164: Keeping Our World War II Veterans’ Memories Alive — Martin Bisiker with Legasee

British veterans who have fought in wars share their important and brave stories so that everyone can remember what it was like.

Martin Bisiker is the Founder and Creator of the non-profit Legasee, a website dedicated to archiving first-person accounts of World War II and other important conflicts in our history. The project started in 2010 when Martin first began interviewing British soldiers about the war. From there, the project has expanded and Martin’s passion continues to grow. On the show, Martin shares some of the amazing and heroic stories he’s learned from veterans and also shares why he doesn’t plan to stop recording first-person accounts of war anytime soon.

“The great thing about giving back is that it’s not about you, it’s about the benefits to the people who’re receiving it.”

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Key Takeaways:

[3:00] Who is Martin and what does he do?

[5:45] You don’t want to lose the memories of our World War II veterans.

[8:05] Legasee was founded to help the younger generation remember. If you wanted to hear these veterans stories before, you had to go to museum vaults to access it, which is not practical in this day and age.

[9:40] Martin does have plans to put these recordings on YouTube.

[10:15] In 2011, Martin founded the charity, but he has been working on it since 2010.

[12:15] These accounts are mostly focused on the British veterans who have fought.

[18:45] Martin’s volunteers are learning a lot of new skills about media, video editing, etc. as well.

[26:25] Martin talks about some of the amazing veterans he’s met along the way.

[36:15] What do the families of these veterans think of Martin’s work?

[42:55] Martin plans to set up a friendship line for these veterans because one of the things he’s noticed is that some of these veterans don’t speak to anybody and it can be quite lonely.

[47:00] What kind of lessons has Martin learned?

[49:35] After listening to so many first-person accounts of war, Martin gets much more emotional now that we still have wars going on in the world.

[56:00] What are the three words Martin would use to describe his commitment to giving back?

“I’m a changed person since I started doing Legasee. I have a much greater empathy with people.”

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