Podcasts about The Holocaust

Savage speaks with Sean McNamara, a renowned Hollywood director, about his career and his latest film, Bau: Artist at War. McNamara has directed acclaimed films, including Soul Surfer, Reagan, and The Last Firefighter. Savage and Sean discuss Savage's role in the The Last Firefighter and behind-the-scenes from the set with Jon Voight and Kelsey Grammer. Sean shares his journey into Hollywood, reminiscing about his start as a paperboy at Disney and eventually working on major projects. The conversation delves deeply into Bau Artist at War, set during the Holocaust, telling the true love story of Joseph and Rebecca Bau in a concentration camp. Sean emphasizes the miracles and hope depicted in the film and how they resonate with contemporary issues. They also discuss the logistics and emotional challenges of filming in Krakow, the involvement of professional actors, and the impact of technological advancements on film production. Savage underscores the significance of seeing the film in theaters to support true stories of resilience and love.

Actor Scarlett Johansson makes her directorial debut with Eleanor The Great, about a 94-year-old woman who claims her dead friend's Holocaust story as her own. "It's rare to feel surprised when you read a script," Johansson says. Squibb stars as Eleanor. They spoke with Tonya Mosley about Squibb's Broadway nickname, Johansson's memories of working with the late Robert Redford, and hosting SNL.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The Holocaust Ring Wendy Adelson Refused to Return! Dan Markel Divorce Bombshell Divorce filings can reveal more than testimony ever could. In this segment of Hidden Killers with Tony Brueski, the spotlight turns to Dan Markel's legal filings against Wendy Adelson — allegations that paint a picture of manipulation, secrecy, and unilateral control. From accusations of hidden accounts and blocked communication, to the shocking claim that Wendy refused to return a Holocaust family ring to Dan's relatives, these filings suggest behavior that went far beyond typical divorce disputes. Tony and Shavaun Scott examine what these allegations reveal about the Adelson family's mindset and how material objects, like the Holocaust ring, can become symbols of dominance in toxic relationships. Listeners are reminded that while these were never adjudicated in court due to Dan's murder, the filings remain powerful indicators of how bitter and destructive the conflict had become. This segment reveals the financial and emotional battleground that formed the backdrop to one of the most notorious true crime cases in recent history. Hashtags:  #WendyAdelson #DanMarkel #HolocaustRing #TonyBrueski #ShavaunScott #TrueCrimePodcast #HiddenKillers #AdelsonTrial #CourtFilings #TrueCrimeCommunity Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspod Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/tonybpod Listen Ad-Free On Apple Podcasts Here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/true-crime-today-premium-plus-ad-free-advance-episode/id1705422872

The Holocaust Ring Wendy Adelson Refused to Return! Dan Markel Divorce Bombshell Divorce filings can reveal more than testimony ever could. In this segment of Hidden Killers with Tony Brueski, the spotlight turns to Dan Markel's legal filings against Wendy Adelson — allegations that paint a picture of manipulation, secrecy, and unilateral control. From accusations of hidden accounts and blocked communication, to the shocking claim that Wendy refused to return a Holocaust family ring to Dan's relatives, these filings suggest behavior that went far beyond typical divorce disputes. Tony and Shavaun Scott examine what these allegations reveal about the Adelson family's mindset and how material objects, like the Holocaust ring, can become symbols of dominance in toxic relationships. Listeners are reminded that while these were never adjudicated in court due to Dan's murder, the filings remain powerful indicators of how bitter and destructive the conflict had become. This segment reveals the financial and emotional battleground that formed the backdrop to one of the most notorious true crime cases in recent history. Hashtags:  #WendyAdelson #DanMarkel #HolocaustRing #TonyBrueski #ShavaunScott #TrueCrimePodcast #HiddenKillers #AdelsonTrial #CourtFilings #TrueCrimeCommunity Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspod Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/tonybpod Listen Ad-Free On Apple Podcasts Here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/true-crime-today-premium-plus-ad-free-advance-episode/id1705422872

The Holocaust Ring Wendy Adelson Refused to Return! Dan Markel Divorce Bombshell Divorce filings can reveal more than testimony ever could. In this segment of Hidden Killers with Tony Brueski, the spotlight turns to Dan Markel's legal filings against Wendy Adelson — allegations that paint a picture of manipulation, secrecy, and unilateral control. From accusations of hidden accounts and blocked communication, to the shocking claim that Wendy refused to return a Holocaust family ring to Dan's relatives, these filings suggest behavior that went far beyond typical divorce disputes. Tony and Shavaun Scott examine what these allegations reveal about the Adelson family's mindset and how material objects, like the Holocaust ring, can become symbols of dominance in toxic relationships. Listeners are reminded that while these were never adjudicated in court due to Dan's murder, the filings remain powerful indicators of how bitter and destructive the conflict had become. This segment reveals the financial and emotional battleground that formed the backdrop to one of the most notorious true crime cases in recent history. Hashtags:  #WendyAdelson #DanMarkel #HolocaustRing #TonyBrueski #ShavaunScott #TrueCrimePodcast #HiddenKillers #AdelsonTrial #CourtFilings #TrueCrimeCommunity Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspod Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/tonybpod Listen Ad-Free On Apple Podcasts Here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/true-crime-today-premium-plus-ad-free-advance-episode/id1705422872

