The Jenkins Family, Finding Freedom

The Jenkins Family, Finding Freedom

In this episode of The Last Generation, Civil Rights, three generations of the Jenkins family, grandfather Crawford Jenkins, his son Jayanta Jenkins, and grandson Phoenix Jenkins, come together to talk about freedom, legacy, and what gets passed down. Abe reflects on the Civil Rights era, his friendships with Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., and being drafted into the Vietnam War while still denied full freedom at home. In the midst of that contradiction, music became his refuge, and a way to feel free. That love of music, and what it made possible, was passed to Jayanta, and now to Phoenix. This conversation captures how freedom isn’t only fought for, it’s felt, heard, and carried forward through family.

The Civil Rights Chapter: An Introduction

This episode marks the beginning of a powerful new chapter of The Last Generation, expanding the project’s mission beyond the Holocaust to explore the lived legacy of the American Civil Rights Movement through intergenerational conversation. Hosted by Maddy Kramer, the episode introduces collaborators Jimmy Smith and Sequel Smith, whose work and lived experience anchor this chapter with depth, urgency, and humanity. Together, they set the intention for what’s to come: preserving firsthand stories from elders who shaped history, alongside the grandchildren who carry those stories forward. The episode also introduces Agosto as the project’s new music house partner. Agosto’s original compositions establish the emotional tone of the chapter, underscoring the intimacy, weight, and resonance of these conversations. This is not a history lesson. It is a living archive. A space where memory, identity, and legacy meet, across generations, across movements, and across time.

Episode 10: Evelyne Appel

This is the story of Evelyne Appel, a French girl who survived the war thanks to the courage and bravery of her parents and sister. Evelyne’s family was deeply involved in the resistance, helping Jews escape persecution with clever tools like handbags with false bottoms, filled with forged papers. Evelyne endured a challenging childhood, including a perilous solo journey across the border to Switzerland to ensure her survival. After the war, Evelyne and her family relocated to New York, where they rebuilt their lives.

Episode 9: Meir and Doris Usherovitz

The story of Doris and Meir is like many others during the Holocaust. At that time, they were children who lived full and happy lives. They played, they had large families, who spent time with them. Doris lived on a farm in Czech Republic, where she played with her cousins like any child of the same age. She was only 10 years old when the war began and her family had to separate to escape from the Nazis. United States, Israel, different countries in Europe. The family that until then was united, had to separate. This is also the story of her husband, Meir, whose family was dedicated to the textile business, and had to leave everything behind when the Nazis took them to the ghetto, and then, they were separated and taken to concentration camps. Meir had to live 6 years in concentration camps, in Auschwitz and Mauthausen. He was only 13 years old when they took him, his mother, and younger brother to the camps, after taking his older brother and father, whom he never saw again. Today, we will hear their stories.

Episode 8: Mark Schonwetter at the Museum of Jewish Heritage

Mark Schonwetter was a young child in Brzostek, Poland, when Germany invaded, and his family was forced out of their home. After his father was taken by the Gestapo, Mark fled along with his mother and sister. They spent time in a nearby ghetto and then went into hiding in the Polish countryside, where they remained for three years. By the end of the war, Mark was one of only a few surviving Jews from Brzostek. Hate is an issue that we face today as a society. When it seems like we are moving towards a better, more humane understanding world, we still encounter individuals who are racist, spread messages of hate, and are supported by followers who emulate and cheer them. We have already witnessed the destructive consequences of these hateful words and leadership, yet it appears that some have not learned from history. Education is the best tool we have to fight hate and teach new generations to build a more just and inclusive society based on memory. Listening to and learning from the stories of those who came before us enables us to comprehend their experiences and avoid repeating historical mistakes. This live episode is a special collaboration with The Museum of Jewish Heritage and the Mark Schonwetter Holocaust Education Foundation.  Mark and his family join us to tell their story, educate, and set an example of resilience. Anti-Semitism is not an isolated event on the other side of the world. Today, we see the consequences of hate more clearly. Jews, Muslims, Christians, and atheists, are all affected by hate in different areas around the globe. Anti-Semitism and hatred are not a problem for Jews, nor for Israel, nor for holocaust survivors only. This is everyone's problem. These days, we are surprised by the amount of anti-Semitic comments we read on social media from people justifying the horror that is happening. Today, we see them, and we pay attention to them because the majority of people condemn war and hate, and we cannot understand how anyone can justify this. But the reality is that they are always among us. Our contribution today is to deconstruct all those messages and confront people who speak from hatred and ignorance. Spread accurate information, listen to those affected, and understand that racism and anti-Semitism are everyone's problems. Hate begins with ideas and words, with a joke that you may think is innocent, and it turns into prejudice, insult, and explicit discrimination. And the path to the worst consequences we have seen throughout history and are seeing again today is not that long.