Welcome to Circa 1945: Breaking the Machine. A podcast of parables about the Holocaust — and what it would take to build a genocide-proof society. Studying the most evil times in history gives us understanding. And understanding is power, and freedom.

In the last episode, I told you a story about bread — how Germany’s strength was built on borrowed grain, and how hunger made conquest thinkable. At the end, I said the next story would be about refugees. About what happens when people flee hunger and violence and knock on the doors of the world, asking for safety.

Today’s parable is about hands. The most human thing we have. Hands that build, that reach, that plead. Hands that can create a world — or be turned away from it.

Image Source: https://allpoetry.com/poem/13717282-Auschwitz-by-Randy-McClave