Congressman-elect's claims of family's Holocaust survival contradicted by genealogy records: Report

Claims by a Republican congressman-elect of European Jewish ancestry and his family's narrow escape from the Holocaust appear to be untrue, according to a report in a prominent Jewish newspaper. 

New York Congressman-elect George Santos's "emotional narrative of having Jewish grandparents who fled Europe during World War II appears to be untrue," the Forward reported this week.

The newspaper said it reviewed "genealogy websites" to make this determination, finding that Santos's maternal grandparents were "born in Brazil before the Nazis rose to power." 

The claims come after a New York Times account this week revealed that much of Santos's biography "appears to have been made up," with the newspaper reporting that "neither Baruch College, which Santos said he was graduated from in 2010, nor Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, where Santos said he had worked, had any record of him," according to Forward.

"Even the animal rescue group he said he founded does not appear to exist," Forward said.