CONTENT WARNING: Explicit content and references to suicide

In this week’s episode, coinciding with the end of Queer History Month in the UK, Sam and Alex explore Martin Sherman’s groundbreaking play Bent. The first major play - if not the first play - to represent the Nazi persecution of gay men, Bent tells the story of hedonist Max, living in 1930s Berlin until he and his lover Rudy are hunted and finally captured by the Nazis. Sent to Dachau, Max pretends to be Jewish rather than gay to get better treatment from the guards, and meets Horst - an openly gay prisoner. The pair gradually fall in love, but Max refuses to admit it until circumstances force him to make a defining choice.

Sam and Alex talk about aspects such as the historical context, including the infamous German law Paragraph 175; the rumours and lack of public awareness about the Nazi persecution of gay men until the play’s inception; Bent’s UK production history, with Sir Ian McKellen starring as Max in 1979 and 1990 under very different circumstances; the question of a ‘different’ ending; and ‘that’ scene…

Don’t forget to comment (especially with your ideas for a different ending), rate, review, subscribe and share!

Hosts: Samantha Mitschke & Alexandra Gellner

Executive Producer: Samantha Mitschke

Producer / Editor: Alexandra Gellner

Music: “Image” by Infraction Music

Contact: https://holocaustonstage.com/contact/

Episode Sources: Full list forthcoming

CONTENT WARNING: References to suicide

In this week’s episode, Sam and Alex talk to director and dramaturg Paul Bargetto about devised part process, part docu-drama Album Karla Höckera / The Album of Karl Höcker. Co-created by Paul in collaboration with his team at Teatr Trans-Atlantyk, an international independent theatre ensemble from Warsaw, the piece delves into the album of 116 photos received by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2007, chronicling the activities of the Auschwitz SS. The album was created by and belonged to Karl Höcker - adjutant to the Commandant from May 1944 until the camp’s forced evacuation in January 1945.

“Album Karla Höckera” [...] is an attempt to understand the historical catastrophe of Auschwitz from the largely unexamined perspective of the perpetrators. Using documentary theatre techniques, improvisation, research and scripted drama, the performance explores the all-too-human men and women who carried out the Final Solution.

Sam, Alex and Paul discuss elements including the devising process; the highlights and challenges of both participating and watching; the historical context, including Höcker’s life after the war; how the piece both implicitly and explicitly encourages spectators to consider their own ability to say ‘no’; and Paul’s experiences of performing the piece to different audiences around the world - from dozens of Polish Army cadets to an audience in Oświęcim that included three Auschwitz survivors.

Don’t forget to rate, review, subscribe and share!

Hosts: Samantha Mitschke & Alexandra Gellner

Guest: Paul Bargetto

Executive Producer: Samantha Mitschke

Producer / Editor: Alexandra Gellner

Music: “⁠Image⁠” by ⁠Infraction Music⁠

Contact: ⁠https://holocaustonstage.com/contact/⁠

Episode Sources

Books & Articles

Holocaust Survivors and Remembrance Project, ⁠Karl Hoecker (Höcker)

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), ⁠Auschwitz Through the Lens of the SS: The Album⁠.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), ⁠Collections Highlight: Auschwitz Through the Lens of the SS⁠.

Plays

Teatr Trans-Atlantyk, ⁠Album Karla Höckera⁠.

Other sources

To learn more about Paul and his work, please visit ⁠https://paulbargetto.com/⁠.

To request a full list of other sources, please use the Contact details.

In this week’s season premiere, timed to coincide with Holocaust Memorial Day and its 2026 theme of “Bridging Generations,” Sam and Alex look at Tom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Leopoldstadt was the old, crowded Jewish quarter of Vienna. But Hermann Merz, a manufacturer and baptised Jew married to Catholic Gretl, has moved up in the world. Gathered in the Merz apartment in a fashionable part of the city, Hermann’s extended family are at the heart of Tom Stoppard’s epic yet intimate drama. By the time we have taken leave of them, Austria has passed through the convulsions of war, revolution, impoverishment, annexation by Nazi Germany and – for Austrian Jews – the Holocaust in which 65,000 of them were murdered. It is for the survivors to pass on a story which hasn’t ended yet.

Sam and Alex explore key themes covered in the play, from antisemitism to family relationships; discuss Stoppard’s skill in placing ‘Easter eggs’ throughout the play to show, rather than tell, Jewish and Holocaust history; look at the historical context of Leopoldstadt, Vienna’s second district; and consider how the play, which spans the period from 1899-1956, illustrates the importance of passing on stories before they are lost.

Don’t forget to rate, review, subscribe, comment, and share!

