The Holocaust History Podcast

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HAve you encountered material on the Holocaust that you find disturbing or upsetting?  Was it in your reading or at a Holocaust site or museum?  In this episode, I talk with Julie Golding about the challenges of presenting such material in Holocaust education and at Holocaust museums.
How shoudl museums address the emotional wellbeing of their visitors?  What kinds of content is appropriate (and how do you decide?). We talk about these and many other issues in our conversation.

Julie J. Golding is a Holocaust educator, museum professional, and Assistant Professor and Deputy Chair of the Master's in Holocaust Education at Touro University.
Golding, Julie J. Unseen Scars:: Vicarious Trauma at Holocaust Museums, Exhibitions, and Memorial Sites (2026)
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Email the podcast at holocausthistorypod@gmail.com

The Holocaust History Podcast homepage is here

You can find a complete reading list with books by our guests and also their suggestions here.

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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 holocausthistorypod@gmail.com

The Holocaust History Podcast homepage is here

You can find a complete reading list with books by our guests and also their suggestions here.

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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 holocausthistorypod@gmail.com

The Holocaust History Podcast homepage is here

You can find a complete reading list with books by our guests and also their suggestions here.

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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 holocausthistorypod@gmail.com

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 holocausthistorypod@gmail.com

The Holocaust History Podcast homepage is here

You can find a complete reading list with books by our guests and also their suggestions here.