War Survival Stories

A room-assignment committee in a Shandong internment camp rationed space and dignity-how did those allocations expose them?

The Room Assignment That Starved Their Charity

In this episode, we follow the arrival of Western civilians at the Weihsien Civilian Assembly Center and the committee work that assigned rooms inside a mission compound pressed into service. The story tracks how everyday decisions about space and rations tested assumptions about faith, education, and civilized behavior, and asks what those choices reveal about the people who made them.

Person: Langdon Brown Gilkey
Person: Eric Liddell
Location: Weihsien Civilian Assembly Center, Shandong Province, China
Date: Autumn 1943 (internment began after December 7, 1941; consolidation in 1943)
Event: Room assignment committee and rationing inside the compound

- Two thousand Western civilians were consolidated into a former Presbyterian mission compound converted into an internment center.
- Langdon Gilkey, twenty-two and a Harvard graduate, served on the committee that assigned rooms inside the overcrowded compound.
- The compound’s buildings, courtyards, and chapel were now encircled by Japanese guards and subject to controlled food rations.
- Internees included missionaries, teachers, businesspeople, diplomats, and figures like Olympic gold medalist Eric Liddell.
- Committee decisions about who got which rooms and how space was allocated created tensions that challenged long-held beliefs about faith and civilized conduct.

To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

© 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: [email protected].

A surgical-instrument salesman became the architect of Britain's Blackshirts and sat four years in prison without charge - how did that expose him?

The surgical instrument salesman who built the Blackshirts

In this episode, we follow Neil Francis Hawkins from his early life in commerce to the centre of Britain's fascist movement, tracing the decisions, mergers and internal purges that made him indispensable - and asking what the gaps in the record reveal about the man behind the organisation.

Person: Neil Francis Hawkins
Occupation: Surgical instrument salesman; later BUF Director-General of Organisation: British Fascisti; British Fascisti of Fascists (Blackshirts)
Date: Died Boxing Day 1950; interned and released 1944
Event: Merger talks, internal splits, rise to head of the Blackshirts

- Joined the British Fascisti in the early 1920s and rose to a three-man headquarters committee.
- Allied with E. G. Mandeville Roe to push the group toward corporate-state ideas and anti-Semitism.
- Opened merger talks with the New Party without founder Rotha Lintorn-Orman's approval; a Grand Council vote rejected the merger by one vote.
- Led a mass split in 1932, bringing most members into Oswald Mosley's British Fascisti of Fascists and taking senior administrative posts.
- By 1938 had consolidated power: rivals Joyce and Beckett dismissed, Chesterton resigned, and Hawkins controlled the organisation's structure.

To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

© 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: [email protected].

Rome's Trevi Fountain is silenced for the first time in centuries to mourn a star. His private life, however, remains a public battle.

The Trevi Fountain's Silence Mourned a Star

This episode explores the life of Marcello Mastroianni, an actor whose quiet survival and unique screen presence defied the logic of his own legend, even as his death sparked a final argument among the women in his life.

Person: Marcello Mastroianni
Date: December 19, 1996
Location: Rome, Italy
Event: Trevi Fountain silenced
Films: 147

- On December 19, 1996, Rome's Trevi Fountain was draped in black cloth and its water switched off, an unprecedented act for a private citizen.
- Marcello Mastroianni, born in Fontana Liri, was interned in a German prison camp during World War II before escaping to Venice.
- His first uncredited film appearance was in 1939 in "Marionette," at the age of fourteen.
- Mastroianni starred in Federico Fellini's 1960 film "La Dolce Vita," which featured an iconic scene at the Trevi Fountain.
- He received three Academy Award nominations for Best Actor but never won, though he won Best Actor twice at the Cannes Film Festival.

To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

© 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: [email protected].

A woman who ran a spy network is arrested by the state she served for knowing too much. How did her memoir expose her Cold War past?

The memoir that withheld her life for decades

This episode explores the life of Nadezhda, a woman who navigated the tumultuous 20th century under multiple identities, from her origins in the Russian Empire to her work as a Soviet agent. It delves into the extraordinary circumstances that shaped her and the quiet, yet profound, impact she had as a civilian caught in the machinery of ideological war.

