EPISODE 156 OF GROWING OLDER LIVING YOUNGER focuses on the powers of love, resilience, curiosity and courage to enable one to survive the most profound and catastrophic childhood traumas imaginable. Used wisely, those same powers will lead us to age gracefully to live younger longer. My guest today exemplifies survival through courage and resilience.  Eighty-eight year old Janet Singer Applefield,  holocaust survivor and author of “Becoming Janet: Finding Myself in the Holocaust”, was given away by her parents when she was seven years old. It was days before her parents were forced to report for a mandatory selection, the Nazis term for systematically separating those to be immediately murdered, from those to be worked to death. She survived the holocaust by hiding on a farm under a false identity. Miraculously, her father survived the camps and 3 years, found her in an orphanage. Janet learned 72 years later, that her mother had been exterminated at the Belzec death camp. If there’s anyone who can teach us about bravery, resilience and hope, it is Janet Singer Applefield, through her memoir, showing how profound tragedy can be transformed into hope, self determination, and ultimately joy.

Episode Timeline

  0:11 Resilience, courage, and hope in the face of childhood trauma and the Holocaust.

5:13 Janet’s Holocaust survival story, starting with her separation at age 7 from her parents

 11:32 Surviving WWII as a young Jewish girl, reuniting with her father after 3.5 years, and immigrating to America.

19:18 How today, she shares her holocaust stories through speaking invitations, to thousands of children a year.

  22:00 Insights  on living with purpose, keeping busy and constantly challenging one’s assumptions to keep youthful

  26:00 Sharing insights on preparing for Retirement and finding purpose in older age.

  30:7  Gratitude for the heroes of her story, who saved her life at the risk of losing their own and how the smallest act of kindness has a ripple effect.

Learn more about about Janet Singer Applefield and Becoming Janet: Finding Myself In The Holocaust”. (https://a.co/d/5LmB3b0)

FB: https://www.facebook.com/janetapplefieldauthor

IG: https://www.instagram.com/janetapplefield/

WEB: https://www.janetapplefield.com/

Get to know Your Host: Dr. Gillian Lockitch

Download your free Guide to Living Younger Longer. 

Download the Growing Older Living Younger app for your smartphone or tablet

Schedule a free Discovery Call with Dr. Gill

website: https://www.askdrgill.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gillian.lockitch/ GOLY Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/growingolderlivingyounger

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gillianlockitch/

X: https://twitter.com/GilliansReviews

And if you have not already done so, follow, rate and review this Growing Older Living Younger podcast.

Most Recent Episodes

September 16, 2024

174 Kimberley Gillan: Healthy Eating on a Low Budget

In EPISODE 174 OF GROWING OLDER LIVING YOUNGER we explore the important topic of Food Security. Dr. Gillian Lockitch and Kimberley Gillan discuss the importance of maintaining healthy nutrition...

Listen · 37:48

September 9, 2024

173 John E Lewis: Polysaccharides and a Plant-based Diet in Brain Health

In EPISODE 173 OF GROWING OLDER LIVING YOUNGER we explore whether a whole food, plant-based Diet and dietary supplements, particularly polysaccharides from aloe vera and rice bran, are optimal for...

Listen · 40:54

September 2, 2024

172 Sky Bergman: Wisdom from Lives Well Lived

EPISODE 172 OF GROWING OLDER LIVING YOUNGER focuses on Aging gracefully and the Wisdom we acquire through a life well lived. Most people would agree that the most powerful factor in aging well is a...

Listen · 40:25

Load More Episodes

Dr. Gillian Lockitch Dr. Gillian Lockitch

Dr. Gillian Lockitch is an international speaker, author of Growing Older, Living Younger: The Science of Aging Gracefully and The Art of Retiring Comfortably, and host of the Growing Older, Living Younger Podcast. As a dual-certified Specialist in Paediatrics and Medical Biochemistry and Professor at the University of British Columbia, her professional career was rooted in science. During her rehabilitation from life-saving emergency spinal surgery, her passion to be able to dance again led her to explore the intersection of medical and epigenetic science with non-Western healing traditions, to understand how to change aging at the cellular level. Within the Growing Older, Living Younger Project, the Change Your Aging Masterplan cycle is a year-long 3 part coaching program to preserve mind and brain, build your best body, and to survive and thrive in your environment. At 70 Dr. Lockitch became a first time entrepreneur, building a global online business with the premiere wellness and beauty company, to help others extend their healthspan, stay vibrant, active, and independent as they age. Now retired from medical practice, Dr. Lockitch is an empathetic coach and mentor but does not diagnose, treat or prescribe for medical diseases.