How has American tourism to Nazi concentration camps influenced the ways in which people remember the Holocaust and Nazi atrocities? In this episode, Anne van Mourik (NIOD) sits down with Leonie Werle (Freie Universität Berlin) to explore this question. As early as 1948, American tourists started to visit German concentration camps, with magazines even promoting Germany as the land of ‘Bach and Belsen’. What did this early postwar tourism to the camps look like? Is it a form of dark tourism? Why were the camps often experienced as disappointing by American tourists? And why do people so often compare the Holocaust and concentration camps to present-day events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic or other crises?

Credits image in logo: Visitors view a photomural of corpses piled on the ground in the newly liberated Bergen-Belsen concentration camp at the "Lest We Forget" exhibition at the Library of Congress.

Photographer: John Mueller
Date: 1945 June 30

In recent years, several far-right parties espousing nationalist, anti-immigrant, and Eurosceptic ideas have garnered significant support. Despite their nationalist ideologies, these contemporary far-right movements have demonstrated a surprising capacity for international cooperation. Anne van Mourik interviews Martin Hamre, a historian of fascism at the Freie Universität Berlin about this topic. What are some earlier examples of fascist internationalism? How did fascist ideas spread through international conferences and cooperation in the 1930s? What insights does Hamre's research provide for understanding the contemporary European far right?

Why did a relatively high number of psychiatric patients die in Dutch psychiatric institutions during World War II? Anne van Mourik interviews Eveline Buchheim (NIOD) and Ralf Futselaar (NIOD and Erasmus University Rotterdam) regarding their book, ‘Expelled from Care’ (Uit Zorg Verdreven). In Nazi Germany, psychiatric patients were killed as part of the regime’s ‘euthanasia program’, which aimed to eradicate individuals considered genetically and economically ‘undesirable’. Did this National Socialist ideology also contribute to the excess mortality among the Dutch psychiatric population? What was life like for patients and staff working in psychiatric institutions during the war?

Credits image: Collection Museum van de Geest | Dolhuys, Haarlem

How to use ego-documents in research on war and violence? In this episode Anne van Mourik speaks with Clara Dijkstra (Cambridge University), and Carlijn Keijzer, Afke Berger and Milan van Lange (NIOD) about this question. The term ego-documents pertains to the realm of the individual, encompassing both the people who create these personal records and the content they document. Besides, as historical sources, ego-documents have a lot to offer beyond the individual’s perspective. This episode delves into a topic central to the NIOD: the intricate connection between ego documents and research, discussing some of the (im)possibilities, pitfalls, and opportunities of using such sources in documenting and studying the history of war.

In this episode Anne van Mourik speaks with visual historian Kylie Thomas (University College Cork and NIOD) about the meaning of the medium of photography for thinking about the Holocaust. How can photographs intersect with how we perceive this history? What happens when images relating to the Holocaust, for example of Anne Frank, become ubiquitous? In this conversation, Kylie and Anne focus on the work of the Austrian-born Jewish photographer Dora Kallmus (1891-1963).  How do her photographs of slaughtered animals function in the aftermath of the Holocaust? 

"Visual Narratives of Catastrophe" is a quote from Lisa Silverman, Art of Loss: Madame d’Ora, Photography and the Restitution of Haus Doranna, in: Leo Baeck Institute Year Book, 60, 1 (2015).

Laurien Vastenhout and Anne van Mourik speak with historian Anna Hájková about her landmark work The Last Ghetto: An Everyday History of Theresienstadt (Oxford University Press). What was life in the Theresienstadt ghetto like, and what does this case study tell us more generally about human behaviour under extreme conditions? How should we (re)define the concept of agency in the context of Holocaust and Genocide Studies (and beyond)? And what is the meaning of kinship and family ties in times of crisis?

Wat kun je lezen in de dagboekcollectie van het NIOD? Aan de hand van dagboekbeschrijvingen vertelt collectiespecialist Michiel Wilmink over de levens van mensen in de Tweede Wereldoorlog. We horen over de date-ervaringen van dwangarbeider, over een politieman die Jodenarresteert en over hoe het dagelijks leven voor sommigen doorging – terwijl het voor anderen drastisch veranderde. Wil je een dagboek schenken of komen inzien? Neem dan contact op het NIOD. 

How do Kurdish women struggle to voice themselves in contemporary Turkey? Anne van Mourik speaks with Marlene Schäfers (Utrecht University) about her book ‘Voices that Matter: Kurdish Women at the Limits of Representation in Contemporary Turkey’ (University of Chicago Press, 2022). What does it mean to ‘have a voice’ in a context of protracted political violence? To what extent do Kurdish women’s gaining voices lead to empowerment? And how does Marlene, as a scholar specialized in women’s struggle for voice, view the current protests in Iran?

Photo: Braxton Hood. Kurdish singer (dengbêj) Gazîn performing via mobile phone, Wan, Turkey, 2011.

Why does the Jewish Council phenomenon remain such a controversial topic? Anne van Mourik speaks with Laurien Vastenhout on her new book ‘Between Community and Collaboration: “Jewish Councils” in Western Europe under Nazi Occupation’ (Cambridge University Press). What were differences and similarities between the ‘Jewish Councils’ across occupied Western Europe? What room for manoeuvre did the Jewish leaders have, and what impact did local factors have on the form and function of these Councils? We talk about the importance of comparative analyses, socio-historical conditions in Western Europe during the war, and many other themes.

Photograph by Johan de Haas, reproduced by kind permission of the De Haas family and the NIOD