DENVER -- Jeremy Gendelman sat his paternal grandfather down at their family’s Denver kitchen table in 2008, a camcorder trained on him, and asked a single question.

“Where were you born?”

Yakov “Yasha” Gendelman didn’t stop talking for three hours.

“I was born in 1930 in the Soviet Union,” Yasha began. “My childhood was not the best.”

Those words, captured on early-aughts videotape, became the introductory lines in Gendelman’s podcast “Yasha,” which launched in September with a five-episode first season that can be found wherever you get your podcasts and has since been spotlighted by Apple Podcasts as a show worth catching. Podcast episodes have been streamed or downloaded more than 24,000 times, Gendelman said.

The story details Yasha’s childhood “caught between Hitler’s advancing forces and Stalin’s iron rule,” as Gendelman fused his grandfather’s extensive memories with his own historical research.

Yasha died in 2019 at the age of 90, but the story of his childhood flight across the Soviet Union during the Nazi invasion of World War II is now preserved — an endeavor that began as a labor of love and evolved into a creative passion once Jeremy Gendelman fell in love with the audio storytelling format.

“At first, it helped me feel really connected to my grandpa. His passing away was raw and fresh,” Gendelman said in an interview with The Denver Post. “It helped me grieve, but it then became more about the story and the craft for me. Of course, my grandfather was always at the center of it.”

Gendelman grew up hearing bits and pieces of his grandfather and great-grandmother’s harrowing journey escaping the Nazis. As he grew older and his appreciation for history matured, he became more curious about his family’s narrative as he read historical accounts of World War II.

“I knew my family was in there somewhere; I just didn’t quite understand how,” he said. “Once I did, it was like a lightbulb went off in my head that this was such a crazy story. I wanted to share it.”

When Gendelman was a student at Colorado State University, a girlfriend encouraged him to record Yasha recounting his childhood.

Gendelman’s grandfather unloaded the memories he had kept close to the vest for decades.

“Jeremy pulled it out of him,” said Edward Gendelman, Yasha’s son and Gendelman’s father, who lives in Denver. “He really opened up to Jeremy. Many of the things he uncovered in his podcast, I didn’t even know about my dad.”

In 1941, Yasha’s mother heard rumors about the impending arrival of the Nazis and the danger they posed to Jewish families. She chose to evacuate with her children, getting out of Petrikov, Belarus, “in the nick of time,” Gendelman said.

“Weeks later, it’s on record the Nazis got to that town and exterminated everybody else that didn’t decide to leave,” Gendelman said. “Her decision saved her entire family, and I wouldn’t be here right now if not for her.”

The podcast recounts 11-year-old Yasha’s time with his family as they headed east by rail and boat to try to stay ahead of the Nazi advance. They traveled by barge down the Pripyat River. In one episode, Yasha talks about being forced into farm labor. In another, he remembers sheltering at an abandoned circus. Interspersed are stories about the kindness of strangers, the tight bonds of family and culture shock.

‘A storyteller’s dream’

Satisfied with his recording of family history, Gendelman stashed the camcorder tapes in a drawer and went about his life.

“I can picture the drawer in my college apartment that I put them in,” Gendelman said. “They gathered dust.”

It wasn’t until Yasha died of brain cancer more than a decade later that Gendelman thought to return to those recordings he’d made of his family’s patriarch.

“He was one of those guys that comes into the room and immediately becomes the center of attention,” Edward Gendelman said of his father. “People just gravitated toward him. He was a very sociable guy. A lot of tragedy happened to him in his early life, but he never let that cloud hang over him.”

Gendelman rewatched the old interview of his grandfather, coveting his voice, his facial expressions, his mannerisms. The content, however, was too rich to keep to himself, he thought.

“The level of detail he remembered and all the little stories and anecdotes — it was a storyteller’s dream,” Gendelman said.

Gendelman, who lives in Lakewood now, has worked in marketing for a decade, so he knows the value of a good narrative. First, he tried to write a novel with the material his grandfather provided, but that proved difficult, he said.

He was a fan of podcasts and, although he didn’t have experience in the medium, he figured he’d give it a shot. He took the camcorder tapes to a local library and converted them into modern-day audio files.

Anthony White, director of innovation and technology at Arapahoe Libraries, said they have seven digital media stations across their locations that allow patrons to convert old media to new digital formats or make new digital media using Adobe Creative Cloud and other software.

“Folks who are wondering how to do this or maybe intimidated or just want a little help can book an appointment with our digital media librarian,” White said. “He’s able to walk through the technology, the process, how to do it, and he is so passionate about helping everyone preserve these memories they might have and capturing the history of our communities.”

‘Anyone can do this’

Gendelman spent about three years producing the five episodes that make up the first season of his series. A second season with the rest of Yasha’s story is forthcoming.

He taught himself the basics of podcasting — scripting, editing, historical research, voiceover — and hired a sound designer to make the project sound professional. As AI grew more accessible, he started using the technology to help him research, he said.

He found himself itching to work on his podcast, stealing bits of work time in between his full-time job and caring for his family.

“It was really fun,” Gendelman said. “I really enjoyed it. I recently got laid off from my marketing job, which kind of sucks, but maybe it was a blessing in disguise. It’s a little bit of a calling for me now. I want to do more stuff like this. I don’t know if it’s a career or side hustle or hobby.”

The newfound podcaster shared his work with his family, who celebrated his achievement, but once he got praise from a few external listeners, he decided it was time to seek a bigger audience.

He launched independently, creating a website and using his own marketing skills to get eyeballs on the series. The podcast debuted at the beginning of September. He submitted his work to Apple Podcasts, and the platform featured his show on its homepage for several weeks.

“I just couldn’t get over how he was able to pull it all together and the production and quality — it’s amazing,” Edward Gendelman said. “I’m a very proud dad.”

Gendelman is already working out Season 2. He still has plenty of his grandfather’s recording left to cover.

“Find a story you care about and get a decent mic, and you can do this, too,” Gendelman said. “Anyone can do this.”

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