Left vs Right. Communism vs Capitalism. Democracy vs Dictator. Good vs Evil.
Whole countries have traded in their old ways for new opportunities. Over the last 200 years the world has struggled with its identity - who are we and how do we want to live? These struggles continue today. History books show us an orderly account of who did what to whom and when. But behind those polished narratives, we find everyday people struggling to build a future for themselves and their children.
These are the real, firsthand accounts of those people, in their all their raw messiness. This is our history.
Growing up in 1920's Munich, Marianne had an idyllic childhood. Of it she writes: "since both my parents worked as artists - Father was an academically trained sculptor and Mother an academically trained craft artist I grew up in an apartment in an artists' studio building in Schwabing, surrounded by sculptures of naked little men and women, marble, plaster, and enormous boxes of clay." A few years later, she finds her family in Gleiwitz, modern-day Poland, with the Second World War nearing...
20 Aug 2026
The World Turned Upside Down
By the end of 1918, it was becoming apparent that Germany was not going to win The Great War, and that defeat would come at a price. At home, the Spartacus League looked at the apparent success of the Russian Revolution and were pressing for a similar revolution in Germany. The Kaiser departed for Holland, leaving the monarchy defunct. Germany in 1919 is a world turned completely on its head. Even among the chaos, life goes on while people work out their future. Image A British Mark IV tank,...
11 Jul 2026
Letters from your Boy
"This is a dark day and a dark hour. The sword is being forced into my hand. This war will demand of us enormous sacrifice in life and money, but we shall show our foes what it is to provoke Germany." – Kaiser Wilhelm II, July 31, 1914 In the summer of 1914, the world went to war. The heady early days of glory soon gave way to the realities of war, both on the front and at home. Our story today follows the lives of a husband and wife in Germany, separated by war, and their struggles to surv...
11 Jun 2026
The Great War Comes Home
Today is Gutav’s story - the daily account of a grandfather living on the German homefront during World War I. While the glorious war starts as “the greatest time of my life”, he worries about his son Ludwig fighting on the front. IMAGE Picture from Gustav’s diary: Ludwig Schlott. BIBLIOGRAPHY Marshall von Hindenburg. Translated by F.A. Holt. Out of my Life. Cassell and Company, ltd. 1920 Gustav Schlott memoirs. Deutsches Tagebucharchiv, DTA Reg.N...
10 May 2026
Peace, Land, and Bread!
Today we continue our conversation on life during the Russian Revolution and the Bolsheviks' ambitions for the country. Our primary account comes from Elfriede, a young woman living in Odessa, Ukraine when the revolution came. She describes the conflicts between the Reds and Whites, her stint as a typist for the infamous Cheka (secret police), and her eventual escape through Bulgaria. Bibliography Elfriede Becker memoirs, Deutsches Tagebucharchiv, DTA 4710-1, translation By Robyn Thompson Ima...
18 Apr 2026
An Escape From Russia
What would you do if you woke up one day and suddenly found yourself an "enemy" of the people with whom you had grown up? In this episode, we follow the story of Anna's family - bourgeois Germans caught in Russia during World War I and the Russian Revolution. Bibliography "Anna's Memoirs", Deutsches Tagebucharchiv, DTA-368-1-2, Reg NR 418,1-2, Translation By Robyn Thompson "Who Needs the War? Alexandra Kollantai: Selected Articles and Speeches" Progress publishers, 1984. First ...
8 Apr 2026
Preserving the Past
What's the difference between a diary and a memoir? In this episode, we take advantage of an opportunity to interview Christiane Weinzierl from the German Diary Archive in Emmendingen, Germany about diaries, memoirs, and the art and task of preserving the past. You can find out more about the archive at their website: https://tagebucharchiv.de
5 Jan 2026
The Last First Family of Russia
The story of the last Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II, and his family. We discuss their early lives, marriage, and the challenges they faced, such as their son Alexei's hemophilia and the introduction of Rasputin into their lives. Following this, we cover the political turmoil and the unrest leading up to World War I, Nicholas's role in the war, and his eventual abdication. Both primary sources, Sophie and Pierre, provide firsthand accounts of the family's final days. Image Nicholas II of Russi...
20 Dec 2025
Her Majesty's Drug Cartel
That time China declared a war on drugs, and found themselves pitted against the narco traffickers of the 19th century - the British Empire. Welcome to the first Opium War. Image Commissioner Lin and the Destruction of the Opium in 1839. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Destruction_of_opium_in_1839.jpg Sources Chang, Hsin Pao. Commissioner Lin and the Opium War. The Norton Library. W.W. Norton and Company, inc. New York, 1970. Cree, Dr. Edward H. ...
8 Dec 2025
The Shanghai Refugees
After Kristallnacht, there were few places still taking in Jews fleeing Nazi Germany. One of those was Shanghai, under Japanese occupation. When Japan entered the war as allies of Germany, the fate of these refugees hung in the balance. Photo The arrival of Jewish refugees from Austria in Shanghai. The refugees are disembarking from the Italian ship Conte Verde. 1938 December 14 United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration, College Park R...
12 Nov 2025
A Jew Who Stood Guard for Hitler
We discuss the experiences of Edward Adler, a Jewish man in 1930's Germany, as he describes growing anti-semitism, being forced to build one of the first extermination camps, and his narrow escape after Kristallnacht. And that one time he was a kid and joined the Nazis - before they found out he was a Jew. Image Germany - a sign on a Jewish store: Protect Yourselves, Germans, Do Not Buy From Jews. Yad Vashem Archives Archival Signature: 3116/50 Sources RG Number: RG-50.042.0003 Interview wi...
5 Nov 2025
King Leopold and his Rubber
Today we talk about Leopold II, King of Belgium from 1865-1909, and his personal empire in the African Congo. This is the story of a man who put his pocketbook ahead of a people, the nation he enslaved, and the global cast of writers and advocates that worked to bring him down. Image In The Rubber Coils. Scene - The Congo 'Free' State" Linley Sambourne depicts King Leopold II of Belgium as a snake attacking a Congolese rubber collector. Published on 28 November 1906 Edward Linley Sambourne, P...
30 Oct 2025
The Kindertransport - When Britain Came to the Rescue
We discuss the Kindertransport program through which around 10,000 children were saved from Nazi occupied Europe from November 1938 until German occupation of the Netherlands in 1940. Image A picture of one of the tags that children wore around their neck when arriving in Britain, as a way for them to meet with their foster families. This numbered identification tag was worn by Henry Schmelzer when he was a member of a Kindertransport sent from Austria to England in December 1938. Uni...
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