Chelsea Handler: Who Do You Think You Are?

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

Funny lady Chelsea Handler showed her serious side last night -- and broke down after discovering her family's Nazi ties: http://usm.ag/19NP4fu

Every family's history holds its secrets, for good and for bad.
For comedian Chelsea Handler, the biggest questions lay with the fact that her maternal grandfather fought for the Nazi regime in World War II.
In a new episode of TLC's Who Do You Think You Are, Handler, 38, discovers exactly what role her grandfather, Karl Stoecker, played in one of history's most atrocious genocides. 

Family secrets: Chelsea Handler explores her grandfather's past as a Nazi soldier in a new episode of Who Do You Think You Are, which airs Tuesday

On a journey: Handler travels to meet various sources, all of whom hold part of the puzzle of grandfather's history as a Nazi soldier

She traces his path from Nazi soldier to American immigrant through documents and interviews with sources familiar with her family's history.
Handler's story is made all the more compelling by the fact that was she raised Jewish in a family of faith.
'My father, I guess, made a deal with my mother when they had children that they were gonna be raised Jewish,' Handler says. 'So I connect with my Judaism, or the Jewish side of my family, more than anything else.'

Flashback: Chelsea Handler was raised in a Jewish family after her parents agreed to follow the faith

Lost in time: A historical family photo shows Karl and Elizabeth Stoecker, Handler's maternal grandparents

Cold hard facts: A historical document shows a photo of Handler's grandfather being processed for unclear reasons

And growing up, Handler had no idea that her grandfather - a 'very, very strong man' she describes as having a 'sense of humour' - had a dark past.
In the episode, she reveals that he was taken as a prisoner of war to America, where he likely stayed in Montana for several years.
'When he went back to Germany, he was very eager to come and take his family and move them back to the United States,' Handler says.

Dear diary: Handler examines a notebook emblazoned with the Nazi swastika that purportedly belonged to her grandfather

Call to order: A historical photo shows a group of German soldiers, one of whom could been Handler's grandfather

But even after the new immigrant family settled down, the subject of wartime Germany was always avoided by her grandfather.
'My German grandma definitely spoke about her life during the war way more than my grandfather did,' Handler says. 'He never spoke about it.'
That was probably for good reason, but when all is said and done, Handler will finally have some closure on a subject that thus far hid in the shadows of her family tree.

Happy days: Handler's grandparents moved to America after World War II, and she remembers her grandfather fondly as a man with a 'sense of humour'