- [Avi] Yeah, I hadn't heard.

- [Mike] Oh boy.

(bag rustling) It just says "Thesis and Thesis Backup."

Guys, I think I might have found Ellen's thesis.

- [Jamie] No way.

- Yeah.

This are a real mishmash of stuff.

Certificate of Appreciation, Jeffrey Nemhauser.

Oh, guys, hey, come on.

Come on over here.

Just to show you that you're not the only ones that can find legacy list items.

- [Avi] Ooh!

(Jamie gasps) - [Jamie] Let me see that.

(Avi chuckles) - [Jamie] Challenge coin, right?

- [Mike] A challenge coin.

- A challenge coin.

- We did it.

- [Mike] Yeah.

- Oh, that's really beautiful.

- Nice.

I didn't expect the colors and, you know, just the brightness of this coin.

- By the way, we all remember how the challenge coins work, right?

- No.

- Oh, you have to carry this thing everywhere you go.

And if somebody challenges you to produce the coin and you can█t you're buying drinks for everybody.

- Well, then Jeff needs this.

- Yes.

(Avi laughs) (upbeat music) - [Presenter] What government agency began by waging a war against mosquitoes?

The CDC.

Founded in 1946 as the Communicable Disease Center, the CDC opened in Atlanta instead of Washington DC.

Why?

Because the South had the most malaria transmission in the country.

A World War II malaria control agency was the predecessor to the CDC.

To warn soldiers about malaria, an imaginative army captain created a pamphlet about a cartoon mosquito called Blood Thirsty Ann.

And that captain was none other than Dr. Suess.

By 1951, 5 years after the CDC was created, the US was declared malaria-free.

(image whooshes) The CDC soon established itself as the go-to organization in the fight against communicable diseases.

It helped eradicate smallpox and reported early cases of aids.

The agencies field epidemiologists became known as disease detectives because the scientists were like investigators hunting for clues.

As the mission of the agency expanded, so did its name.

The CDC is now officially called Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

What makes the CDC so essential to the health of the planet?

The agency does its best to stay ahead of each and every threat, like Ebola.

In 1976, the CDC sent its disease detectives to what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo to investigate a terrifying hemorrhagic fever, later known as Ebola.

History's worst Ebola outbreak began in late 2013.

More than 11,000 people died, mostly in West Africa.

As the epidemic raged, the CDC was on the ground coordinating with other health organizations and regional partners to stop the virus in its tracks.

Today, the CDC finds itself under intense pressure fighting another pandemic.

It's a never ending battle when your job is keeping the world safe from disease.

(intense dramatic music) - [Mike] Guys, this is one more legacy list item off the list.

- [Avi] Great job, Mike.

(fist thuds) Hey, man.

- Good job.

- I'm just copying you guys.

- I mean, trying to keep up- - Trying to catch up.

- I know.

- You got the good side.

(marker scratching) (bell dings) (upbeat music) - [Mike] Got some yardrow.

And this is a little doctor.

I wonder who this belonged to.

- [Avi] It looks like porcelain.

- I think too, like with a lot of these bins, I don't know what you're finding over there, but they could probably consolidate.

(upbeat music continues) - All right?

Oh, let's see.

Here's Ellen.

Biographical info about her.

- [Jaime] What's it called?

- [Avi] It's like probably following some- - Oh, guys.

Hey, come on over here.

(laughs) This is awesome.

- What is that?

The National Can Kicking League Official Rule Book.

(all laughing) - It's official y'all.

Each participant purchases a pair of time slots.

Participant may buy no more than one pair of time slots.

- Mm.

- Oh my God, yeah.

- That█s a lot rules.

- Look at this section one, section two, section three.

I mean, wow.

- [Jamie] There was a lot of thought put into this game.

- [Avi] Yes, and effort.

- [Jaime] Yes.

- [Mike] Yeah, I mean, this really speaks to how much the students loved him.

- [Avi] Yeah.

Pot $2.40.

- Oh my God, $2.40.

- Ooh.

(sighs) Well, I wonder what year it was, because maybe that was a decent amount of money.

1978.

- '78, - There we go.

- There you go.

- [Mike] Guys, we did it.

We found another legacy list item.

- Well, you found this one technically.

Good job.

(all laughing) - [Avi] That's cool.

- [Mike] All right.

All right.

(bell dings) (gentle upbeat music) (doors squeaking) - I have not found the necklace yet, but it has to be around here because that's where all the jewelry is.

I had to find this necklace.

It was really important to help her tell her family's story.

- All of the legacy list items that we're looking for in this attic are very personal and very specific to different aspects of this family's history.

