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Influential Origins | Ep. 713: Andrea Bolender, The Burden of the Privilege, Part 1 | HMTC

Andrea Bolender’s father survived Auschwitz, forced labor in coal mines, a death march, and the murder of nearly his entire immediate family. Decades later, his recorded testimony revealed truths Andrea had never been able to hear.

On Influential Origins, host Alan Mindel welcomes Andrea, Chairman Emeritus of HMTC, for Part 1 of a deeply personal conversation. Andrea retraces her father Benik Bolender’s journey from prewar Poland and liberation at Theresienstadt to his arrival in America, marriage, and determination to rebuild the family the Holocaust destroyed.

She explains why she carries the Bolender name and her father’s number, and how genealogical discoveries reconnected relatives scattered across Israel, England, and the United States. Their conversation explores night terrors, silence, resilience, survivor friendships, and a daughter’s profound gratitude for her parents. Andrea calls this inheritance “the burden of the privilege,” capturing how preserving memory can be both a sacred gift and an enduring emotional responsibility.

Influential Origins on hmTv | Host: Alan Mindel | Guest: Andrea Bolender
A production of the Holocaust Memorial & Tolerance Center of Nassau County

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CHAPTERS

0:00 Introduction
0:54 Auschwitz, Loss, and the Coal Mines
8:30 Returning to Poland and Tracing Family History
9:54 Liberation and the Journey to Prague
11:54 Testimony, Illness, and a Daughter’s Questions
15:04 Marriage, Children, and Rebuilding Family
16:26 Growing Up in Brooklyn
17:22 Life in a Survivor Household
19:02 Loss, Grandparents, and Finding HMTC
22:38 Survivor Friendships as Family
26:00 The Numbers on His Arm
27:10 Signs, Israel, and Family Memory
30:00 The Burden of the Privilege
31:54 Closing

HASHTAGS

#InfluentialOrigins #AndreaBolender #HolocaustSurvivor #SecondGeneration #HMTC

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