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In this powerful episode of The Joy of Living, Barry Shore welcomes Leslie Benitah, a journalist, author, filmmaker, and founder of the Last Ones Foundation. Leslie opens up about growing up in Paris as the grandchild of four Holocaust survivors, all of whom came from Poland and lived through the camps and DP displacement before eventually settling in France.
Leslie reflects on the generational trauma she inherited not through spoken stories but through profound silences. Her grandparents rarely spoke about the Shoah, yet their nighttime screams, obsessive relationship with food, and strict emotional boundaries communicated everything. She shares unforgettable moments, including being silenced at a Passover table for simply asking her grandmother's mother's name, and realizing that her grandmother's tough love was actually a deliberate attempt to equip Leslie for survival.
Barry and Leslie explore what it means to inherit resilience alongside fear, how the American mindset of possibility differs from a survival-based European upbringing, and why Leslie decided at age ten to become a journalist so she would always have the right to ask questions.
This episode is a moving meditation on family secrets, generational healing, and the quiet ways love is passed down even when words fail. Leslie Benitah is a French-born journalist, author, filmmaker, and the founder of the Last Ones Foundation, dedicated to preserving the stories of Holocaust survivors.
Show Notes:
- 00:45 — Finding the Good in Life
- 02:29 — The Three Fundamentals of Life
- 07:15 — The Family Secrets We Inherit
- 10:01 — Growing Up with Holocaust Survivors
- 14:15 — The Questions She Was Told Not to Ask
- 16:50 — When Silence Becomes Loud
- 22:45 — Toughness as a Form of Love
- 29:25 — Visiting Auschwitz at Age 12
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About Leslie Benitah
Leslie Gelrubin Benitah is a French-American journalist, author, filmmaker, and founder of The Last Ones Foundation. After more than 20 years in television and media, she turned her focus to preserving Holocaust memory and bringing survivor testimony to the next generation. She is the author of Bubbeh Meisse, a deeply personal exploration of family history, inherited memory, identity, and the stories that survive through generations. Through her films, books, and educational work, Leslie is dedicated to ensuring that memory remains not only a connection to the past, but a responsibility for the future.
