In this episode, we’re joined by Alexandra Birch, violinist, historian, and author of Hitler’s Twilight of the Gods: Music and the Orchestration of War and Genocide in Europe.
Birch’s research examines how music and sound functioned as tools of power, identity, and violence under totalitarian regimes. Drawing on survivor testimony and archival materials, her work exposes how sound, whether through forced singing, orchestral performance, or ambient noise, became intertwined with the machinery of genocide.
In this conversation, we explore:
* The concept of musical sadism and its codification in the Nazi camp system
* The symbolic and functional use of music in shaping identity and “otherness”
* Wagnerian myth, cultural delusion, and the final days of the Third Reich
* The lingering echoes of sound violence in memory and trauma
* The redemptive potential of recovering silenced music and voices

To purchase "Hitler’s Twilight of the Gods: Music and the Orchestration of War and Genocide in Europe" follow the link below:
 https://utppublishing.com/doi/10.3138/9781487549206#:~:text=This%20book%20demonstrates%20the%20integral,formation%20in%20the%20Third%20Reich.

00:00 – Opening
01:41 – Introduction
02:09 – Kurt Franz and the Orchestration of Musical Sadism
07:01 – Musical Sadism or Sound Abatement
11:55 – Music, Otherness, and the Making of the Subaltern
17:31 – Valhalla Burns: Wagner and the Myth of the Nazi Endgame
22:04 – Listening Before Killing: The Psychology of Perpetrator Soundtracks
27:23 – Songs vs. Symphonies: Edward Westermann on Lyrics, Meaning, and Violence
32:22 – Singing the Reich: Music Education and Indoctrination
37:15 – Total Sound Violence: The Concept of Gesamtgewalttätigklang
42:20 – The Motif of Redemption: Remembering Silenced Voices
48:35 – AI and Holocaust Memory: Ethics, Education, and Reconstruction