I'm sorting through all these posters and artwork and any number of things, and it became evident I really needed Jeff and Ellen up here to help make some of these decisions.

(gentle upbeat music continues) (Avi sighs) - Check this out.

- What you got?

Oh!

- "Time Magazine Person of the Year."

- Yeah, that's no small feat.

And all these notes, "It has been a pleasure working with you."

"Thank you for this amazing opportunity."

- And Person of the Year, "Time."

That's a big deal.

- And he has a lot of signatures on here, which means he touched a lot of people with his expertise and leadership.

- I mean, that they got to the point that they could celebrate, you know, in defeating that virus.

- Yeah.

- It was a big moment in like the health history.

- [Avi] Absolutely.

I mean, it was pivotal.

- Yeah.

Once I had felt like we had made some good headway in the attic, I headed downstairs and actually ran into Jeff and Ellen.

Walking through your home, I mean, it's beautifully maintained.

What year was this home built?

- '76.

- Yeah, it feels like sturdy.

It's got good bones.

They had some questions about what they need to do to get the house ready to sell.

Some of the things that you could think about doing, just to be prepared when the time comes is, you know, having a home inspector come out and do like a once over and kind of give you an idea of what could come up on a home inspection.

- Okay.

- Not that you have to fix everything on that list, but that way there's no surprises.

- [Jeff] Okay.

- I feel like that gives a lot of sellers peace of mind.

They kind of know what's coming.

They know what to expect.

You know, I noticed there's some features of your home that require a little maintenance.

We were talking about the wood siding.

- [Jeff] Right.

- Things like that.

So I don't anticipate that there would be a lot of curve balls thrown at you, but at least that way you would be a little bit more prepared.

- Okay.

We'd love to see the home go to a family that, you know, is big and growing and- - Needs lots of space.

- Needs lots of space.

- Needs lots of space.

- Exactly.

- If you're an empty nester, thinking about selling your home, it's really never too early to start the process.

(upbeat music) - [Matt] Oh my gosh.

(bin scrapping) Hey, Jamie.

- [Jaime] Yeah?

- [Matt] Come here.

- [Jaime] What you got?

- Well, I think I got us a legacy list item.

It had fallen- - [Jaime] In the necklaces?

- Yeah, well, what do you think?

They said it was like Dover?

- [Jaime] Yep.

- And it was kind of a blocky chain.

So, yeah, I think this is it.

I just found the note in the other room.

- Oh, Ellen's great grandmother actually bartered for this.

- Oh, for the food?

- Yeah, for the food.

She traded non-kosher food for this piece of jewelry.

And here it is.

- Man, that's incredible.

I'm gonna let you hold it 'cause I don't wanna mess it up.

- Do you have a little bag?

- I love it Let me give you the bag.

- [Jaime] And we need to get it with the note.

- Super cool.

All right, let's get everything together.

Another legacy list found.

- Good job.

- [Matt] Good job.

(marker scratching) (bell dings) (gentle upbeat music) - Yeah, I'll just be straightforward with you.

You and Jeff are throwing out very different ideas as far as what this space is gonna look like when we're done.

And for me and my crew to get started, I just need to know really, where are we gonna land when all is said and done.

- Ideally, get rid of everything that isn't already on a shelf.

Get rid of the stuff that's on a shelf that we don't need, so we can take stuff off the floor.

And really, have a lot of floor space.

We just don't need all this stuff.

- All right, I'm gonna go get my guys, and we're gonna get started.

And this is gonna look very different very soon.

- [Ellen] Awesome.

Even though this space wasn't huge, there was so much to do, and I really needed to get Ellen and Jeff up here to keep things moving along.

As is often the case, one spouse is much more willing to let go of things than the other.

There were some tense moments there.

There were times where I just knew, "Don't say a word.

Let them figure this out," and then come in with some help once they're ready.

(gentle upbeat music) - Ellen's mother's family fled Denmark during the Holocaust, so I decided to go to the William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum to learn more.

- [Avi] This place is amazing already.

- [Matt] It's huge.

Just picture after picture after picture of families.

- I'm almost overwhelmed already.

- [Matt] Yes, I know.

- '34 to '39, assault on the German Jews.

- Yeah.

- [Avi] The terror begins.

So this is like representative of the walls in the ghetto.

- [Matt] Yeah, in Poland, kids would sneak through walls like this to get food.

(Avi exhales deeply) - I tell you, this exhibit is pulling on me.

- Yeah, I just can't imagine that being the door you go into.

