EPISODE 156 OF GROWING OLDER LIVING YOUNGER focuses on the powers of love, resilience, curiosity and courage to enable one to survive the most profound and catastrophic childhood traumas imaginable. Used wisely, those same powers will lead us to age gracefully to live younger longer. My guest today exemplifies survival through courage and resilience. Eighty-eight year old Janet Singer Applefield, holocaust survivor and author of “Becoming Janet: Finding Myself in the Holocaust”, was given away by her parents when she was seven years old. It was days before her parents were forced to report for a mandatory selection, the Nazis term for systematically separating those to be immediately murdered, from those to be worked to death. She survived the holocaust by hiding on a farm under a false identity. Miraculously, her father survived the camps and 3 years, found her in an orphanage. Janet learned 72 years later, that her mother had been exterminated at the Belzec death camp. If there’s anyone who can teach us about bravery, resilience and hope, it is Janet Singer Applefield, through her memoir, showing how profound tragedy can be transformed into hope, self determination, and ultimately joy.
Episode Timeline
[0:11] Resilience, courage, and hope in the face of childhood trauma and the Holocaust.
[5:13] Janet’s Holocaust survival story, starting with her separation at age 7 from her parents
[11:32] Surviving WWII as a young Jewish girl, reuniting with her father after 3.5 years, and immigrating to America.
[19:18] How today, she shares her holocaust stories through speaking invitations, to thousands of children a year.
[22:00] Insights on living with purpose, keeping busy and constantly challenging one’s assumptions to keep youthful
[26:00] Sharing insights on preparing for retirement and finding purpose in older age.
30:7 Gratitude for the heroes of her story, who saved her life at the risk of losing their own and how the smallest act of kindness has a ripple effect.
Learn more about about Janet Singer Applefield and Becoming Janet: Finding Myself In The Holocaust”. (https://a.co/d/5LmB3b0)
FB: https://www.facebook.com/janetapplefieldauthor
IG: https://www.instagram.com/janetapplefield/
WEB: https://www.janetapplefield.com/
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