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world. Documentary filmmaker Yonatan Nir joins host Jessica Steinberg for today's episode. Ahead of the launch of season three of DocuNation, the online festival of Israeli documentary films for the Times of Israel Community, Nir discusses how the event got started in March 2020, during the initial outbreak of the coronavirus. At the time, Nir's screenings were canceled, and he turned to Zoom to offer free screenings and discussions about his films. DocuNation eventually included other Israeli documentary films that were screened for online audiences, with ToI offering the same concept for English speakers, with subtitled films or films that are mostly in English. Nir talks about the kinds of films screened, those showing Israeli life and society, the parts of life usually not shown in the news, offering a more uplifting look at life during difficult times. Check out The Times of Israel's ongoing liveblog for more updates. For further reading: Wilfrid Israel, an unsung Holocaust hero, gets his due In Arctic, polar bear is final frontier for famed Israeli wildlife photographer He ain’t heavy, he’s my sibling ‘Dolphin Boy’ gets picked up by Disney Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by Podwaves. IMAGE: Documentary filmmaker Yonatan Nir brings third season of DocuNation festival to ToI Community in October 2025 (Courtesy)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Art Spiegelman's Maus almost single-handedly elevated comics from throw-away inserts in newspapers to a serious literary art worthy of winning the highest award in book publishing. But it's not an accident that this book is coming back to us now. Maus was swept once again into the public eye three years ago, when the conservative movement to target marginalized stories took aim at the beloved graphic novel. In this episode, we examine how comic book censorship in the 1950s led to the creation of Maus, and eventually shifted the way we tell stories about resistance, memory, and authoritarianism.You can read a transcript of this episode on our website. Further resources:Check out our booklist with books recommended by Art Spiegelman, and more.Read Amy Kurzweil's Flying Couch and Molly Crabapple's Drawing Blood. You can read more about both of them on their websites.Art Spiegelman's comic collaboration with Joe Sacco was published in The New York Review of Books earlier this year. You can check out Sacco's Palestine and his more recent War on Gaza from the library.Learn more about the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and the history of comic book censorship.Listen to our interviews with Maia Kobabe, author of Gender Queer, and Mike Curato, author of Flamer from our previous series, Borrowed and Banned.Watch Art Spiegelman discuss MetaMaus with Dan Nadel at Brooklyn Public Library.

In this episode of Behind Beautiful Things, we sit down with Louise as she shares her deeply personal story rooted in the aftermath of World War II. Louise's parents fled the horrors of war-torn Europe, and the trauma they carried would echo across generations.We explore how that inherited trauma shaped Louise's childhood, her mental health, and her complex relationship with her family. Through honest reflection and emotional insight, Louise speaks to the resilience it takes to confront generational pain and begin the journey of healing.This episode is a moving exploration of trauma, identity, family dynamics, and the strength it takes to rewrite your own story.Listen now to hear Louise's courageous path toward understanding, healing, and hope.Please note: This episode contains descriptions of child abuse, suggested sexual abuse, and descriptions of the Holocaust. Please take care while listening. Behind Beautiful Things Website: www.sadtimespodcast.com Follow Behind Beautiful Things on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/373292146649249Follow Behind Beautiful Things on Instagram: @behindbeautifulthingspodcastLearn more about Kevin's Professional Speaking and Acting at www.kevincrispin.comCheck out Kevin's substack: https://allconviction.substack.com Get your very own “Sad Schwag”: https://www.teepublic.com/stores/hysteria51/albums/253388-sad-times-podcast?ref_id=9022Editorial note: Behind Beautiful Things is committed to sharing various stories from generous guests. The hope is to allow any number of stories to be shared to help people feel less alone and, perhaps, more empathetic. It is important to clarify that the guests' stories, perspectives, and sentiments do not necessarily reflect the views and beliefs of Behind Beautiful Things in any way. Please note that Behind Beautiful Things is in no way a substitute for medical or professional mental health support.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Last time we spoke about the battle of Nanjing. In December 1937, as the battle for Nanjing unfolded, terror inundated its residents, seeking safety amid the turmoil. General Tang Shengzhi rallied the Chinese forces, determined to defend against the advancing Japanese army. Fierce fighting erupted at the Gate of Enlightenment, where the determined Chinese soldiers resisted merciless assaults while tragedy loomed. By mid-December, the Japanese made substantial advances, employing relentless artillery fire to breach Nanjing's defenses. Leaders called for strategic retreats, yet amid chaos and despair, many young Chinese soldiers, driven by nationalism, continued to resist. By December 13, Nanjing succumbed to the invaders, marking a tragic chapter in history. As destruction enveloped the city, the resilience of its defenders became a poignant tale of courage amidst the horrors of war, forever marking Nanjing as a symbol of enduring hope in the face of despair.   #168 The Nanjing Massacre Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. So obvious disclaimer, today we will be talking about, arguably one of if not the most horrific war atrocities ever committed. To be blunt, it may have been worse than some of the things we talked about back during the fall of the Ming Dynasty, when bandit armies raped and pillaged cities. The Nanjing Massacre as its become known is well documented by both Chinese and foreign sources. There is an abundance of primary sources, many well verified. Its going to be extremely graphic, I am going to try and tell it to the fullest. So if you got a weak stomach perhaps sit this one out, you have been warned. Chen Yiding began evacuating his troops from the area surrounding the Gate of Enlightenment before dawn on December 13. En route to Xiaguan, he took the time to visit a dozen of his soldiers housed in a makeshift hospital located in an old cemetery. These men were too severely injured to participate in the evacuation, and Chen had to leave them with only a few words of encouragement. Little did he know, within days, they would all perish in their beds, victims of the Japanese forces. Upon arriving in Xiaguan later that morning, Chen was met with grim news: his divisional commander had crossed the Yangtze River with his chief of staff the previous afternoon. Now, he was on his own. He didn't linger near the riverside chaos, quickly realizing there was nothing he could do there. Instead, he chose to move downstream, hoping to find a secure spot for himself and his soldiers to wait out the next few days before devising an escape from the war zone.  