Ernie Grunfeld is the only known NBA player who is the child of Holocaust survivors. Although he doesn’t speak much about his family’s history, his son Dan, 37, also a former professional basketball player, wrote a book about it called, “By the Grace of the Game: The Holocaust, a Basketball Legacy, and an Unprecedented American Dream.”
The younger Grunfeld’s first book, which will be published November 30, dives deep into his grandmother Anyu’s story in Romania before the Nazis invaded. Along the way, she lost multiple family members and witnessed the horrors of Auschwitz. Swedish architect Raoul Wallenberg saved her on two separate occasions, and she received unlikely assistance from a comedian she had never met, Buddy Hackett.
Interspersed between chapters on Anyu are stories about the elder Grunfeld’s experience as an immigrant from Romania who emerged as a standout basketball player in the 1970s. He played nine seasons in the NBA, and symbolically wore number 18 for the New York Knicks. He later worked over 30 combined years as a team executive for the Knicks, Bucks and Wizards.
The author explored his own inspiration from his grandma while also navigating the pressures of growing up with a star athlete father.
“There are moments of extreme pain, and there are moments of extreme joy,” Grunfeld told the Journal. “The story is ultimately inspiring and hopeful because [of] where my family started and what basketball did [for us].”
Anyu and her husband eventually settled in the Bay Area, where she still lives today. In 2002, Grunfeld chose to go to Stanford to be close to Anyu. While there, he was an academic All-American basketball player, and eventually played professionally in leagues around the world.
At one point in the book, Grunfeld discussed the trepidation he felt when he was offered his first pro contract from a team in Oldenburg, Germany. Before signing, he wanted to make sure to get approval from his grandma, since Oldenburg had a perilous history leading up to the Holocaust.
“In 1932, the Nazis received 48.4% of the regional vote in Oldenburg, making it the first state in Germany to put the Nazis in power based on electoral turnout,” Grunfeld wrote.
“Sons are not responsible for the sins of their fathers,” Anyu told Grunfeld upon learning of his offer to play in Germany.
Eventually, he played for teams in Spain before playing for four different basketball teams in Israel: Bnei Hasharon, Hapoel Holon, Hapoel Jerusalem and Bnei Herzliya.
Grunfeld spent a year and a half doing research for the book, interviewing his grandma and talking with his father.
“It’s such a personal process,” he said. “[There are] so many painful details. My dad doesn’t speak about these things. I knew it would be hard.”
A big theme is the weight of holding onto a traumatic family history while being two generations removed. Both he and his father experienced antisemitism while growing up, but nothing like the horrors that Anyu went through.
Improbability is another theme. There is the improbablity of surviving the Holocaust, along with the improbablity of having success with a career in sports that is elusive to so many.
“The true improbability of it all lies in the discovery of a game, the game of basketball, that unknowingly held the power to heal past wounds and tie a complicated history together.” – Dan Grunfeld
“The true improbability of it all lies in the discovery of a game, the game of basketball, that unknowingly held the power to heal past wounds and tie a complicated history together,” Grunfeld wrote.
There is also a powerful forward by Basketball Hall of Famer Ray Allen. In it, he talks about how he didn’t learn about the Holocaust until “Schindler’s List” was released, and every year when his team visited D.C. to play the Wizards, he would take a teammate to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
With “By the Grace of the Game,” Grunfeld said he looks forward to sharing Anyu’s story with readers and meeting people on his book tour.
Although he said Anyu is still sharp as a nail and plays cards with her friends five times a week, she will have a limited role on the book tour. But her story speaks for itself.
“If we don’t tell our stories, people will forget what happened,” Anyu said. “We have to speak about the Holocaust. I’m very, very proud of my grandson.”
