The Last Generation

In this episode of The Last Generation, Civil Rights , three generations of the Jenkins family, grandfather Crawford Jenkins , his son Jayanta Jenkins , and grandson Phoenix Jenkins , come together to talk about freedom, legacy, and what gets passed down. Abe reflects on the Civil Rights era, his friendships with Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. , and being drafted into the Vietnam War while s...

This episode marks the beginning of a powerful new chapter of The Last Generation , expanding the project’s mission beyond the Holocaust to explore the lived legacy of the American Civil Rights Movement through intergenerational conversation. Hosted by Maddy Kramer, the episode introduces collaborators Jimmy Smith and Sequel Smith , whose work and lived experience anchor this chapter with depth, u...

This is the story of Evelyne Appel, a French girl who survived the war thanks to the courage and bravery of her parents and sister. Evelyne’s family was deeply involved in the resistance, helping Jews escape persecution with clever tools like handbags with false bottoms, filled with forged papers. Evelyne endured a challenging childhood, including a perilous solo journey across the border to Switz...

The story of Doris and Meir is like many others during the Holocaust. At that time, they were children who lived full and happy lives. They played, they had large families, who spent time with them. Doris lived on a farm in Czech Republic, where she played with her cousins ​​like any child of the same age. She was only 10 years old when the war began and her family had to separate to escape from t...

Mark Schonwetter was a young child in Brzostek, Poland, when Germany invaded, and his family was forced out of their home. After his father was taken by the Gestapo, Mark fled along with his mother and sister. They spent time in a nearby ghetto and then went into hiding in the Polish countryside, where they remained for three years. By the end of the war, Mark was one of only a few surviving Jews...

Rosalie was born in 1931 in Velka-Kriva, Czechoslovakia. She was the youngest of six children, five girls, and one boy. "During Passover of 1944, she and her family were deported to a ghetto. After 2 months in the Ghetto, Rosalie and her family were transferred to a concentration camp."  Her family was divided into different lines, each line would determine if they would be dead or alive in a matt...

Kristine and Marian Keren´s stories are two tales of heroism and strength during the Nazi occupation of Poland. Kristine was born on October 28th, 1935. She was just eight when she had to find refuge with her mom, dad, and younger brother. Her story is unlike many, as Kristine and her family, helped by sewer worker Leopold Socha hide under the sewer system for 14 months. Sadly, Socha passed away r...

Rachel remembers vividly the day the French police knocked on her door Sunday, July 19th, 1942, in her tiny french village, Compiegne. They were looking to arrest her parents because they were Jewish, and that was the last day Rachel and Leon saw their parents ever again.

When we think of the Holocaust, we think of the tragic stories, the survivors who have been part of deadly concentration camps, and the survivors who escaped that horror. Ruth wouldn’t call herself a survivor, and she felt ashamed to take away from the people that had a worse experience than her. Her grandchildren reminded her that what she lived through is also surviving and that her bravery is o...

For most of us, our first 4 years of life are built with happy memories. For Michael those memories are summarized in a picture with striped pajamas outside of Auschwitz. Michael and his three young grandchildren (Allie, JT & Jack) talked about how education was vital for his family even more after the war. Michael started talking about the Holocaust to remind us that is still happening today to a...

I was reading the New York Times in Jan 2021 when an article caught my eye: A Holocaust Survivor Lifts Neighbors in Dark Times. The article was talking about Simon Gronowski playing jazz through his apartment window during the COVID lockdown. Months later, I had the chance to talk to Simon and Romain, his grandson; we had the most wonderful conversation, some in English and some in French. After R...

In November of 2021 I had the chance to bring together Irving Roth and his grandchildren Jamie, Aaron, Talia, and Jessie. There was laughter, crying and even great grandkids listening in the background. The most amazing thing is to listen to Irving's grand kids realizing that his own experience in the war changed their lives as well, how each generation experience trickles into the next.

Hi and Welcome to The Last Generation. I’m Maddy Kramer.  In 2004 my grandma passed away and I never got the chance to ask how did she survived The Holocaust. Growing up I knew she was Hungarian and that she survived the war but not really how that impacted her life and how her own life impacted my mom’s and even mine. I wish I had the chance to know her more, learn her language and really kn...