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What makes someone a perpetrator?  Are killers born or made?  One thing that is clear in studying the Holocaust and other genocides is that perpetrators come in all shapes and sizes with just as diverse a set of motivations.

On today’s episode, I talked with Alette Smeulers about her work in studying perpetrators from a variety of perspectives across many different forms of mass violence.

Alette Smeulers is a professor in the faculty of law at the University of Groningen.

Smeulers, Alette.  Perpetrators of Mass Atrocities: Terribly and Terrifyingly Normal? (2023)

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Arguably, one of the worst places for prisoners to work during the Holocaust was the Sonderkommando—the group of prisoners forced to work in and around the gas chambers, disposing of corpses.  

Yet they also managed to create a number of texts that survived the Holocaust even if they did not.  In this episode, I talk with Dominic Williams about the Auschwitz Sonderkommando, its place in the Holocaust, and the documents it left behind.

Dominic Williams is an assistant professor of history at Northumbria University.

Williams, Dominic and Nicholas, Chare. The Auschwitz Sonderkommando: Testimonies, Histories, Representations(2019)

Williams, Dominic and Nicholas, Chare. Testimonies of Resistance: Representations of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Sonderkommando (2019)

Williams, Dominic and Nicholas, Chare. Matters of Testimony: Interpreting the Scrolls of Auschwitz(2015)

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The concept of genocide is one of the few ideas created from scratch in the 20th century.  As a result, it can be incredibly complicated to interpret, both legally and historically.  Indeed, the definition itself has often made it difficult to prosecute.

In this episode, I talk with Benjamin Meiches about the evolution of the concept genocide, the role of the Holocaust in its creation, and the challenges the debate over definitions raise today.

Benjamin Meiches is an associate professor at the University of Washington-Tacoma.

Meiches, Benjamin.  The Politics of Annihilation: A Genealogy of Genocide (2019)

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When the Nazis carried out their infanous and well-documented book burning on the Opernplatz in May 1933, the literal fuel for that fire came from Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld's Institute for Sexual Science, an institution that both studied and provided treatment for LGBTQ Germans.

In this episode, I talked with Brandy Schillace about Hirschfeld, the struggle for gay rights in Weimar Germany, and the Nazi assault on the gay community as well as the connections between this homophobia and antisemitism and genocide.

Brandy Schillace, PhD is an independent historian and journalist.

Schillace, Brandy. The Intermediaries: A Weimar Story (2025)

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You can find a complete reading list with books by our guests and also their suggestions here.

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The story of Bulgaria and the Holocaust is often a narrative about how Bulgaria protected its Jews from the Nazis. But is this really case?  Certainly not in the case of Thrace and Macedonia.

 In this episode, I talked with Nadege Ragaru about the history of the complex Holocaust in Bulgaria and its attempts to come to terms with this past.

Nadège Ragaru is a research professor at the Center for International Studies at Sciences Po Paris.

Ragaru, Nadége.  Bulgaria, the Jews, and the Holocaust: On the Origins of a Heroic Narrative (2023)

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In December 1941,  an SS man took a series of 12 photographs of an Einsatzgruppen killing in Latvia.  The negatives were stolen by a survivor who had copies made and retrieved them after the war.

In today’s episode, we explore what we can learn about the Holocaust from these photographs and, indeed, from photographs in general.  I talk with Hillary Earl and Valerie Hébert who have written in depth about these images.

Hilary Earl is a professor of history at Nipissing University.

Valerie Hébert is a professor of history and interdisciplinary studies at Lakehead University.

Hébert, Valerie (ed). Framing the Holocaust (2025)

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When did the Holocaust start?  How soon after Hitler took power did anti-Jewish violence begin?  These are some of the important questions we explore in this episode as I talk with Hermann Beck and the surge in antisemitic violence in the wake of the Nazi rise to power in 1933.

In his pathbreaking book, Hermann Beck has documented an explosion of serious violence including murders in the immediate wake of Hitler’s appointment as chancellor in January 1933.   Importantly, we also talk about what institutions could have done at this early stage (and why they failed to act.)

Hermann Beck a professor of history at the University of Miami.

Beck, Hermann. Before the Holocaust: Antisemitic Violence and the Reaction of German Elites and Institutions during the Nazi Takeover (2022)

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Among the books that many people talk about but few have read, certainly Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf is one.  But it IS a difficult read.  How do we interpret this book?  How significant is it?  And what does it tell us about the Holocaust?  These are some of the questions we tackled in this episode with the editors of a new volume on the subject.

In this episode, I talked with Michael S. Bryant and John J. Michalcayk about this important book and how to understand it.

Michalczyk, John J, Michael S. Bryant, and Susan A. Michalzyk. Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’ and the Holocaust: A Prelude to Genocide(2022)

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Many Nazis including Josef Mengele, Adolf Eichmann, Franz Stangl, and Klaus Barbie escaped Europe and fled to South America in an attempt to evade prosecution for their crimes.  We know quite a bit about their lives and crimes during the Holocaust but much less about the network of people that supported them in their new lives in South America.

I spoke with Betina Anton about her work researching the people who helped Josef Mengele and her personal connection to this case.

Note: You may want to listen to Ep. 26- Josef Mengele with David Marwell for a more in-depth biography of Mengele.

Betina Anton is a journalist and international news editor at Globo TV.

Anton, Betina.  Hiding Mengele: How a Nazi Network Harbored the Angel of Death (2025)

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Klaus Barbie, the Butcher of Lyon, led a terrible and fascinating life, from Nazi torturer to advisor to brutal South American dictatorships.  However, unlike many, he was eventually brought to justice for his crimes.  

In this episode, I talk with Richard J. Golsan about the sensational trial of Klaus Barbie and its effect on the memory of the Holocaust in France.

Richard J. Golsan is University Distinguished Professor and Director of the French Institute at Texas A&M University.

Golsan, Richard J. Justice in Lyon: Klaus Barbie and France's First Trial for Crimes against Humanity (2022)

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Email the podcast at [email protected]

The Holocaust History Podcast homepage is here

You can find a complete reading list with books by our guests and also their suggestions here.