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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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How can the digital humanities address and explore the Holocaust? In these days of Chat GPT, we may be rightly wary about the use of computers to analyze the past.  However, today’s episode shows how an ethical approach to using computational methods can expand our understanding of the past often by showing us new questions that we hadn’t considered before.

In this episode, I talk with Todd Presner about his fascinating and impressive work with the “big data” of recorded Holocaust testimony.

Todd Presner is Chair of UCLA’s Department of European Languages and Transcultural Studies at UCLA.

Presner, Todd. Ethics of the Algorithm: Digital Humanities and Holocaust Memory (2024)

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Many of us have seen or listened to recorded Holocaust survivor testimony.  But have we thought about HOW that testimony was created?  And what role that process of eliciting testimony might play in the kinds of things survivors talk about it?

In this episode, I talked with Noah Shenker about how three different archives approached gathering testimony but also about what this means for our understanding of the Holocaust and the ways that survivors remember and recount their experiences.

Noah Shenker is an Associate Professor of Jewish Studies and Film and Media Studies at Colgate University.

Shenker, Noah. Reframing Holocaust Testimony (2015)

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Among the flood of displaced persons that washed across Germany after WWII were a large number of perpetrators, particularly from Eastern Europe.  They mostly passed unnoticed (and unbothered) by occupation authorities to start new lives elsewhere.  A large number of these Holocaust perpetrators arrived in Australia where they not only remained unrepentant but established new fascist networks.  In this episode, I talk with Jayne Persian about these fascists in exile in Australia.

Persian, Jayne. Fascists in Exile: Post-War Displaced Persons in Australia (2023)

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What is it like to have a Nazi in the family?  What if that Nazi was Rudolf Hoess, the commandant of Auschwitz? One of the least studied areas of Holocaust history is the ways in which the families and descendants of former Nazis engage with their family history.

I am very grateful to be joined on this week’s podcast by Kai Hoess, grandson of Rudolf Hoess, to talk about his family history and his own journey to coming to terms with his past. As always, this podcast does not endorse any particular religion or religious doctrine.

Kai Hoess is a non-denominational Christian pastor at the Bible Church of Stuttgart.

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Architecture (and architects) played a critical role in not just the Third Reich, but also the Holocaust.  Nazi architects helped embody the Nazi worldview in their monumental work but also in the designs of concentration camps.  They were willing collaborators in the use of slave labor and, ultimately, in the construction of the apparatuses of genocide.  In this episode, I talk with architecture and Holocaust historian Paul Jaskot about all these facets of architecture in the Third Reich.

Paul Jaskot is Professor of Art, Art History, and Visual Studies and co-director of the Digital Art History and Visual Culture Research Lab at Duke University.

Jaskot, Paul. The Architecture of Oppression: The SS, Forced Labor and the Nazi Monumental Building Economy (1999)

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How did Jews in Germany resist the Nazis? What were the choices that they made to stand up against the regime where its authoritarian power was greatest?  

In this episode, I talk with Wolf Gruner about his research on this topic and his surprising discovery of the extent of resistance by Jewish Germans in the heart of the Nazi state.

Wolf Gruner is the Shapell-Guerin Chair in Jewish Studies and Professor of History and director of the USC Dornsife Center for Advanced Genocide Research at the University of Southern California.

Gruner, Wolf.  Resisters: How Ordinary Jews Fought Persecution in Hitler's Germany (2023)

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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.