He was fortunate, for soon the Japanese would live up to their notorious reputation developed during their advance from Shanghai; they were not inclined to take prisoners. That afternoon, several hundred Chinese soldiers arrived at the northern end of the Safety Zone. The committee responsible for the area stated that they could offer no assistance. In a misguided attempt to boost morale, they suggested that if the soldiers surrendered and promised not to engage in combat, the Japanese would likely show them "merciful treatment." This optimism was woefully misplaced. Later that same day, Japanese troops entered the zone, dragging out 200 Chinese men, the majority of them soldiers, for execution just outside the city. On December 13, Japanese soldiers started patrolling the riverbank, shooting at anything and anyone floating downstream. Their comrades aboard naval vessels in the river cheered them on, applauding each time they struck another helpless victim in the water. Civilians were not spared either. While traveling through downtown Nanjing as the battle concluded, Rabe observed dead men and women every 100 to 200 yards, most of them shot in the back. A long line of Chinese men marched down the street, numbering in the hundreds, all destined for death. In a cruel twist, they were compelled to carry a large Japanese flag. They were herded into a vacant lot by a couple of Japanese soldiers and as recalled by American correspondent Archibald Steele "There, they were brutally shot dead in small groups. One Japanese soldier stood over the growing pile of corpses, firing into any bodies that showed movement." The killings commenced almost immediately after the fall of Nanjing. The victorious Japanese spread out into the city streets, seeking victims. Those unfortunate enough to be captured faced instant execution or were taken to larger killing fields to meet a grim fate alongside other Chinese prisoners. Initially, the Japanese targeted former soldiers, whether real or imagined, but within hours, the scope of victims expanded to include individuals of all age groups and genders. By the end of the first day of occupation, civilian bodies littered the streets of downtown Nanjing at a rate of roughly one per block. The defenseless and innocent were subjected to murder, torture, and humiliation in a relentless spree of violence that persisted for six harrowing weeks. At the time of the attack, Nanjing felt eerily abandoned, houses stood boarded up, vehicles lay toppled in the streets, and the once-ubiquitous rickshaws had vanished. However, hundreds of thousands remained hidden indoors, seeking refuge. The most visible sign of the city's new rulers was the display of the Japanese flag. On the morning of December 14, the Rising Sun flag was hoisted across the city, seen in front of private homes, businesses, and public buildings. Many of these flags were hastily made, often a simple white sheet with a red rag affixed, hoping to be spared. As the days progressed, horrifying accounts of violence began to emerge. A barber, the sole survivor among eight people in his shop when the Japanese arrived, was admitted to a hospital with a stab wound that had nearly severed his head from his body, damaging all muscles at the back of his neck down to his spinal canal. A woman suffered a brutal throat wound, while another pregnant woman was bayoneted in the abdomen, resulting in the death of her unborn child. A man witnessed his wife being stabbed through the heart and then saw his child hurled from a window to the street several floors below. These are but a few stories of individual atrocities committed. Alongside this there were mass executions, predominantly targeting young able-bodied men, in an effort to weaken Nanjing and deprive it of any potential resistance in the future. American professor, Lewis Smythe recalled “The disarmed soldier problem was our most serious one for the first three days, but it was soon resolved, as the Japanese shot all of them.” On the evening of December 15, the Japanese rounded up 1,300 former soldiers from the Safety Zone, binding them in groups of about 100 and marching them away in silence. A group of foreigners, permitted to leave Nanjing on a Japanese gunboat, accidentally became witnesses to the ensuing slaughter. While waiting for their vessel, they took a brief walk along the riverbank and stumbled upon a scene of mass execution, observing the Japanese shooting the men one by one in the back of the neck. “We observed about 100 such executions until the Japanese officer in charge noticed us and ordered us to leave immediately”. Not all killings were premeditated; many occurred impulsively. A common example was when Japanese soldiers led lines of Chinese POWs to holding points, tightly bound together with ropes. Every few yards, a Japanese soldier would stand guard with a fixed bayonet aimed at the prisoners as they trudged forward. Suddenly, one of the prisoners slipped, causing a domino effect as he fell, dragging down the men in front of and behind him. The entire group soon found themselves collapsed on the ground, struggling to stand. The Japanese guards lost their patience, jabbing their bayonets into the writhing bodies until none remained alive. In one of the largest massacres, Japanese troops from the Yamada Detachment, including the 65th Infantry Regiment, systematically executed between 17,000 and 20,000 Chinese prisoners from December 15 to 17. These prisoners were taken to the banks of the Yangtze River near Mufushan, where they were machine-gunned to death. The bodies were then disposed of by either burning or flushing them downstream. Recent research by Ono Kenji has revealed that these mass killings were premeditated and carried out systematically, in accordance with orders issued directly by Prince Asaka. A soldier from the IJA's 13th Division described killing wounded survivors of the Mufushan massacre in his diary “I figured that I'd never get another chance like this, so I stabbed thirty of the damned Chinks. Climbing atop the mountain of corpses, I felt like a real devil-slayer, stabbing again and again, with all my might. 