The Hour Before Dawn

A Program for Inheritors of Wealth with Family Ties to the Nazi Regime

The global rise of fascism—especially in recent years—has forced many of us to ask: How did we get here? How could we as humanity have failed to remember the horrors and lessons of the Nazi regime? 

Since October 7th, I—like most Jewish people I know—have been grappling with what it means to be an American Jew in a time of horrific violence against both Palestinians and Israelis. My tax dollars are funding a genocide, and my president has proposed “expelling 2.1 million Palestinians from Gaza and transforming the enclave into a ‘Riviera’ owned by the United States.” As a descendant of Holocaust victims, I feel the reverberations of genocide deep in my body—the fear, the sickening recognition of dehumanizing rhetoric used against Palestinians today.

I recently moved to Berlin, Germany. The media eagerly condemns anti-Zionist Jews as anti-Semitic, dictating who is a "good Jew" and who is a "bad Jew." Shortly after October 7th, I was stopped by German police—alongside a group of Jewish women—simply for carrying signs that used the word genocide, and told that it would be illegal to carry a sign with that word as it was deemed anti-Semitic. Germany does not have true freedom of speech; in fact, it maintains a list of words deemed anti-Semitic, and genocide is one of them. A German police officer accusing a group of Jews as anti-Semitic and threatening the possibility of arrest? How did Germany get here?

I feel a clear calling to support descendants of Nazis in reckoning with their past, just as I reckon with the violence being done in my name as a Jew. Living in Berlin has given me profound insight into the ways the Holocaust remains unprocessed in Western Europe. The recent German elections are a stark reminder of this—one in five Germans voted for the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), a neo-Nazi party. Meanwhile, some of the wealthiest families in Germany still hold fortunes built on the Holocaust, with little to no accountability. This intergenerational transfer of Nazi wealth is both horrifying and familiar, echoing my work with descendants of slave-owners and oil magnates. It is both uniquely chilling and painfully banal.

As a money coach with years of experience supporting inheritors committed to social and economic justice, I believe those who have inherited wealth or power from the Nazi regime hold a unique and necessary role in today’s fight against fascism. Yet so few have had the space or support to research, grieve, and meaningfully understand their legacy—to align their money with their values.

So I began asking: What kind of transformation is possible if this space exists? What happens when descendants of Nazis examine how their family histories live on in their bank accounts? Are there alternatives to silence, shame, and guilt? And what is at stake if we refuse to look these histories in the face?

I am excited to announce the launch of a program that I have been envisioning and co-creating in response to these questions, in collaboration with facilitator  Justine Epstein. (Justine is the co-facilitator for Ancestors & Money, and her bio is below.)

Introducing The Hour Before Dawn: A Program for Inheritors of Wealth with Family or Financial Ties to the Nazi Regime

“The darkest hour of the night comes just before the dawn.”

― Paulo Coelho 

The Hour Before Dawn is a program for inheritors of wealth or family businesses with ties to the Third Reich who want to take ancestral responsibility and create a more just world. Through family history research, embodied storytelling, giving planning, and community building, participants will be supported to more deeply learn about their past and explore how their wealth can become a tool for repair in the present. This confidential and unique learning environment will equip participants to navigate the emotions, questions, and challenges that emerge when confronting difficult truths, while also discovering their power to embody their story and move from shame into action. 

Taking place July - November, 2025, The Hour Before Dawn includes in-person retreats in Berlin, Germany, video calls, and personalized site visits. It will be facilitated in English, and is tailored to a European audience.

This program is for those who:

• Have an anticipated inheritance of at least €500,000 and/or present-day access to €100,000.

• Are vehemently against fascism and right-wing authoritarian governments and care deeply about democracy and social responsibility.

• Feel called to confront their family’s past. This can include unease, hesitation, or fear about what might be uncovered—but still want to do the work.

• Have at least one ancestor who lived and grew family wealth, in whole or in part, during the Nazi Regime (1933-1945).

• Have the emotional bandwidth to engage in this work alongside others. This program involves group-based reflection, family research, and peer support.

• Are concerned about the rise of fascism in Europe and want to take action to resist it.
   