You know, this was a complicated museum because it's a really good museum about a really awful topic.

And we learned so much walking through the exhibit and learning more than I had ever seen about the Holocaust.

(upbeat music) - [Presenter] As a Nazi terror swept through Europe, most people did nothing to help the Jews.

Neighbors turned their backs, countries shut their doors.

Denmark was the exception.

During the most trying of times, ordinary Danes did something extraordinary.

They organized a massive rescue operation.

In September 1943, the Nazis had plans to deport Danish Jews to concentration camps.

How did the Jewish community get wind of the impending roundup?

It started with an unexpected informant, a German naval attache named George Duckwitz.

Duckwitz tipped off a Danish politician who warned the rabbi at the main synagogue in Copenhagen.

Word spread, the Danish resistance swung into action.

Over the course of three weeks, a network of Danish rescuers sheltered and evacuated most of the country's Jewish population.

Escaping Jews went into hiding and fled to the coast.

From there, fishermen rode the refugees to safety in neutral Sweden.

By the time the Gestapo began rounding up Danish Jews, almost all of them had gotten away.

Some didn't make it out in time.

around 500 Danish Jews were deported to a concentration camp called Theresienstadt.

Still, the Danish authorities persistently followed up and demanded Red cross inspections of the ghetto.

By the end of the war, the vast majority of Danish Jews survived the Holocaust.

Rescue operations like this were extremely rare.

Only a tiny fraction of non-Jews and occupied Europe chose to intervene.

The Danish resistance proves that there was another option besides collaboration and indifference.

When others sat idly by, a courageous few protected their Jewish neighbors.

(gentle upbeat music) - Hey Rabbi Prass.

- Avi, Matt.

-Good to meet you.

Thanks for having us.

- It's a pleasure to welcome you to the Breman Museum.

- [Matt] We are here in Atlanta helping Rabbi Ellen and her husband, Jeff, downsize.

- Wow.

- Yeah, and in that process, we've heard lots of stories.

- We're finding a lot of items that are tied to the Holocaust.

I found a necklace in the house.

The story I was told was that Ellen's great grandma was at Terezin, a camp, and she received meat, and I believe it was from the Red Cross.

It was not kosher, so she actually bartered it with someone outside of the camp for this silver necklace.

Who on earth would she be trading with?

- Number one, those Jews who didn't escape on the boats over to Sweden are taken to Terezin or Theresienstadt, a camp and ghetto, a walled in section using the original Italian word.

The Danes put pressure on the International Red Cross to say, "Where did our citizens go?"

And so the Nazis had to open up this walled in area.

They had to show the world what was going on.

And so when the Red Cross came, they brought material, they brought food to these individuals.

It was all a sham, but the Nazis wanted to use us as propaganda.

So with this grandmother, that she would've then been able to use that food that she wasn't gonna eat and trade it with that necklace.

And it turns out to be an amazing family heirloom with a story.

- Man!

- So, I just wanted to back up and ask a question about the Jews who were in Denmark.

- Yes.

- That decided not to travel across to Sweden.

What was their mindset in terms of not leaving?

- Often what we've heard is some too old to travel, others because they felt this too shall pass.

- What do I take away from today?

- The lesson we want you to learn from this history is not just where humanity failed, but where humanity stepped up.

That we can use our words and save people, and we can help show the best in humanity.

- I just thought we found a necklace.

(all laughing) - If you study history, you know the story of the Holocaust, but like, I was unaware of the Danish resistance.

It's a fascinating story, a positive story during an awful time.

(gentle upbeat music) We had an incredible opportunity to actually go into the museum's archives and learn more about Ellen's family.

(gentle upbeat music continues) (moves to gentle music) - All right, well, give a holler when you need this.

- Okay.

- It's all good.

- All right, thanks, guys.

- No problem.

Once the decisions had been made, and we were given the green light, the next challenge started because getting the things out of the house wasn't easy.

There were multiple staircases.

There were tight corridors.

I just remember thinking, "We are running out of time."

And me and my guys had to really kick it into gear, but we got it all done.

(gentle upbeat music) - Much better.

(Gentle uplifting music) - [Matt] How did it feel to go through everything in the attic?

- It was hard, and it brought up some feelings that were difficult for me, and I'm probably gonna...

It's gonna take me a while to get through.

- Yeah.

- And that's okay.

Mike just sat there with me while I was going through some papers.

Just having him there, I felt like it was okay.

- It's easier to do it with a stranger than with your partner.

- Yeah.

- Substantially easier.

All right, time to go into the legacy list.

I'm excited.

- Okay.