'Ugh, ugh,' the Chinks groaned. There were old folks as well as kids, but we killed them lock, stock, and barrel. I also borrowed a buddy's sword and tried to decapitate some. I've never experienced anything so unusual”. Frequently, the Japanese just left their victims wherever they fell. Corpses began to accumulate in the streets, exposed to the elements and onlookers. Cars constantly were forced to run over corpses. Corpses were scavenged by stray dogs, which, in turn, were consumed by starving people. The water became toxic; workers in the Safety Zone discovered ponds clogged with human remains. In other instances, the Japanese gathered their machine-gunned or bayoneted victims into large heaps, doused them in kerosene, and set them ablaze. Archibald Steele wrote for the Chicago Daily News on December 17th “I saw a grisly scene at the north gate, where what was once a group of 200 men had become a smoldering mass of flesh and bones, so severely burned around the neck and head that it was difficult to believe he was still human.” During the chaos in the beginning, whereupon the Japanese had not yet fully conquered the city, its defenders scrambled desperately to escape before it was too late. Individually or in small groups, they sought vulnerabilities in the enemy lines, acutely aware that their survival hinged on their success. Months of conflict had trained them to expect no mercy if captured; previous experiences had instilled in them the belief that a swift death at the hands of the Japanese would be a fortunate outcome. On December 12, amid intense artillery fire and aerial bombardment, General Tang Sheng-chi issued the order for his troops to retreat. However, conflicting directives and a breakdown in discipline transformed the ensuing events into a disaster. While some Chinese units successfully crossed the river, a far greater number were ensnared in the widespread chaos that engulfed the city. In their desperation to evade capture, some Chinese soldiers resorted to stripping civilians of their clothing to disguise themselves, while many others were shot by their own supervisory units as they attempted to flee.Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of individual escape stories emerged from this period. In some rare instances, entire units, even up to divisional strength, successfully infiltrated Japanese lines to reach safety. For others, such as the 156th Division, there were detailed plans outlining escape routes from Nanjing. Several soldiers and officers adhered to this three-day trek, skillfully evading Japanese patrols until they reached Ningguo, located south of the capital. Nonetheless, these cases were exceptions. The vast majority of soldiers from China's defeated army faced significant risk and were more likely to be captured than to escape. Some of Chiang Kai-shek's most elite units suffered near total annihilation. Only about a thousand soldiers from the 88th Division managed to cross the Yangtze safely, as did another thousand from the Training Division, while a mere 300 from the 87th Division survived. Even for units like the 156th Division, the escape plans were only effective for those who learned of them. These plans were hurriedly disseminated through the ranks as defeat loomed, leaving mere chance to determine who received the information. Many stayed trapped in Nanjing, which had become a fatal snare. One day, Japanese soldiers visited schools within Nanjing's Safety Zone, aware that these locations sheltered many refugees. They called for all former soldiers to step forward, promising safety in exchange for labor. Many believed that the long days of hiding were finally coming to an end and complied with the request. However, they were led to an abandoned house, where they were stripped naked and bound together in groups of five. Outside, a large bonfire had been ignited. They were then bayoneted and, while still alive, thrown onto the flames. Only a few managed to escape and share the horrifying tale. The Japanese were of course well aware that numerous soldiers were hiding in Nanjing, disguised as locals, evidenced by the piles of military uniforms and equipment accumulating in the streets. Consequently, they initiated a systematic search for soldiers within hours of taking control. The Safety Zone was not spared, as the Japanese Army suspected that Chinese soldiers had sought refuge there. On December 16, they raided Ginling College, despite a policy prohibiting the admission of men, except for elderly residents in a designated dining room. The soldiers brought axes to force open doors that were not immediately complied with and positioned six machine guns on the campus, prepared to fire at anyone attempting to escape. Ultimately, they found nothing. In cases where they did encounter young men of military age, the soldiers lined them up, scrutinizing for distinct telltale features such as close-cropped hair, helmet marks, or shoulder blisters from carrying a rifle. Many men, who had never served in the military but bore callouses from hard manual labor, were captured based on the assumption that such marks indicated military experience. As noted by Goerge Fitch the head of Nanjing's YMCA “Rickshaw coolies, carpenters, and other laborers are frequently taken”. The Japanese employed additional, more cunning tactics to root out soldiers. During an inspection of a camp within the Safety Zone, they struggled to get the approximately 6,000 men and women to surrender. Before leaving, they resorted to one last trick. “Attention!” a voice commanded in flawless Chinese. Many young men, conditioned by months or years of military training, instinctively responded. Even though most realized their mistake almost immediately, it was too late; the Japanese herded them away. Given the scale of the slaughter, efforts were soon organized to facilitate the killing and disposal of as many individuals as possible in the shortest time. Rows of prisoners were mowed down by machine-gun fire, while those injured were finished off with single bullets or bayonets. Much of the mass murder occurred near the Yangtze River, where victims could be disposed of easily by being pushed into the water, hoping the current would carry them away.As the weeks progressed and the Japanese grew increasingly concerned about the possibility of former soldiers still at large, the dragnet tightened. Beginning in late December, Japanese authorities implemented a registration system for all residents of Nanjing. At Ginling College, this process lasted about a week and resulted in scenes of almost indescribable chaos, as the Japanese also decided to register residents from the surrounding areas on campus. First, the men were registered, followed by the women. Often, women attended the registration to help save their husbands and sons, who would otherwise have been taken as suspected former soldiers. Despite these efforts, a total of 28 men were ultimately seized during the registration process at Ginling College. Each individual who registered received a document from the authorities. However, it soon became clear that