The Holocaust History Podcast

• Ep. 47: A Nazi in the Family with Kai Hoess

  Send us a textWhat 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.Follow on Twitter @holocaustpod.Email the podcast at [email protected] Holocaust History Podcast homepage is hereYou can find a complete reading list with books by our guests and also their suggestions here.

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• Ep. 46: Nazi Architecture with Paui Jaskot

  Send us a textArchitecture (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)Follow on Twitter @holocaustpod.Email the podcast at [email protected] Holocaust History Podcast homepage is hereYou can find a complete reading list with books by our guests and also their suggestions here.

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• Ep. 45: Jewish Resistance in Germany with Wolf Gruner

  Send us a textHow 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)Follow on Twitter @holocaustpod.Email the podcast at [email protected] Holocaust History Podcast homepage is hereYou can find a complete reading list with books by our guests and also their suggestions here.

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• Ep. 44: The Fate of Jewish Sites in Poland with Yechiel Weizman

  Send us a textThe Holocaust in Poland left hundreds of towns and villages that had previously had large Jewish populations empty.  However, important Jewish sites like synagogues and cemeteries remained.   Polish communities were then confronted with what do with these places.  In this fascinating conversation with Yechiel Weizman, we talk about his work in researching this and how some communities attempted to destroy these places and how some were were quite literally haunted by their Holocaust past. Yechiel Weizman is a lecturer in the Israel and Golda Koschitzky Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry, Bar-Ilan University. Weizman, Yechiel. Unsettled Heritage: Living next to Poland's Material Jewish Traces after the Holocaust (2022)Follow on Twitter @holocaustpod.Email the podcast at [email protected] Holocaust History Podcast homepage is hereYou can find a complete reading list with books by our guests and also their suggestions here.

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• Ep. 43: Geographies of the Holocaust with Anne Kelly Knowles and Tim Cole

  Send us a textUltimately, the story of the Holocaust is one centered in places:  where something happened, where someone was from, where someone wanted to go.  In this episode, I talked with two scholars about the role of geography in the Holocaust but also about how we use geographical approaches and methodologies to ask (and answer new important historical questions.  Anne Kelly Knowles is the McBride Professor of History at the University of Maine. Tim Cole is a professor of social history at the University of Bristol. Knowles, Anne Kelly, Tim Cole, and Paul Jaskot. Geographies of the Holocaust (2014)Cole, Tim. Holocaust City: The Making of a Jewish Ghetto (2003)Follow on Twitter @holocaustpod.Email the podcast at [email protected] Holocaust History Podcast homepage is hereYou can find a complete reading list with books by our guests and also their suggestions here.

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