(Ellen chuckles) And obviously, you're gonna know a lot of these.

A rule book of the National Can Kicking League, (Ellen laughing) official rule book.

When you explained it to me, it was cute.

It was a neat story.

This is a special item.

- [Ellen] Yeah.

- I get it now.

I mean, it is so well done, so detailed.

- [Ellen] Can you believe it?

- You've got all the different blocks.

(all laughing) I mean, it's almost like a really good bookie's book, I gotta be honest.

- I think it is actually.

He meant something to them.

- Yeah.

And you don't forget 'em.

- Mm-mm.

And he had a pouch for everything, by the way.

- Yeah.

(laughing) - I noticed it was a very good pouch.

(all laughing) Yeah, I like it.

All right, the next item is magnificent.

- Is there anything in there?

- Oh, gosh, I can imagine what's in there.

- Yeah.

(Ellen laughing) - Do you remember him using this?

- [Jeff] No, as a matter of fact, I don't.

- It's an awesome bag, by the way.

- Yeah, it's got a lot of character.

I can see that there's reflex hammer.

- There it is, yeah.

- Right?

- Isn't that a dentist tool?

- It is.

- It is, but, you know, you can also- - See things in- - Yeah, in case somebody had something in their throat- - [Matt] That's right.

- They could use the mirror for that.

- The hammers what I expected to find.

- Yeah, exactly.

- Do you wanna test your reflexes?

- No, I don't want you to test my reflexes.

(Ellen laughing) Okay, and a tune fork.

Yeah, so the doctors use the tuning fork, it's part of the neurological exam, and, you know, they test whether you have a better sensation through the bone or through the ear, and so they can diagnose certain conditions that may be causing you to have a problem.

- [Ellen] Dizziness or something.

- [Jeff] Yeah.

- The next item, our CDC challenge coins.

- [Jeff] Yeah, look at that.

- [Matt] I love challenge coins.

- Yeah.

So to qualify for one of these, you had to have worked a minimum number of hours.

- I'll give you a little sample of how it played out in our family.

(Jeff and Ellen laugh) We went to a local brunch place, and we sat down.

It was like a Sunday morning.

Jeff's phone buzzed.

He picked it up and looked at it and he kind of went, "Ugh."

And our daughter said, "Can we just have one Ebola-free meal?"

- A free meal.

- At which point, I was like, "You can't really say that out loud (laughs) in a restaurant."

But that was like, they were so used to the buzz, and Dad had to look.

He was coming home at all hours of the night.

It was a full-time, all the time, weekends included.

- It's not your style to brag.

Luckily, your wife brags for you.

This is a big deal.

It's a really big deal.

- It is a big deal.

- And you were a large part of it, but you made it a point, I wanna make sure everybody knows how many people I work with and how important they were, and- (object scraping) - Oh gosh.

- you're not the only one.

(Ellen laughing) How cool is this?

- Yeah.

- [Matt] "Time Magazine."

- [Ellen] The Ebola fighters.

- [Matt] Tell me who everybody is here.

- The team took that copy of the cover of the "Time Magazine," and then everybody signed for me.

It was very generous and very kind of them.

- All right, the next item you'd asked us to find, it was a couple pieces of jewelry that I thought were really interesting.

This one is super cool.

- Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

- The pendant.

- It's been tucked away for a long time.

- It has been tucked away.

You know, it's an innocent piece of jewelry.

It's nothing fancy.

- Absolutely.

Nothing fancy.

- Nothing fancy.

- It is (chuckles) the image of Moses holding the 10 commandments.

- Some might call it a tchotchke.

- A tchotchke, exactly.

- I'm learning.

(Jeff laughs) - I'm learning all these words in this trip.

- Yeah, you're doing good.

- Yeah, this is, it's just really symbolic of her journey and really the journey of, you know, Palestine, Israel- So it's kind of very cool.

- I love it for y'all.

I mean, it's a small thing, big message.

- Right.

The next item, I think you can probably guess what it is, the silver necklace and- - Oh, wow.

- The note.

- The note.

Oh, it's so, oh.

- From your auntie.

- It's so wild to see.

She decided to type it up.

The fact that she wrote my name, "To Ellen" on the top and then "Kiss, Kiss from Ruth," my Aunt Ruth.

My Aunt Ruth decided that it really belonged with me because of the work that I do and the focus that I have in terms of teaching, it could be a great thing for me to hang onto and use as a teaching tool.

- These items tell the story after people no longer can, and this has become more imperative for this generation.

There's very few people left that were alive during the Holocaust, and so it's really important that we get these stories told, and we get these items documented now.

