for Alina

This is a hell of a first post to make anywhere. It's a crosspost, and a personal one at that. I want to make it anyway, however, so I'm just going to post it -- I don't think there's any background necessary, at least.

This post is about ethnicity, race, and family legends. It's about a plucky kid detective trying to solve a mystery, and succeeding just enough to find more questions. I'd like to dedicate it to the soul of Alina Bayer, who at the age of eight was murdered by the Nazis, and whose identity and life are possibly the biggest mystery of the whole tale. ( From that you can probably figure out that this is a Holocaust story. Proceed with caution. )