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And now, from the University of Chicago Institute of Politics and CNN Audio, the Ax Files with

your host, David Axelrod.

I first met Adam Frankl when he was a young speechwriter for the Obama for President campaign

in 2007 and then later as a member of the White House speechwriting team.

I had no idea that he was going through an extraordinary personal trauma at the time.

He's now written a book called The Survivors, a story of war, inheritance, and healing,

just a searing book that I would highly recommend.

I sat down with Adam some time back to talk about the book and the story that he tells.

Here's that conversation.

Adam Frankl, my colleague and friend, it's great to see you on the occasion of the publication

of your new book The Survivors, a story of war, inheritance, and healing.

And I want to get to it, but really at the core of it is your own story and your family

story.

Thanks, thanks for having me.

Yeah, it's great.

Always good to see you.

You too.

So I grew up with two very different sets of grandparents, different models, different

experiences.

My mom's side, my grandparents were Holocaust survivors.

My mother's father, who I always called Zeta, was at a number of Nazi camps, ending the

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