Marie Hélène Sagaspe never met her father, Jean Iribarne. He died in 1945, two months after she was born and a year after he had been arrested for guiding Jews fleeing the Nazis across the French border into Spain.

Through the grainy haze of old home videos, I see my younger self. In one clip, I toddle down the sidewalk outside our townhouse in a Bay Area suburb, my mom hovering over me, ready to catch every wobble.