Josie’s Story: From 19th-century Sitka to her escape from the Holocaust

What did it take to be among Alaska’s first pioneers? Who were the colonists rushing north in 1867 after the United States purchased Russia’s interest in Alaska?

The first white settler girl born inside the muddy wooden fortress of American Sitka was named Josephine Rudolph — Josie, as she is remembered by her descendants today. Her parents were not the “hardy Nordic pioneers” praised by politicians of that era. They were immigrants to the New World, German Jews who had come to the outermost frontier to find economic opportunity and escape the oppressive antisemitism of Bavaria.

Josie Rudolph’s remarkable life story, set in an era of worldwide migration, colonial ambition and the taking of the coastal forests from the Tlingit kwáans, is a new and different take on the familiar tale of modern Alaska’s birth.

Today’s sensibilities may judge harshly the collision of cultures in 19th-century Sitka. The consequences of that time echo down to our own. But Josie Rudolph’s story is a reminder, as well, that history’s many twists and turns are not all deplorable.

Because 69 years later, when Alaska’s first pioneer daughter was an elderly Jewish widow trapped in Nazi Germany, her one hope for escape turned out to be the circumstances of her birth in the coastal rainforest of the Sheet’ká Kwáan.

— Tom Kizzia

Part 1: Birthplace

Sitka, 1869, a time of colonial ambition, worldwide migration and the seizing of the majestic coastal forests from the Tlingit kwáans.

Part 2: The settlers’ colony

A secret agent arrives in America’s muddy northern frontier outpost.

Part 3: ‘All the territory and dominion possessed’

The Army trains its cannons on the Sheet’ká Kwáan as the United States takes control of Tlingit lands and waters.

Part 4: Jews of the frontier

A child is born into the community of Jewish immigrants who found their way from the Old World to America’s northern frontier.

Part 5: Alaska’s first boomers

Famous visitors, age-old prejudice and white man’s justice as the boom goes bust.

Part 6: Stumbling stones

In Germany, Josie Rudolph watches the rise of the Nazis and becomes trapped, her family’s home and wealth stripped away.

Part 7: The Alaska plan

While the U.S. refuses to open the Alaska territory to German Jews trapped by the Nazis, Josie Rudolph develops her own Alaska plan, based on her birth in the coastal rainforest of the Sheet’ká Kwáan.

Part 8: A trip to Alaska

Many years later, Josie’s descendants travel to Sitka in search of their pioneer roots.

How the ‘Josie’s Story’ series was reported

Read more about the evolution of the series, how it was researched and a listing of sources.

Former Anchorage Daily News reporter Tom Kizzia was named Historian of the Year in 2022 by the Alaska Historical Society. He is the author of three books: “The Wake of the Unseen Object,” “Pilgrim’s Wilderness” and “Cold Mountain Path.” His journalism has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times and the Columbia Journalism Review. He lives in Homer and can be reached at tkizzia@gmail.com.

Support for this project was provided by the Alaska Center for Excellence in Journalism.

Edited by David Hulen. Copy editing: Vicky Ho. Photo editing: Anne Raup. Additional editing by Elizabeth Harball.