Andrew Garfield was visibly emotional as he paid tribute to his relatives who are believed to have died during the Holocaust. The 41-year-old actor explored his ancestry in an episode of the genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are?, tracing his family roots to Poland. He discovered that his Jewish great-grandfather, Ludwig Garfinkel, escaped to London in 1910, but three of Ludwig’s sisters remained in Poland and are believed to have been killed at the Treblinka extermination camp.

While visiting Treblinka, Andrew broke down in tears as he placed three stones on a memorial honoring the Jewish victims from the town of Kielce, where his ancestors lived. He reflected, "This is a memorial for the Jews of Kielce, where we believe my great-grandfather’s sisters—Szajndia, Dworja, and Basia—were murdered. The Nazis tried to erase them completely, not just their lives but even the memory of their existence. They were ordinary women who wanted to live and thrive. This journey has helped me and my family remember them again, and for that, I’m thankful. I wish I had known them and I wish them peace."

The episode also highlighted the story of Andrew’s great-great-grandmother, Chaja, who escaped the Holocaust by relocating to Brazil in 1936 to reunite with her daughter Ruchla. It was also revealed that Ruchla’s husband was a cousin of Władysław Szpilman, the Jewish pianist whose life inspired the Oscar-winning film The Pianist.

This emotional experience ties into Andrew’s recent reflections on life. In an interview with Variety, he shared that he now feels an intense urgency to live more fully, having come to a deeper understanding of life’s brevity. "I’ve been hit with this visceral realization of how incredibly short our time is here," he said. "Now I only want to pursue things that truly resonate with my soul. In a world that feels increasingly numb, I want to stay connected to what matters—our lives and our souls."