hmTv at HMTC Podcasts Ep 480: Raised by Survivors with Bernie Furshpan and guest Sandy Pensak on hmTv
Ep 480: Raised by Survivors with Bernie Furshpan and guest Sandy Pensak
In this deeply personal episode of Raised by Survivors on hmTv, host Bernie Furshpan sits down with fellow second-generation Holocaust survivor Sandy Pensak to reflect on what it was like growing up as the child of parents who endured the unimaginable.
Sandy shares the story of her parents, who survived multiple forced labor camps during the Holocaust and later rebuilt their lives in America, operating a small luncheonette in Queens while raising their family. Like many children of survivors, Sandy explains that the trauma of the Holocaust was rarely spoken about during her early years, yet it shaped her childhood in powerful and lasting ways.
The conversation explores the quiet signals that revealed their parents’ past, the moment Sandy’s mother first spoke openly about her experiences for a school project interview with her granddaughter, and the emotional legacy carried by the second generation. Bernie and Sandy also reflect on the values instilled by their survivor parents: resilience, gratitude for life’s simplest blessings, and a deep commitment to education.
As a longtime educator and former school principal, Sandy discusses the importance of Holocaust education in today’s world and the responsibility of younger generations to continue remembering and teaching these stories. Together, Bernie and Sandy honor the lives of their parents while emphasizing why the lessons of the Holocaust remain urgently relevant.
This moving conversation is a tribute to the strength of survivors, the gratitude of their children, and the enduring hope that education and remembrance can help build a more compassionate future.