Episode Details

Twenty years ago, when Ilanit-Michele Woods urged her grandmother Olga Fisch to write down her memoirs of life in Hungary before and after the Holocaust, Woods could never have imagined the journey that manuscript would make. The 75 typed pages, all in Hungarian, sat unread for decades in Montreal, long after Olga died in 2017.

The family eventually translated the documents into English at the Montreal Holocaust Museum in the summer of 2023. And because Woods is an award-winning sound editor, with both a BAFTA award and an Emmy nomination on her resume, she turned a microphone toward herself and her mother and recorded hours of tape during trips to Hungary, Poland and Israel, shortly after Oct. 7.

The mother-daughter duo explored the places that shaped Olga's remarkable life. As a teenager, Olga had been deported from eastern Hungary to Auschwitz; she was later shipped off to a slave-labour factory, and sent on a death march. They also explored the source of their mother's Holocaust trauma, which they firmly believe has impacted three generations of their family.

The long-lost manuscript might eventually become a book. In the meantime, Woods has released a six-part audio podcast entitled Olga, Erika and Me, which launched in Montreal in Sept. 2025. On today's episode of The CJN's North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner is joined by Woods and her mother, Erika Ciment, to discuss how the audio format will enhance the storytelling.

Related links

• Listen to the six-part podcast Olga, Erika and Me
• Watch the trailer for the podcast on YouTube
• Learn more about the podcast via the Montreal Holocaust Museum

Credits

• Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner)
• Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)
• Music: Bret Higgins

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