this paper provided little protection against the caprices of the Japanese military. That winter in Nanjing, everyone was a potential victim. While systematic mass killings primarily targeted young men of military age, every category of people faced death in the days and weeks following the Japanese conquest of Nanjing. Reports indicated that fifty police officers from the Safety Zone were executed for permitting Chinese soldiers to enter the area. The city's firefighters were taken away to meet an uncertain fate, and six street sweepers were killed inside their dwelling. Like an uncontrollable epidemic, the victors' bloodlust seemed to escalate continuously, seeking out new victims. When the Japanese ordered the Safety Zone committee to supply workers for the electricity plant in Xiaguan to restore its operations, they provided 54 individuals. Within days, 43 of them were dead. Although young men were especially targeted, the Japanese made no distinctions based on age or sex. American missionary John G. Magee documented numerous instances of indiscriminate killings, including the chilling account of two families nearly exterminated. Stabbings, shootings, and rapes marked the slaughter of three generations of innocents, including toddlers aged four and two; the older child was bayoneted, while the younger was struck in the head with a sword. The only survivors were a badly injured eight-year-old girl and her four-year-old sister, who spent the following fortnight beside their mother's decaying body. The violence was often accompanied by various forms of humiliation, as if to utterly break the spirit of the conquered people. One woman lost her parents and three children. When she purchased a coffin for her father, a Japanese soldier tore the lid off and discarded the old man's body in the street. Another soldier, in a drunken stupor, raped a Chinese woman and then vomited on her. In yet another incident, a soldier encountered a family of six huddled over a pot of thin rice soup; he stepped over them and urinated into their pot before continuing on his way, laughing heartlessly. The atrocities committed at Nanjing were not akin to something like the Holocaust. Within places like Auschwitz killings became industrialized and often took on an impersonal, unemotional character. The murders in Nanjing had an almost intimate quality, with each individual perpetrator bearing the blood of their victims on their hands, sometimes literally. In this sense, the Nanjing atrocities resemble the early Holocaust killings executed by German Einsatzgruppen in Eastern Europe, prior to the implementation of gas chambers. How many died during the Nanjing Massacre? Eyewitnesses at the time recognized that the Japanese behavior had few immediate precedents. Missionary John Magee compared the situation to the Turkish genocide of the Armenians during World War I, which was still fresh in memory. Despite this, no consensus emerged regarding the exact number of fatalities, a state of affairs that would persist for nearly eight decades. In his first comprehensive account of the atrocities following the conquest of the capital, New York Times correspondent Tillman Durdin reported that 33,000 Chinese soldiers lost their lives in Nanjing, including 20,000 who were executed. Foreign correspondent Frank Oliver claimed in a 1939 publication that 24,000 men, women, and children were put to death during the first month of the city's occupation. As time progressed, much larger figures began to circulate. After returning to Germany in 1938, John Rabe held a lecture where he cited European estimates that between 50,000 and 60,000 people had died. In February 1942, Chiang Kai-shek stated that 200,000 were slaughtered within one week. The Nanjing tribunal established by Chiang's government to try Japanese war criminals in 1946 and 1947 reported that more than 300,000 lives had been lost following the city's fall. The highest estimate recorded comes from a Chinese military expert, who put the death toll at 430,000. Currently, the figure most commonly accepted in official Chinese media is 300,000, a number also cited by various authors sympathetic to China's contemporary regime. The debate over the Nanjing death toll has been a complex and extensive discussion, likely to remain unresolved to everyone's satisfaction. As missionary and Nanjing University teacher Miner Searle Bates remarked when he testified before the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in July 1946, “The scope of this killing was so extensive that no one can provide a complete picture of it.” On December 16, American missionary Minnie Vautrin witnessed a truck passing by Ginling College, loaded with eight to ten girls. When they saw the Western woman, they cried out, "Jiu ming! Jiu ming!" which means “Help! Help!” Vautrin felt powerless, fully aware of the fate that awaited them. As early as Tuesday of that week, she had documented rumors of girls being raped. The following night, women were taken in large numbers from their homes. Another missionary, John Magee wrote to his wife “The most horrible thing now is the raping of the women, which has been going on in the most shameless way I have ever known”. A tentative list compiled by Lewis Smythe detailed instances of rape occurring soon after the Japanese Army entered Nanjing: four girls at noon on December 14; four more women that evening; three female refugees on December 15; and a young wife around the same time. The accounts revealed chilling individual horrors. A 15-year-old girl was taken to a barracks housing 200 to 300 Japanese soldiers and locked in a room, where she was raped multiple times daily. Victims ranged from as young as 11 to over 80. American correspondent Edgar Snow recalled “Discards were often bayoneted by drunken soldiers,. Frequently, mothers had to witness their babies being beheaded, only to then be raped themselves.” Y.M.C.A. head George Fitch reported the case of a woman whose five-month-old infant was deliberately smothered by a soldier to silence its cries while he raped her. Such acts were a gruesome form of humiliation, designed to demonstrate that the vanquished were powerless to protect their own families. Japanese soldier Takokoro Kozo recalled “Women suffered most. No matter how young or old, they all could not escape the fate of being raped. We sent out coal trucks to the city streets and villages to seize a lot of women. And then each of them was allocated to fifteen to twenty soldiers for sexual intercourse and abuse. After raping we would also kill them”. Women were frequently killed immediately after being raped, often through horrific mutilations, such as being penetrated with bayonets, long bamboo sticks, or other objects. For instance, one six-months-pregnant woman was stabbed sixteen times in the face and body, with one stab penetrating her abdomen and killing her unborn child. In another case, a young woman had a beer bottle forcibly inserted into her vagina after being raped, and was subsequently shot.  