So we really were inspired to dig and to dig more.

And so I wanted to find something that hopefully you hadn't found yet.

So I'm super excited about this.

So much of this week, we learned about the Danes and what they did to getting people to Sweden.

And I was really excited to find this.

I wanna know, this is from the Swedish archives.

I don't know if you've been able- - Oh my gosh, (indistinct) That's your grandfather.

- That is your grandfather.

- Oh my God, it is, yeah.

- And it talks about him being a fisherman, I believe.

- Oh my God, this address Aarslevvej 20, that's where my grandparents lived, escaped from there.

Like that was their home.

It was kept up by their neighbors for 18, 20 months.

They came back to that house, and that's where I visited them.

- So when you would go back and visit, that's the address.

- Every time.

In fact, Jeff was there as well, and visited my grandmother.

Oh my gosh, that is wild to see.

It's no longer in the family, the house.

But that is the address Aarslevvej 20.

Wow, this is gonna be something my mom's gonna really love to see, so thank you.

- Well, funny you say that.

- That's wild.

- Then we found your grandmothers.

- Wow.

- Oh my gosh.

- Who's that?

- My mom.

- Her mom.

- Your mom is listed on that.

- Yeah, wild.

- Born 26th of June, 1943.

And they left in September, and she was just a few months old.

That is crazy.

And this comes from the Swedish archives?

- Yeah.

- That is just something.

Oh my gosh.

- Your grandparents would've had to register when they got to Sweden.

And this is the documentation of them.

- That's just stuff I've never seen.

Thank you.

Wow.

- Yes!

- I tell the story, I've been to like a dozen, more than a dozen schools to sort of tell the story I'm the child of a survivor.

I've never seen these.

- [Matt] I have something else.

- Oh, you do?

- I do.

- Oh my God.

- So I learned today about yizkor books.

- Mm-hmm.

- Mm.

- There you are.

Yizkor books, what I was told, are basically loose translations of after the Holocaust was over, people would send in their stories in the archives today.

And they said, "Oh, we actually have a couple yizkor books here."

- Oh, wow.

- This is Poland.

- Yes, this is from Poland.

- Czersk.

- That book, this is just a photocopy, but that actual yizkor book is in the archives here.

- Wow.

- [Matt] In Atlanta.

- That's crazy.

- Wow.

- Wait till you see this.

(Ellen laughs) Here's the page we found.

I don't know if you can read any of it.

We're very lucky to have a team help translate it for us.

Look who they're talking about.

First sentence of the last.

- Oh my gosh.

- "Jozef (indistinct) was a unique prayer leader in Czersk.

Uncle Sam's gonna go wild.

He had no equal when he stood by the podium and led the services.

It was if people were hypnotized and entered the highest existence.

He awakened in the worshipers the deepest desire for repentance.

Every word was sung, every verse was measured, and one did not feel the fast at all as a time passed.

Thus, it was the entire Yom Kippur."

Eisenstat, that's, yeah.

That is totally wild.

- Apparently, he was a heck of a dude, very memorable.

- Oh yeah.

Wow.

- [Matt] Could you imagine?

- I wish my father were alive to see this.

That would be something.

- Yeah.

What does all this mean to you?

- The enormous blessing that we have of being here to tell the stories, but also the gratitude we have for the people who went before us, their bravery.

And you just can't take anything for granted.

- It's that sense of connection that really ties each generation to the next.

- I'm leaving here inspired.

Like, I wanna learn more.

I wanna teach more.

And most importantly, I wanna make sure I speak up.

And that's what you told me when I met you.

You said we better.

- Yeah, we have a choice.

We can be who we are, or we can be like the Danes, and we can look out for one another.

And what you are doing is sort of teaching the masses how to do it right.

How to pass things on to the next generation by preserving the most important things in the current generation.

So thank you.

- [Matt] Thank you, guys.

Thank you.

(gentle music) - Funding for "Legacy List" is provided by Bekins Van Lines.

At Bekins, our goal is to provide a smooth and simple moving experience.

No matter the size or distance of your move, Bekins is ready to help you get there.

You can find us at Bekins.com.

Bekins, this is moving.

FirstLight Home Care committed to providing safe and compassionate home services for you and your family.

FirstLight believes personal relationships and engagement are as important as mobility, bathing, and personal hygiene.

Details at FirstLightHomeCare.com.

(upbeat music) - [Presenter] Visit mylegacylist.com to learn more about the tips, tools, and professionals to help make your own big life move easier.

Learn more about this episode or submit your story to be featured on the show at mylegacylist.com.