Person: Nadezhda (Esther Markovna Fridgant)
Date: July 26, 1977
Location: London
Event: Interview with William F. Buckley Jr.

- Born Esther Markovna Fridgant in Bershad, Russian Empire, into a family with a rabbi grandfather.
- At fourteen, she renamed herself Nadezhda, meaning hope, and joined the Young Revolutionary International as an anarchist.
- By sixteen, she was actively involved in the October Revolution, helping to occupy the Odessa police station.
- At eighteen, she began working for the Cheka, the Soviet secret police, traveling to Germany under secret instructions.
- In 1929, she operated as "Kirschner" in Shanghai for Soviet military intelligence (GRU), working alongside Richard Sorge.

To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

© 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: [email protected].

Latvia's leader cooperates with occupiers, dissolving his republic and asking for a pension, only to face a one-way journey into the Soviet prison system. This is a WWII civilian wreckage story.

The Secret Pact That Traded a Nation

This episode explores the life and mysterious death of Kārlis Ulmanis, Latvia's leader during World War II, who vanished into the Soviet prison system. How did a head of state, who once ruled a nation, meet such an end?

Person: Kārlis Ulmanis
Date: September 20, 1942
Location: Soviet prison transport
Status: Died of dysentery
Event: Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact

- Kārlis Ulmanis was born in 1877 into a farming family in the Russian Empire, before Latvia existed as a state.
- After participating in the 1905 Revolution, he fled to the United States, earning an agriculture degree from the University of Nebraska.
- He returned to Latvia in 1913 and became Prime Minister of the Provisional Government after Latvia declared independence in 1918.
- On May 15-16, 1934, Ulmanis dissolved Latvia's parliament and banned all political parties in a bloodless coup.
- In August 1939, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact secretly assigned Latvia to the Soviet sphere of influence, unbeknownst to Ulmanis.

To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

© 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: [email protected].

In 1942, the US government reclassified an entire population. Japanese ancestry alone was grounds for removal, forcing thousands into internment camps.

A five-year-old American boy slept in a horse stall - by government order

This episode covers the experience of Japanese American families, including the Takeis, who were forcibly removed from their homes and incarcerated during World War II. It explores the impact of Executive Order 9066 and the question of why American citizens were included in the internment.

Person: George Takei
Date: February 19, 1942
Location: Los Angeles, California
Event: Japanese American internment

- The US government signed Executive Order 9066, authorizing the military to designate exclusion zones and remove individuals based solely on Japanese ancestry.
- The Takei family, including four-year-old George, was given days to settle their affairs and lost their home, business, and savings.
- Their first stop was Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California, where horse stables were converted into temporary living quarters.
- George Takei, then five, and his family were assigned to a horse stall with wood plank floors and the lingering smell of animals.
- The family was later moved to Rohwer War Relocation Center in Arkansas, a former swamp surrounded by barbed wire and guard towers.

To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

© 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: [email protected].

A celebrated Japanese pianist, once held in a US internment camp, takes a typing job at Columbia University. What she builds there will defy her exile.

The cedar sign she carved that outlasted exile

This episode explores the life of Miwako Kai, a renowned Japanese pianist whose career was interrupted by forced internment during World War II, and the unexpected legacy she created in a new country.

Person: Miwako Kai
Date: 1944
Location: Columbia University
Occupation: Pianist, Library typist
Event: Japanese American internment

- Miwako Kai was born in San Francisco in 1913, into a family prominent in the Japanese commercial community.
- At age eleven, she was placed under the guardianship of American piano teacher Edith Kawasaki, a relationship that ended abruptly when her family moved to Japan.
- In 1932, at nineteen, Kai won the Grand Prize at the first Music Competition of Japan, a prize never awarded again.
- She performed the Japanese premiere of the Schumann Piano Concerto and later competed in the prestigious Third International Chopin Competition in Warsaw.
- After a goodwill tour of the United States in 1939, she returned to California in 1940, planning to stay for one year.

To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

© 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: [email protected].