On December 19, 1937, the Reverend James M. McCallum wrote in his diary “I know not where to end. Never I have heard or read such brutality. Rape! Rape! Rape! We estimate at least 1,000 cases a night and many by day. In case of resistance or anything that seems like disapproval, there is a bayonet stab or a bullet... People are hysterical... Women are being carried off every morning, afternoon and evening. The whole Japanese army seems to be free to go and come as it pleases, and to do whatever it pleases”.  Rabe wrote in his diary dated December 17 “wo Japanese soldiers have climbed over the garden wall and are about to break into our house. When I appear they give the excuse that they saw two Chinese soldiers climb over the wall. When I show them my party badge, they return the same way. In one of the houses in the narrow street behind my garden wall, a woman was raped, and then wounded in the neck with a bayonet. I managed to get an ambulance so we can take her to Kulou Hospital... Last night up to 1,000 women and girls are said to have been raped, about 100 girls at Ginling College...alone. You hear nothing but rape. If husbands or brothers intervene, they're shot. What you hear and see on all sides is the brutality and bestiality of the Japanese soldiers”. In a documentary film about the Nanjing Massacre, In the Name of the Emperor, a former Japanese soldier named Shiro Azuma spoke candidly about the process of rape and murder in Nanjing. “At first we used some kinky words like Pikankan. Pi means "hip", kankan means "look". Pikankan means, "Let's see a woman open up her legs." Chinese women didn't wear under-pants. Instead, they wore trousers tied with a string. There was no belt. As we pulled the string, the buttocks were exposed. We "pikankan". We looked. After a while we would say something like, "It's my day to take a bath," and we took turns raping them. It would be all right if we only raped them. I shouldn't say all right. But we always stabbed and killed them. Because dead bodies don't talk”. Without anyone to defend them, the women of Nanjing resorted to desperate measures for their safety. The young and attractive cut their hair and smeared soot on their faces to diminish their allure. Others donned boys' clothes or the garments of elderly women. However, the Japanese were well aware of these tactics and were not easily deceived. As American correspondent Snow described, it was an orgy of unprecedented debauchery, involving not only the lower ranks of the Japanese military but also officers who turned their quarters into harems, bedding a new captive each night. Open-air sexual assaults were common. During the first ten days of occupation, groups of Japanese soldiers entered the Ginling campus ten to twenty times daily, brandishing fixed bayonets stained with fresh blood. So overwhelmed, Vautrin decided to prioritize saving lives over salvaging possessions, spending those early days frantically moving across campus to prevent marauding soldiers from taking away women. A particularly tense situation unfolded on the evening of December 17, when Vautrin and other staff members at Ginling College were called to the front of the campus to confront a group of Japanese soldiers. Earlier, Vautrin had received documentation from another officer affirming that the area was a legitimate refugee camp. The soldiers torn up the document in front of her. For hours, with armed Japanese soldiers encircling them, Vautrin and her colleagues were left standing or kneeling, uncertain of what awaited them. Gradually, it became clear that they had been lured to the front gate so that other soldiers could enter through a side entrance and abduct twelve women. As Vautrin recalled “Never shall I forget the scene. The dried leaves rattling, the moaning of the wind, the cries of women being led away.” The staff remained at the entrance until 11:00 pm, fearing that hiding soldiers might fire on them if they moved. This was the only time that Vautrin was unable to prevent rape, a failure that would haunt her for the rest of her life. Some Japanese soldiers, seeking young girls, ordered a middle-aged Chinese woman to assist them in finding targets. When she either could not or would not comply, they shot a rifle across her abdomen, narrowly missing and taking away “three handbreadths of flesh.” When the Japanese Army entered Nanjing, little damage had been inflicted on the buildings, as noted by U.S. missionary James McCallum at the end of December. On the first day of their occupation, Japanese soldiers immediately dispersed into Nanjing in small groups, breaking shop windows and looting the goods within. They carried away their spoils in crates and stolen rickshaws. Initially, the looting was partly a makeshift response to the poor logistics of the Japanese Army. Combat soldiers had arrived well ahead of their supply lines and faced severe food shortages until the roads reopened and the Yangtze River became navigable.  Every building in Nanjing was looted and turned upside down. Everything not nailed down was stolen: doors and window frames were removed, safes opened with rifle shots or grenades. Japanese soldiers often pillaged property while the owners were present, threatening them with bayonets. Abandoned cars littered the streets, typically overturned and stripped of useful items, including batteries. Like Russian soldiers in Berlin seven and a half years later, the rank-and-file soldiers displayed a particular interest in watches. As the scale of plunder grew, transportation became scarce. By the end of December, looting was being conducted using trucks. When vehicles were unavailable, Japanese soldiers resorted to wheelbarrows and even children's prams. Mules, donkeys, and people were also commandeered. Just as during their advance from Shanghai to Nanjing, the Chinese were forced to assist in looting their own homes. A common sight was a Japanese soldier leading a group of Chinese down the street, laden with stolen goods. While Chinese soldiers had also engaged in some looting during their evacuation of Nanjing, it was nothing compared to the scale of the Japanese victors' plunder. The Chinese forces had deliberately avoided breaking into foreign buildings, a distinction that the Japanese disregarded. The American, British, and German embassies, along with the ambassadors' residences, were ransacked, stripped of everything from