Auschwitz and the Holocaust: 5 podcasts to listen to
As we approach Holocaust Memorial Day 2020, commemorating 75 years since the liberation of the Nazis' concentration camp Auschwitz, we’ve put together a list of five podcasts which you can listen to and learn more
The big questions of the Holocaust
In this podcast from 2017, historian, author and broadcaster Laurence Rees joined us to discuss his book The Holocaust: A New History and considered some of the key debates in the history of the Nazi genocide of the Jews.
The Auschwitz volunteer
Jack Fairweather, author of the Costa Biography Award-winning book The Volunteer, tells the story of the Polish resistance leader Witold Pilecki who allowed himself to be arrested by the Nazis in order to gather intelligence from Auschwitz.
The Battle of the Bulge and children of the Holocaust
In this podcast from 2015, journalist Wendy Holden tells the remarkable tale of three young women who gave birth while in Nazi captivity. This episode also features military historian Antony Beevor on the 1944 Ardennes offensive that represented Hitler’s final attempt to turn the tide of the war.
- A brief history of Auschwitz – the most deadly site of the Holocaust
- The liberation of Auschwitz, 75 years on: what happened and how do we remember the Holocaust?
- What would you have done? 6 terrible choices people had to make during the Second World War
- A brief history of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where Anne Frank died
- Laurence Rees on the perpetrators of the Holocaust: “What they told us was, at the time, they felt it was the right thing to do”
- The ‘British Schindler’ who saved 669 children from the Nazis
- “Many of the Holocaust’s perpetrators got away with it”: why Nazi crimes went unpunished
- Forgotten voices: the history behind Holocaust Memorial Day
New views on the Holocaust and 1980s Britain
In another episode from 2015, you can hear from Yale historian Timothy Snyder who discusses Black Earth, his bold study of the Nazi genocide of the Jews. This podcast also features Andy Beckett talking about the early years of the Thatcher revolution in the UK.
Legacies of the Holocaust
Finally, we highlight a wide-ranging discussion between historians Mary Fulbrook and Richard J Evans that explores the aftermath of the Nazi genocide. This episode looks at how thousands of perpetrators escaped justice and considers how subsequent generations have sought to understand the greatest atrocity of the 20th century.
Read more about Auschwitz, its liberation, and the Holocaust
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