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YouTube TRAILER -- When Nazi Germany invades the Soviet Union during World War II, eleven-year-old Yasha and his Jewish family must flee to survive. Built from testimony recorded by his grandson on an old camcorder, Yasha brings to life a childhood in the shadow of Hitler and Stalin, where growing up meant never standing still.
Follow the limited series podcast today. All five episodes of Part I premiere September 1st. Written and produced by Jeremy Gendelman, with sound design by Carter Wogahn.
Learn more about the show and Yasha's story at www.yashashow.com, or follow us on Instagram and Facebook @yashapodcast.
Jeremy
In June of 1941, Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union. Within weeks, rumors of atrocities against Jews began to spread. Most stories from this time are about what happened after the Nazis arrived. This one is about those who fled just before they did.
Yasha
A rumor starts that the Germans killed Jewish people. My mom said we need to run away.
Jeremy
In my new limited series podcast, I follow the story of my grandfather, Yasha. He was just 11 years old when Hitler's troops stormed into Belarus. And when his mother made the decision to flee the horrors that were coming, it meant leaving everything behind.
Yasha
One way was the river. We took our belongings and just go.
Jeremy
But getting out was just the beginning. For Yasha and his family of seven, staying alive came to mean a new life on the run.
Yasha
They put us in a train. We spent in this train almost three months. The people became like animals.
Jeremy
By rail, river, and sea, they fled thousands of kilometers across the Soviet Union, consumed by war, forced to take refuge wherever they could along the way.
Yasha
We couldn't go in any direction, because the Germans covered the roads. We could hear this plan coming...boom boom boom. We need to spend nights in the stations, sleeping on the floor. They brought us to a collective farm and said, here you will work.
Jeremy
In Yasha, I take my grandfather's memories, captured decades later on an old camcorder. Okay, now we're recording.
Yasha
Your voice is there, too.
Jeremy
And bring them to life inside of one of World War II's least-told chapters. The Jewish families who managed to escape East, only to find themselves caught between Hitler's advancing forces and Stalin's iron rule.
Yasha
Germans killed Jewish people. Russians, they didn't allow you to live, to survive, to breathe.
Jeremy
What I find goes beyond history. It connects one of humanity's darkest chapters to the universal childhood moments that shape us all. It's about what holds the family together when everything is stripped away. The impossible decisions so many had to make to survive. And how one ordinary boy was forced to grow up in spite of it all.
Yasha
And now I'm sitting across my grandchild and telling him the story of my life.
Jeremy
Yasha launches September 1st, wherever you get your podcasts. Follow now to hear how the journey begins.
Jeremy
Did people from your village that didn't leave when you left...
Yasha
All of them died, all of them. All my friends, my childhood friends I spent in the street...all of them died, all of them.