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Podcast Episode

The Survivor Who Walked 1,600 Miles Home | Martin Bodek

One More Thing Before You Go··1 September 2026·1h 2m

About this episode

Some stories don’t just belong to a family. They belong to all of us. What would you do to survive if everything you knew had been taken from you?Martin Bodek's grandfather survived four armies, two world wars, starvation, poison, and a 1,600-mile journey home during World War II. He survived what should have been impossible—and then faced the harder question: How do you build a life after surviving history?In this deeply moving conversation, Michael sits down with author Martin Bodek to uncover the extraordinary story of his grandfather—a Holocaust survivor whose second life was shaped by faith, family, food, and an extraordinary will to begin again.From the devastation of war to rebuilding a life in Israel, surviving the Six-Day War, and ultimately spending 40 years as a chef in the United States, his journey reveals that survival isn't always the end of the story. Sometimes, it's the beginning of another one.Michael and Martin explore the responsibility of preserving family history, the relationship between trauma and identity, and the surprising ways food can carry memory across generations.Because when those who witnessed history are gone, the stories they left us become our responsibility to remember.Find us on Apple, Spotify or your favorite listening platform; visit us on our YouTube channel Find everything "One More Thing" here: https://taplink.cc/beforeyougopodcastWant to be a guest on One More Thing Before You Go? Send Michael Herst a message on PodMatch, here: PODMATCH Proud member of the Podmatch Network of Top Rated- Podcasts This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy