About Wannsee. Looking at the International Dimension of the Holocaust.
How did the Holocaust unfold in different European countries? What role did local anti-Semitism play? And how did Jews defend themselves? These and other questions are explored in our new podcast.
Diese Folge ist auf Deutsch/ THIS EPISODE IS IN GERMAN. English Wrap-UP below. Die Ausstellung "Vicious Circle" zeigt fünf historische Pogrome gegen jüdische Gemeinschaften in Berlin, Bagdad, Kielce und Aden sowie den Angriff der Hamas auf Kibbuzim im Gaza-Gürtel am 7. Oktober 2023. Sie soll die Kontinuität antisemitischer Gewalt aufzeigen. Nachdem die Ausstellung nicht an der Freien Universität Berlin gezeigt werden konnte, zeigen wir sie im März 2025 am Wannsee. Mit der Kuratorin Maiken Umbach und unserer Direktorin Deborah Hartmann sprechen wir über die Ausstellung und warum sie gerade jetzt gezeigt wird.
Die Ausstellung ist vom 7. März bis 3. April, jeweils dienstags bis sonntags, 11.00 bis 17.00 Uhr geöffnet. Sie ist einsprachig Englisch.
6 Mar 2025
#10 Special Edition. The Vicious Circle.
In our special edition we talk to curator Maiken Umbach about the exhibition "The Vicious Circle". It shows five historical pogroms against Jewish communities in Berlin, Baghdad, Kielce, and Aden, as well as the Hamas attack on kibbutzim in the Gaza Belt on October 7, 2023. It demonstrates the continuity of anti-Semitic violence. Since the exhibition could not be shown at Freie Universität Berlin, we decided to show it at Wannsee. You find an extended German version on the channel.
The exhibition is in English and open from March 7 to April 3, Tuesdays to Sundays, 11:00 am to 5:00 pm.
29 Nov 2024
#9 Hungary. Miklós Horthy and the Murder of the Hungarian Jews
Historian Adam Kerpel-Fronius uncovers the shocking story of Hungary's role in the Holocaust, where over 400,000 Jews were deported and murdered in just eight weeks under German occupation in 1944.
30 Oct 2024
#8 Bulgaria. A German Ally and the Holocaust — Collaboration and Rescue
In 1941 Bulgaria entered an alliance with Germany and participated in the occupation of Greece and Yugoslavia. Its government cooperated in the deportation of Jews from the occupied territories and also agreed to deport Jews from the Bulgarian mainland, a step that was however not carried out due to a variety of reasons. We talk about the complex history of Bulgaria during the holocaust with historian Souzana Hazan.
29 Sept 2024
#7 Greece. Salonika - The Destruction of the Largest Jewish community on the Balkans
Before the Second World War, the largest Jewish community in Greece and in the Balkans lived in Thessaloniki. In 1900 they made up half of the city's population. During the Nazi occupation, the German persecution of the Jewish community was astonishingly swift and brutal. In this episode we speak with historian Maria Vassilikou about the exception of Thessaloniki, the authoritarian regime under Ioannis Metaxas that dealt with anti-Semitism differently than others, and how the public discourse about the Holocaust was shaped after the war.
29 Aug 2024
#6 Turkey. The Transit Country That Wasn't
Turkey remained neutral during the war. But the Nazis also planned to murder Turkey's Jews, as the list on page six of the Wannsee Protocol shows. We speak with Corry Guttstadt about Turkey's Jews, the country's role for Jewish refugees, and how the history of the Holocaust was dealt with after the war.
30 May 2024
#5 France. Vichy, the Resistance and the "Jewish Question"
France was one of the victors of World War I and a safe haven for many political and Jewish refugees in the 1930s. The Germans attacked and defeated the French in 1940. Anti-Semitism became a core element not only of German policy and propaganda, but also of the collaborationist government under Marshal Pétain. We talk with historian Renée Poznanski about how the anti-Semitic idea of a "Jewish question" influenced how Jews were persecuted in France and how the country remembered the occupation after the war.
29 Apr 2024
#4 Poland. Jewish Perspective and the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
"The Holocaust was not a metaphor…as historians we must be aware of metaphors, and we must explain exactly the horrific things that happened during the Holocaust." (Havi Dreifuss) - 81 years ago, on April 19, 1943, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising began. In our second episode on Poland, we spoke with historian Havi Dreifuss about the Jewish experience of the Holocaust in Poland and her last book "Ghetto Warsaw. The End". In her research, she uses diaries, letters, and other contemporary documents – letting Jews themselves describe the horrific reality of the ghetto. We talked about Jewish-Polish relations, the origins of the Jewish resistance in Warsaw, and how to write about the Holocaust when most of the survivors are no longer with us.
27 Mar 2024
#3 Poland. Polish Mayors during the Holocaust
Poland had the largest Jewish community in Europe before the war. Most of the more than 3 million Jews living in Poland were murdered in the Holocaust. In our first episode on Poland, we talk with historian Grzegorz Rossoliński-Liebe about the role played by Polish mayors in the German-occupied General Government during the Holocaust. As part of the occupation, the Germans dismantled the Polish central state. On the local level, however, Polish officials were often allowed to remain in office. It was primarily the mayors who represented the population’s interests to the occupying power.
28 Feb 2024
#2 Belgium. The Committee for the Defense of the Jews (CDJ)
We speak with the archivist and historian Dorien Styven – our colleague from the Belgian Holocaust Memorial "Kazerne Dossin" – about the Committee for the Defense of the Jews (CDJ). This organization's main goal was to save as many Jews as possible from being murdered by the Nazis. Founded by young communists, the Committee brought together very different Jewish groups. It succeeded in creating a vast network that helped about 3,000 children hide in private families and child care institutions. Partisans close to the Committee also carried out the only known attack on a deportation train to have taken place during the Holocaust.
19 Jan 2024
#1 Germany. Leo Baeck – Leading the Jewish Community in Troubled Times
Rabbi Leo Baeck was one of the leading scholars of liberal Judaism in his time. When the Nazis came to power, he became the chairman of the newly formed Representative Council of German Jews. He led the Jewish community until his own deportation to the Theresienstadt ghetto. Judith and Jakob speak with Michael A. Meyer, who has written a new biography on Baeck’s fascinating life. Michael was a professor at the Hebrew Union College and published widely on Jewish history and liberal Judaism. He was the editor of the four-volume “German-Jewish History in Modern Times” and edited the last volume of Baeck’s collected works.
17 Jan 2024
#0 Introduction. Looking at the International Dimensions of the Holocaust
The men at the Wannsee Conference planned to extend mass murder to all of Europe. In the protocol of the conference, Jewish populations were reduced to columns of numbers and estimates. We want to challenge this perspective by looking more closely at the specific situations in the different countries and communities that were targeted by the Nazi criminals.
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
4 ratings
Spotify
5.0 / 5
3 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 16 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Pod Engine is an independent podcast discovery and analytics service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by this podcast. Artwork and show content belong to their owners. Full legal notice.
Explore this show Podcast research with Pod Engine