bedding and money to watches, rugs, and artwork. The American School was looted, and its wall breached to remove the piano. As the Japanese stripped the city, they also began to burn it. While the winter sky could have been sparkling, it was instead filled with smoke from thousands of fires across the city. Some fires resulted from carelessness, such as when soldiers cooked meat from a stolen cow over a bonfire, accidentally igniting an ancient building. Others were acts of mindless vandalism. The Nanking Music Shop saw all its instruments and sheets piled in the street and set ablaze. The extent of the massacre can, to some degree, be linked to a breakdown in discipline among Japanese soldiers. Released from weeks or months of hardship on the battlefield, many soldiers experienced an intoxicating sense of freedom, resembling misbehaving boys. The deterioration of order among Japanese soldiers astonished those familiar with the stories of the stringent discipline within Japan's armed forces. Observers commented on soldiers laughing at proclamations from their own officers or tearing up orders and tossing them to the ground. Some foreign witnesses speculated that this lack of discipline was exacerbated by the absence of visible individual numbers on soldiers, making it challenging to identify wrongdoers. The issue also stemmed from the quality of the Japanese officer corps and their ability to manage a large army of young men, many of whom were experiencing freedom from societal constraints for the first time. Not all officers rose to the occasion; Vautrin witnessed an officer almost fail to prevent a soldier from raping a girl. Even worse, some officers transitioned from passive bystanders, guilty by inaction, to active participants in prolonged rape sessions. While a few attempted to instill discipline among their troops, their efforts often fell short. A Japanese colonel, for instance, slapped a soldier attempting to rape a Chinese woman. Another general was seen striking a private who had bayoneted a Chinese man and threatened two Germans, raising questions about how much of this discipline was merely performative for the benefit of foreign observers. Ultimately, disciplinary measures had little impact. As Rabe noted in his diary dated December 18th “The soldiers have almost no regard for their officers”. The absence of effective higher leadership during this critical period likely exacerbated the problem. General Matsui had been suffering from malaria since November 3, which left him largely incapacitated from December 5 to 15. A subordinate later testified that he had been informed of "incidents of stealing, killing, assault, and rape and had become quite enraged.” Although Matsui may have been displeased by the unruly behavior of his soldiers, it is conceivable that his inaction led to even greater levels of atrocity than might have occurred otherwise. He insisted on holding a victory parade on December 17, immediately after recovering from his illness, which likely triggered a security frenzy among Japanese officers concerned about the safety of Prince Asaka, uncle to Emperor Hirohito. This reaction likely prompted a surge in searches for, and executions of, suspected former Chinese soldiers. The Japanese high command in Tokyo was also aware of the unraveling discipline. On January 4, 1938, Army Headquarters sent Matsui an unusually direct message ordering him to restore control among his troops: Our old friend Ishiwara Kanji bitterly criticized the situation and placed the blame on Matsui “We earnestly request enhancement of military discipline and public morals. The morale of the Japanese had never been at a lower level.” A detachment of military police eventually arrived in Nanjing, leading to some improvements, though their presence was mixed. Some officers stationed outside the Safety Zone ignored atrocities occurring before them and, in some cases, participated directly. At Ginling College, the experience with military police was decidedly uneven. The first group of about 25 men tasked with guarding the college ended up committing rape themselves.  Despite frequent visits from Japanese soldiers in search of loot and victims to assault, the Safety Zone was perceived as successful. Many believed that both the zone and the work of its managing committee were responsible for saving countless lives. W. Plumer Mills, vice chairman of the committee, noted that the zone “did give some protection during the fighting…but the chief usefulness of the Zone has been the measure of protection it has afforded to the people since the occupation.” Shortly after the Japanese conquest, the population of the Safety Zone swelled to a quarter million people. Around 70,000 of these were organized into 25 pre-arranged camps, while the majority sought accommodation wherever possible. Makeshift “mat-shed villages” sprang up in vacant areas throughout the zone. Nanjing quickly became informally divided into two distinct cities. Outside the Safety Zone, the atmosphere was ghostly, with a population dwindling to around 10,000, while within the zone, bustling activity thrived. Shanghai Road, which ran through the center of the zone and had once been a wide boulevard, transformed into a hub of barter and trade, resembling a festive market during Chinese New Year, overflowing with makeshift stalls, tea shops, and restaurants, making it nearly impossible to traverse by vehicle. The Japanese held a degree of respect for Westerners, although this sentiment was not universal and did not always offer protection. Many foreigners tried to safeguard their homes by displaying their national flags outside, but they often found that Japanese soldiers would break in regardless. To protect Ginling College, American flags were displayed at eight locations around the compound, and a large 30-foot American flag was spread out in the center. However, this proved to be “of absolutely no use” in preventing Japanese soldiers from entering the area. Despite this, there was some limited outright hostility towards Americans. Stronger negative sentiments were directed towards the Russians and the British, who were viewed as representatives of nations with competing interests against the Japanese Empire. The Japanese displayed particular reverence for one nationality, the Germans. Rabe would shout “Deutsch” or “Hitler” to command respect from unruly Japanese soldiers or show them his swastika armband, indicating his allegiance to the Nazi Party. Germany was seen as a rising power and rapidly becoming one of Japan's closest allies, a fellow outcast in global politics. However, as time passed, the limits of this respect became evident; individual soldiers began searching for women within the German embassy compound, and eventually, nearly all German buildings were broken into. Despite all the challenges, there was no doubting that foreigners offered a form of protection unavailable elsewhere. Within days of the Japanese conquest, women and children began appearing in large numbers outside Rabe's home, kneeling and knocking their heads on the ground as they begged to be let into his already overcrowded garden.  