Hosts: Samantha Mitschke & Alexandra Gellner

Executive Producer: Samantha Mitschke

Producer / Editor: Alexandra Gellner

Music: “Image” by Infraction Music

Contact: https://holocaustonstage.com/contact/

Episode Sources: Full list forthcoming

In this episode - the last one of Season 2 - Sam and Alex look back on 2025 and the first two seasons of LUOTD. They recap how the podcast came about; talk about the highlights, from special guests to a global audience; the challenges, including politics and time zones; their top three Holocaust plays so far; podcast plans for 2026; and how even 103 editing notes for a single episode hasn’t ruined their friendship.

Hosts: Samantha Mitschke & Alexandra Gellner

Executive Producer: Samantha Mitschke

Producer / Editor: Alexandra Gellner

Music: “Image” by Infraction Music

Contact: https://holocaustonstage.com/contact/

In this episode, Sam and Alex explore Kindertransport by Diane Samuels. In 1938-39, nearly 10,000 mostly Jewish children were brought to the UK as part of a humanitarian mission that rescued them from what was to come in Nazi-occupied Europe - but meant that many never saw their parents again. Kindertransport draws upon the experiences of kinder and rescuers to look at what it means to survive when everything you once knew has been ripped away.

When nine-year-old Eva arrives in Manchester from Germany, she knows it won’t be long before her parents join her. But as time passes, contact stops and hope fades, Eva begins to transform herself into Evelyn, blocking out her past to reinvent herself. It’s only years later, when her own daughter Faith is getting ready to fly the nest, that Evelyn is forced to admit the truth and face what she thought was already gone.

Sam and Alex discuss elements including the themes of identity, loss and intergenerational trauma; comparisons between the Kindertransports and British evacuees during WWII; the device of the Ratcatcher; and Kindertransport’s contemporary relevance in the context of child refugees and rising global tides of hate.

Hosts: Samantha Mitschke & Alexandra Gellner

Executive Producer: Samantha Mitschke

Producer / Editor: Alexandra Gellner

Music: “Image” by Infraction Music

Contact: https://holocaustonstage.com/contact/

Episode Sources

Books & Articles

Melissa Hacker and Ernest Goodman, "Kindertransport." Encyclopedia Britannica, 24 November 2025.

Plays

Diane Samuels (1995/2009) Kindertransport. Nick Hern Books.

In this week’s episode, Sam and Alex look at two short plays for middle schoolers: Rescued From The Holocaust by Sean Price and Dr. Yanush Korczak by Alina Kentof.

As well as a discussion about the highlights, challenges and contemporary relevance of working with the plays, the pair explore the historical contexts behind each one. American diplomat Varian Fry led successful efforts in southern France to rescue around 2,000 people, both Jews and non-Jews; while Janusz Korczak was a Polish Jewish paediatrician, writer, educator and children’s rights advocate who ran a Jewish orphanage in the Warsaw Ghetto.

Don’t forget to rate, review, subscribe, comment, and share!

Hosts: Samantha Mitschke & Alexandra Gellner

Executive Producer: Samantha Mitschke

Producer / Editor: Alexandra Gellner

Music: “Image” by Infraction Music

Contact: https://holocaustonstage.com/contact/

Episode Sources

Books & Articles

Anita Kassof / Holocaust Teacher Resource Center / Walter Meyerhof / Varian Fry Foundation, Varian Fry and the Emergency Rescue Committee: A Resource Guide for Teachers.

Arolsen Archives, Janusz Korczak. The man who set an example for educators.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), Holocaust Encyclopedia: Varian Fry.

Plays

Rescued From the Holocaust by Sean Price and Dr. Yanush Korczak by Alina Kent in A Teacher’s Guide to the Holocaust: Plays, Florida Center for Instructional Technology.

“In the last clearing of the Warsaw Ghetto three children find themselves on a transportation to Auschwitz and encounter the Fool of the Warsaw Ghetto. He offers them a moment of magic in which to escape – if they have the courage to take it…

Not all stories have a happy ending, but they should all begin with outrageous hope.”

In the second part of this special two-part episode, Sam and Alex continue their exploration of a vibrant part of Jewish culture that was nearly lost during the Holocaust: the drut’syla storytelling tradition.

Following on from the first part of the episode with special guest Shonaleigh Cumbers, believed to be the last living drut’syla, the girls listen to the CD recording of The Fool of the Warsaw Ghetto and discuss their reactions - from standout moments and favourite characters to some of the themes.

Be warned - plot spoilers abound, so be prepared to skip parts if you don’t want to know what happens!

Please rate, review, comment, share and subscribe to help us reach more listeners.

