Martin Miller is a psychotherapist who was born to two Polish war refugees in 1950. His mother was Alice Miller, the world-famous child psychologist who rose to fame in the 1970s. His father, Andrzej Miller, was a sociology professor and the general secretary of the Rektorenkonferenz der Schweizer Universitäten (The Rectors' Conference of Swiss Universities). After training to be a primary school teacher, Martin studied psychology and now works as a therapist. Immediately after he was born, he put in the care of relatives. He spent the first months of his life with his second cousin, Irenka, who was very young at the time. For Martin, Irenka represents the mother he never had. Martin was then put in a children’s home and did not return to his parents until he was five years old. At home, he was beaten and humiliated. He spent the last years of his childhood at a Catholic boarding school. Today Martin lives with his wife and his two dogs Queenie and Kid in Uster, near Zurich Switzerland.

Alice Miller was born to Jewish parents in 1923 in Piotrków Trybunalski, Poland. She survived Nazi persecution in Warsaw. After the war she emigrated to Switzerland, together with her cousin and her future husband, Andrzej Miller. Alice studied philosophy under Karl Jaspers in Basel, ultimately earning her doctorate. She then moved to Zurich where she trained to be a psychoanalyst. Her book "The Drama of the Gifted Child," published in 1979, made Alice Miller famous almost overnight. The book would be translated into several languages, and Alice Miller would become an authority in the field of children's rights and education. Miller developed theses on the origins and transmission of violence, strategies for fundamental societal change, and the prevention of war. Alice Miller moved to Southern France in 1985, where she lived and worked in seclusion until her death in 2010.

Irenka Taurek was born to Jewish parents in 1933 in Piotrków Trybunalski, Poland. She survived the Holocaust in a dramatic escape with her parents, which eventually led her to camps in Siberia and Uzbekistan. After the war she returned to Poland. Due to the threat of continuing anti-Semitism in Poland, her parents decided to emigrate to Switzerland. As a young woman Irenka then left Switzerland for the USA, where she studied Russian before training to become a psychoanalyst and psychotherapist. She married the philosopher John Taurek and had three children with him. Irenka is the cousin of Alice Miller and the second cousin of Martin.

Cornelia Kazis worked as the editor for parenting and education issues at Schweizer Radio (Swiss Radio) for over 30 years. She is a journalist and publicist, and winner of the Egon Erwin Kisch Prize. Right at the beginning of her career, she hosted an extensive radio broadcast with Alice Miller on the subject of child abuse. She was one of the only people who ever managed to get a long interview with Alice Miller. Cornelia Kazis lives and works in Basel.

Oliver Schubbe is a trauma therapist and head of the Institut für Traumatherapie (Institute for Trauma Therapy) in Berlin. He was one of the first to introduce trauma therapy to Europe. Alice Miller heard about the specialist, who was a young man at the time, and chose him as her therapist. He is acquainted with both sides of the conflict-ridden history between Martin and his Mother. Due to what is known as psychological transmission, Alice Miller perceived her son as a Nazi persecutor. Schubbe sees this as a particularly tragic case of transgenerational trauma inheritance. Alice Miller expressly released her therapist Oliver Schubbe from his therapeutical confidentiality for the time following her death.

As Ania Dodziuk herself says, she’s been a psychotherapist for what feels like an eternity, and happily so. She is over 80 years old and was the best friend of Alice Miller’s sister, Irena, who recently passed away. Ania is politically active and takes a critical view of the situation in Poland. She compares it to Hungary and says that as far as anti-Semitic tendencies and right-wing populism are concerned, her country isn’t so far away from Orban. She sees Martin’s story as a “structural tragedy,” brought about by the war and the Holocaust.

Historian Katrin Stoll has lived and worked in Warsaw since 2010. She is a Holocaust scholar, specialized in Täterforschung (perpetrator research) and the criminal prosecution of Nazi crimes in the Federal Republic of Germany. She comes from Bielefeld and is a research associate at the Imre Kertész Kolleg Jena. Together with Martin Sander, she assisted Martin with his research in Poland.

Martin Sander comes from Berlin and studied Polish studies. He works as a freelance journalist for various radio and television broadcasters including Deutschlandfunk, Deutschlandradio, Deutsche Welle, NDR, BR, RBB, and NZZ. He commutes between Warsaw and Berlin and is writing a book entitled “Everyday Life and Resistance in Occupied Warsaw”. He also works as an interpreter and is an experienced researcher. Together with Katrin Stoll, he assisted Martin with his research in Poland.

Matan Shefi works as a historian at Jewish Genealogy and Family Heritage Center, a branch of the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw. He moved to Warsaw after studying in Jerusalem. He knows the archives and databanks of his institute inside and out and assists Jewish descendants in their search for their roots. He helped Martin research his mother’s situation during the Nazi occupation of Warsaw.

Elżbieta is a cultural scientist descended from a family of Polish intellectuals. She was born in Warsaw and studied in Paris. Her main area of research is anti-Semitism in Poland up to and including the present day. Among others, she studied under the famous political philosopher Stefan Morawski, who happened to be Alice Miller’s great love interest in her youth during the war.