The stuffed animal that reunited a family splintered by the Holocaust

NPR's Uri Berliner didn't know the significance of the small stuffed monkey his father kept. He didn't even know it existed. But after his dad donated the memento from his childhood in interwar Germany to a museum, something amazing happened.

John Locher/AP 'Everybody's been saying for years, when this town goes up, it's going up. And it went up.' Paradise used to be a busy little mountainside town, one of the few places in California with affordable property. Now it's a silent, ash-strewn wasteland, through which search teams and desperate friends and family are looking for hundreds of people who are still missing. The town, built up in a high-risk area, had prepared for wildfires, the mayor says — just not this one. But increasingly, scientists say, these huge, sudden, fast-moving fires are what communities will face. Enn Li Photography/Getty Images Research shows limited benefits for taking fish oil or Vitamin D supplements. What should those already taking them do? While the studies showed improved outcomes for slender subsets of those on the supplements, there also are few known drawbacks, one of the scientists says: "Our findings do not offer a clear reason to stop." As always, researchers say, the key first step to starting or dropping a supplement is talking to your doctor. Jacobia Dahm for NPR 'He was like a good luck piece': This toy went with a Jewish boy from Nazi Germany to safety in Sweden; decades later it spurred a reunion In 2015, Erika Pettersson was looking through a German exhibit on children and the Holocaust when she came across a stuffed monkey, and noticed that the man who had owned it had the same name as her mom. It turned out he was the cousin of her grandfather, separated by an ocean — and a genocide that each had thought the other hadn't survived. The man's son, NPR's Uri Berliner, also discovered powerful connections, to two families that worked to save his. Chuck Kennedy/NPR 'People are invested in us as the perfect couple ... great marriages require work.' In an interview with NPR's Audie Cornish, former first lady Michelle Obama talks about how Barack Obama changed her — and how he didn't — why they needed marriage counseling early in his political career and why she still thinks sticking to the high road is the right course in politics. Obama's memoir, Becoming, was released this week | Listen to audiobook excerpts PhotoAlto/Sandro Di Carlo Darsa/Getty Images Pictured: how not to parent Earlier this month, the American Academy of Pediatrics strengthened an earlier warning, saying corporal punishment, or yelling at or shaming children, have no disciplinary benefit long-term, and risk damaging kids in an array of ways. It's great that many who were spanked say they turned out fine, a lead researcher says, but the evidence shows potential for real, lasting harm. You received this message because you're subscribed to our Best of NPR emails. |  Unsubscribe  |  Privacy Policy | NPR 1111 N. CAPITOL ST. NE WASHINGTON DC 20002