Hosts: Samantha Mitschke & Alexandra Gellner

Reason (A Prayer) from The Fool of the Warsaw Ghetto (2006): Shonaleigh Cumbers with Ilana Cravitz, Mike Layward and Jo Veal

Executive Producer: Samantha Mitschke

Producer / Editor: Alexandra Gellner

Music: “Image” by Infraction Music

Contact: https://holocaustonstage.com/contact/

Episode Sources

Shonaleigh Cumbers with Ilana Cravitz, Mike Layward and Jo Veal (2006) The Fool of the Warsaw Ghetto. Audio CD.

For more information about The Fool of the Warsaw Ghetto, and to learn more about Shonaleigh and her tellings, courses and events, please visit https://shonaleigh.uk.

A published collection of some of Shonaleigh’s stories, A Garment for the Moon, is forthcoming from Orkneyology Press.

In the first part of this special two-part episode, Sam and Alex look at a vibrant part of Jewish culture that was nearly lost during the Holocaust: the drut’syla storytelling tradition.

Special guest Shonaleigh Cumbers, believed to be the last living drut’syla, talks to the girls about the tradition and her life and experiences as a storyteller. She also offers some insights into her incredible story The Fool of the Warsaw Ghetto, a beautiful and bittersweet story about three children who, in the final roundup after the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, encounter a man who offers them what could be another chance at life. Dare they trust the man with a coat like beggar’s velvet?

Don’t forget to rate, review, comment and subscribe!

Hosts: Samantha Mitschke & Alexandra Gellner

Guest: Shonaleigh Cumbers

Executive Producer: Samantha Mitschke

Producer / Editor: Alexandra Gellner

Music: “Image” by Infraction Music

Contact: https://holocaustonstage.com/contact/

Episode Sources

Books & Articles

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), Holocaust Encyclopedia: Warsaw.

The Wiener Holocaust Library, The Holocaust Explained: Case Study: Warsaw Ghetto.

Other sources

To learn more about Shonaleigh and her tellings, courses and events, please visit https://shonaleigh.uk.

For more information about Twilight Tales and to join the online tellings, please visit https://www.facebook.com/groups/twilighttales.

A published collection of some of Shonaleigh’s stories, A Garment for the Moon, is forthcoming from Orkneyology Press.

Wilkommen, bienvenue, welcome…the girls are back! In the season premiere, Sam and Alex look at the iconic musical Cabaret and ask: Is it a ‘Holocaust play’?

The conversation includes their encounters with it, from childhood memories up to recent performances in London and New York; key differences between the film and the stage version(s); the depictions of characters from Clifford and Sally to Herr Schultz and Frau Schneider, and what they represent; and what Cabaret itself represents in the current global political climate.

Hosts: Samantha Mitschke & Alexandra Gellner

Executive Producer: Samantha Mitschke

Producer / Editor: Alexandra Gellner

Music: “Image” by Infraction Music

Contact: https://holocaustonstage.com/contact/

Episode Sources

Books & Articles

Joel Grey, “I Starred In ‘Cabaret.’ We Need to Heed Its Warning” in The New York Times, 24 November 2024.

Plays

Joe Masteroff (book), John Kander (music) and Fred Ebb (lyrics) (1966/1987) Cabaret.

Other sources

You can find all three education packs by Susie Ferguson for the London production here: https://kitkat.club/education/.

In this week’s episode, Sam and Alex look at Arthur Miller’s adaptation of Fania Fénelon’s memoir of her time in the women’s orchestra of Auschwitz.

The pair talk about the history of the orchestras at Auschwitz, including the relative ‘privilege’ of the musicians; the life and experiences of Fénelon, a French singer and pianist; the moral challenges facing the orchestra members; the representation of women’s experiences; and the complex, overarching theme of perpetrators as ‘humans’ rather than ‘monsters.’

To skip updates and recommendations and go straight into the episode, listen from 15.15.

Hosts: Samantha Mitschke & Alexandra Gellner

Executive Producer: Samantha Mitschke

Producer / Editor: Alexandra Gellner

Music: “Image” by Infraction Music

Contact: https://holocaustonstage.com/contact/

Episode Sources

Tim Auld, “How Arthur Miller struck a discord with the Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz” in The Guardian, 6 March 2015.

Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, On Auschwitz (25): Orchestras at Auschwitz.

BBC Media Centre, The Last Musician of Auschwitz.

Fania Fénelon (1977) The Musicians of Auschwitz. Michael Joseph Ltd.

Kathryn Hughes, “The Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz by Anne Sebba review – playing for their lives” in The Guardian, 21 March 2025.

Arthur Miller (1990) Playing for Time. Nick Hern Books.

Music and the Holocaust / ORT.org: Fania Fénelon / Anita Lasker-Wallfish / Alma Rosé

Time Note, Maria Mandel.

To request a full list of resources, please use the contact form.