A bestselling madam born in a Japanese internment camp sees her life become a board game and five film versions-how did that exposure trace back to a dictation and arrest?

The Dictation That Made Her a Bestselling Hooker

In this episode, we follow a single life through a string of public moments and decisions that propelled it into culture. The episode traces how a memoir, an arrest, and a dictation set off a cascade of adaptations and publicity - but what exactly connected them?

Person: Xaviera Hollander
Event: Birth in internment camp; 1974 board game release
Date: 1971 (book publication and deportation)
Location: New York City
Author: Robin Moore (dictation title), Yvonne Dunleavy (ghostwriter)

- Born in a Japanese internment camp in 1943, she later returned to Europe and moved to New York in 1968.
- Hired as a secretary at the Dutch consulate, she resigned to become a call girl and then opened the Vertical Whorehouse.
- By 1971 she was arrested for prostitution and deported from the United States at age twenty-seven.
- The Happy Hooker: My Own Story was published in 1971 from her dictation, credited with a title by Robin Moore and prose shaped by Yvonne Dunleavy.
- Between 1975 and 1980 five actresses portrayed her across multiple films while she appeared in a semi-autobiographical role in 1975.

To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

© 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: [email protected].

A framed portrait of Oswald Mosley hung in a Wembley parish house as a priest married Edward Jeffrey Hamm beneath a Nazi flag-how did that exposure recruit him into Mosley’s fascist network?

The priest's Mosley portrait hung, and it recruited Hamm

In this episode, we trace the path from a parish photograph to a political life: how a Welsh schoolteacher moved from ordinary provincial stability to internment, conversion, and public agitation. What chain of people, places and moments turned him into a focal point for British fascism?

Person: Edward Jeffrey Hamm
Date: Born 15 September 1915
Location: Wembley parish house (wedding reception), Leeuwkop internment camp, Hyde Park, East End
Event: Wedding with Nazi salute and Mosley portrait; wartime internment under Defence Regulation 18B
Occupation: Schoolteacher; later public speaker and organizer

- Hamm joined the British Union of Fascists in 1935 while a young teacher and later took a teaching post at King’s School in Harrow.
- In 1939 he accepted a teaching position in the Falkland Islands and was arrested in 1940 under Defence Regulation 18B for allegedly promoting fascist ideas among pupils.
- Interned at Leeuwkop in South Africa, he lived alongside German Nazi prisoners, where MI5 files record sustained Nazi ideological influence and his participation in a tunnel escape attempt.
- Returned to Britain in 1941, he enlisted in the Royal Tank Regiment but was discharged as disruptive in 1944 and did not see frontline combat.
- Priest Clement Russell received Hamm into the Catholic Church, kept a Mosley portrait on the parish wall, performed Hamm’s wedding where guests gave a Nazi salute, and within months Hamm began speaking to crowds in Hyde Park and the East End.

To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

© 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: [email protected].

A Swiss passport in Soviet hands brands Poland’s biggest star an enemy of the USSR - how did six letters on a document become a death sentence?

The Swiss Passport That Branded Him an Enemy of the USSR

In this episode, we follow the arc of a famous actor whose every practical choice to survive during wartime intersected with bureaucracy and suspicion. The episode traces his career, the inherited Swiss passport, and the interrogation that made that passport the pivot of his fate - could a neutral nationality be treated as a crime?

Person: Eugeniusz Bodo
Date: 20 October 1942 (sentence issued)
Location: Butyrki prison; transit depot in Kotlas
Origin: Łódź; Warsaw; Lwów
Document: Swiss passport in the name Junod

- Born Bohdan Eugène Junod, he built a Polish stardom under the stage name Eugeniusz Bodo
- His father Teodor Junod was Swiss and passed Swiss citizenship and a passport to his son
- Bodo fled east to Lwów, joined Tea-Jazz, toured the Soviet Union and recorded in Russian in 1940
- Arrested after Germany invaded the USSR in June 1941, interrogations began with his navy-blue Swiss passport
- NKVD officer Pyotr Fedotov noted the passport and signed the key document that would define the case

To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

© 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: [email protected].