  We recognize that family legacies are complex and that involvement in the Nazi economy varied widely. This program welcomes participants whose family histories include a spectrum of involvement, ranging from passive economic benefit to active participation in Nazi policies. See the program webpage for more details. 

What participants will gain from this program:

• A supportive and confidential learning container to honestly confront family connections to the Nazi Regime

• A library of diverse resources and a strong political framework for understanding the context of history and this present moment 

• A community of peers with shared values and experiences 

• Tools for family history research 

• Tools, practice and support for (potentially difficult) conversations with family about family history, and tools for organizing family into action

• Tools for researching the history of family wealth and creating a giving plan that centers repair for past harms and its current consequences

• Path for reparative action steps that address lineages harmed directly by ancestors or creation or growth of family wealth 

• Practices and skills to navigate emotions from guilt, shame and hiding, towards grief, truth-telling, empowerment and action

• Strengthened relationship with a sense of home and connection to lineage that extend beyond this recent history of harm

Interested in Joining Us or Know Someone who Might?

We appreciate your support in helping us spread the word about this program. 

Submitting an application is the first step to be considered for The Hour Before Dawn. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis, so we encourage people who are interested to apply early to secure a spot.

• Early Bird Deadline: April 1

  Early applicants receive a complimentary 60-minute coaching session with a program leader to explore their family history or philanthropic strategy.

• Final Application Deadline: May 1

Your Facilitators

I am proud to be co-facilitating this program with Justine Epstein!

Justine Epstein is a facilitator, guide and mentor for people with inherited wealth who want to examine the histories of their ancestors and money, and take meaningful action to address these legacies. Working one-on-one and facilitating groups through the Ancestors & Money cohort, Justine has years of experience co-creating meaningful spaces for people to transform their relationship with themselves, their ancestors, their families, their money, and the natural world. Her holistic healing approach brings together training from Weaving Earth Center for Relational Education, School of Lost Borders, and Ways of Council.  

Justine is a sixth-generation descendant of James Gamble who co-founded multinational corporation Procter & Gamble in 1837. For 5 years, Justine has been organizing her family to interrupt P&G’s harmful practices and take reparative action supporting communities directly impacted by the company’s supply chain. Justine is also a member of Resource Generation, the Solidaire Network, and Transition Resource Circle – networks of people reimagining wealth and taking courageous action in these times. 

Though based in the US, Justine has spent significant time living, studying and working internationally and building long-lasting cross-cultural relationships. Diving deep into family history has reconnected Justine with her Jewish heritage where she finds spiritual and cultural sustenance. She is honored to be following the stories of her ancestors back to their motherland and engaging in the complex and necessary work of The Hour Before Dawn. 

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Iris Brilliant is a money coach for inheritors of wealth and has facilitated programs for wealth inheritors for over fourteen years. Iris is trained in Internal Family Systems and has a coaching certification from the Co-Active Training Institute. She learned how to develop transformational programs for people with wealth at Resource Generation, where she was the High Net Wealth Organizer and Family Philanthropy Organizer for five years. She deepened her understanding of finance at the Adasina Fund, where she worked as a social justice strategist and philanthropic advisor.

Her work has predominantly been focused on supporting Americans to grapple with the moral and logistical weight of inherited wealth built off of Black and Indigenous communities. She recently moved to Berlin and is now shifting her focus towards supporting wealth inheritors to resist the rise of fascism in Europe. She led a pilot workshop series for Resource Transformation, an organization for German-speaking wealth holders, on the topics of ancestral research, anti-Semitism, and reparations. The success of this workshop series inspired The Hour Before Dawn.

She is passionate about supporting perpetrators of harm to reclaim their dignity through rigorous research and courageous action. Iris is Jewish and anchors her career in the longstanding Jewish values of Tikkun Olam (healing the world) and Teshuvah (return to wholeness through acts of repair). Her work with descendants of Nazis supports her personal journey of ancestral healing, as her grandfather’s family was murdered in the Holocaust. She believes that while we cannot change the actions of our ancestors, we as descendants are the only ones who can help heal our ancestors—and ensure the world learns from their mistakes.