The Holocaust History Podcast

Send us Fan Mail
Even as the Holocaust was ongoing, some Jews dreamed of and sought revenge for Nazi attacks on them.  Ironically, the Nazis themselves believed in a particularly antisemitic myth of Jewish vengeance and many Germans after the war feared widespread retaliation by Holocaust survivors.  Indeed, there were some attempts to carry out revenge attacks on Nazis after the war.
In this episode, I talked with Laura Jockusch about what revenge meant in all these contexts and more, including in the popular imagination with media like Inglourious Basterds and The Hunters.  

Laura Jockusch is the Albert Abramson Associate Professor of Holocaust Studies at Brandeis University.

Jockusch, Laura. Jewish Revenge and the Holocaust: History, Memory, and Imagination (2026)
Follow on Twitter @holocaustpod.
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.

Send us Fan Mail
There are lots of popular and sensationalist accounts of the Nazi obsession with the supernatural and occult, but what is the true history of this.  The truth is that various kinds of supernatural, occult, and border scientific beliefs influenced many of the leading Nazis.
In addition, these beliefs also ultimately provided a contextual background that influenced Nazi policy.  This is one of the reasons that these fringe and often outlandish beliefs are so important.  In this episode, I talk with Eric Kurlander about his detailed and scholarly exploration of the Nazi supernatural imaginary.

Eric Kurlander is the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of History and Director of the Jewish Studies program at Stetson University.
 
Kurlander, Eric.  Hitler’s Monsters: A Supernatural History of the Third Reich(2017)
Follow on Twitter @holocaustpod.
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.

Send us Fan Mail
The Holocaust was a Nazi project, but it required the support, cooperation, complicity, and sometimes collaboration of a wide variety of non-Germans to carry out.  This complicity took a variety of forms and investigating it always generates strong emotional reaction.  
In this episode, I talk with Grzegorz Rossoliński-Liebe about his meticulous study of the role Polish mayors played under Nazi occupation and during the Holocaust.  It's a difficult but important conversation.

Grzegorz Rossoliński-Liebe is a Lecturer in History at the Frei Universität, Berlin.

Rossoliński-Liebe, Grzegorz.  Polnische Bürgermeister und der Holocaust. Besatzung, Verwaltung und Kollaboration (2024)
Follow on Twitter @holocaustpod.
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.

Send us Fan Mail
The Nuremberg trials, though not perfect, represented in many ways an epic achievement in justice for crimes against humanity.  However, a darker and lesser-known element of the trials is what happened to the convicted Nazis after ward.
The overwhelming majority of sentences were never fully carried out and almost all those convicted at Nuremberg and in its subsequent trials especially were out of prison by 1958.
In this episode, I talk with Robert Hutchinson about his fascinating work on the US policy of releasing Nazi criminals from prison.

Robert W. Hutchinson is an Associate Professor of Strategy and Security Studies at the US Air Force School of Advanced Air and Space Studies.
 
Hutchinson, Robert W. After Nuremberg: American Clemency for Nazi War Criminals (2022)
Follow on Twitter @holocaustpod.
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.

Send us Fan Mail
The Janowska concentration camp may well be the most important Holocaust place most people have never heard of.  It was central to the Holocaust in eastern Poland, was the scene of unspeakable cruelty, but also witnessed a successful armed uprising.
In this episode hosted by the amazing Holocaust historian Doris Bergen, we talk about my work on the camp and what a study of Janowska tells us about the Holocaust.

Waitman Wade Beorn is an associate professor of history at Northumbria University in Newcastle, UK. He is also (most of the time) the host of the Holocaust History Podcast which you are now listening to.

Beorn, Waitman Wade. Between the Wires: The Janowska Camp and the Holocaust in Lviv (2024)
Follow on Twitter @holocaustpod.
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.