At 1:00 pm on January 1, the Chinese were proclaimed rulers of their own city, or at least this is what Japanese propaganda sought to convey. On the first day of the new year, a puppet government was established in a ceremony held just north of the Safety Zone. A new five-bar flag, the one associated with the early Chinese republic was raised, signaling a patriotic spirit in a gesture that felt unconvincing. As the new leaders took office, vowing to resurrect their city, buildings burned all around them. The ceremony marked the culmination of two weeks of preparatory work. As early as December 15, General Matsui met with a local Chinese leader, referred to in the Japanese commander's diary only as Chen, who had been selected to assist in forming this new puppet government. Chen had been present in the northern port city of Tianjin two years earlier when Matsui helped establish the Chinese chapter of the Greater Asia Association. He subscribed to Matsui's concepts of “Asia for Asians,” but cautioned that Chinese fears of the Japanese would complicate the governance of the conquered territories.   The new government aligned with the Japanese army to implement a system of indoctrination centered on conservatism, primarily targeting the youth, who were perceived as most likely to resist. The indoctrination included messages like, “You must follow the old custom in marriage, letting your parents make arrangements for you. You must not go to theaters or study English, etc. China and Japan must become one, and then the nation will be strong.” Few were deceived by these attempts to win hearts and minds. The government-sanctioned newspaper, the Xinshengbao, or New Life Journal, was immediately dismissed as a crude vehicle for propaganda. Additionally, the government made minimal progress in more urgent tasks, such as restoring peacetime conditions and revitalizing Nanjing's economy, a challenge made formidable by Japanese brutality. Given the fate of the first group of volunteers at the electricity plant after the conquest, no one could be found to fill the needed 40 to 45 worker slots. The same was true for firefighters. The predictable outcomes followed. Water and limited power were restored to parts of the city by January 2, but within two days, the city was plunged back into darkness. By January 13, the waterworks were still non-operational, and the power supply remained intermittent while fires continued to blaze well into January. The government was not taken seriously, struggling even with the Japanese. It quickly built a reputation for being venal and corrupt. One of its names was the Nanjing Autonomous Government, which a clever member of the foreign community humorously rebranded as the “Automatic Government,” reflecting its actual role as a puppet regime devoid of autonomy.  While Nanjing endured its own nightmarish reality, the city's inhabitants had little understanding of the events transpiring beyond its walls. The first radio news that reached foreign residents came on January 7, reporting Japanese air raids on Wuhan. There were also unconfirmed rumors suggesting that Hangzhou was experiencing similar horrors to those in Nanjing, but details were scarce. It was perhaps expected that reports from afar would be limited in wartime, yet information about situations closer to Nanjing was similarly scarce, and the horrific truth gradually dawned on the city's populace. A Westerner who managed to escape east from Nanjing in early January reported that all villages within a 20-mile radius had been burned to the ground. Outside the city, Japanese soldiers were randomly shooting civilians, including children. A German who drove an hour from Nanjing encountered no living souls. After the conquest, Chinese who managed to leave Nanjing reported that every pond between the city and Juyong was filled with the decaying corpses of people and animals. Many of the atrocities committed during this time appeared to stem from boredom and a search for cheap thrills. American missionary Magee witnessed a young farmer who had sustained severe burns on his upper body. After the soldiers demanded money from him and he failed to comply, they doused him in kerosene and set him ablaze. Similarly, a young boy suffered horrific burns after he failed to lead a group of soldiers to his “mama.” People in the rural areas surrounding Nanjing faced danger from numerous directions. Not only were they potential targets for marauding Japanese soldiers, but they were also at risk from bands of Chinese outlaws, who preyed on the large influx of refugees on the roads and the few souls who remained at home despite the fierce conflict raging nearby. Magee encountered a 49-year-old woman whose home was invaded by bandits looking for money. “When she and her husband said they had none they battered her head and breast with a stool and burned her feet until she revealed their savings of between four and five dollars.” In the absence of a formal government, informal authority was often wielded by secret societies. For instance, the “Big Sword Society” reportedly offered protection not only against Japanese soldiers and local bandits but also against small groups of Chinese troops seeking to escape back to their lines and resorting to theft for survival. What a blast from the past eh?   Rumors began to circulate in early January 1938 that the Chinese Army was preparing to retake Nanjing and that Chiang Kai-shek's soldiers had already been spotted inside the city walls. Many of the small makeshift Japanese flags that had appeared outside private homes in mid-December suddenly vanished, and some Chinese residents who had been wearing Japanese armbands hastily removed them. There was even talk of launching an attack on the Japanese embassy. Word spread that the Japanese were becoming frightened and were searching for Chinese clothing to disguise themselves as civilians in the event of a retreat. In reality, none of this was true. The Chinese Army was still reorganizing after the costly campaign that had forced it from Shanghai to Nanjing and then further into the interior. However, this did not imply that the Japanese had achieved complete control over the city. After six weeks of terror, Nanjing began to reassert itself. Japanese soldiers faced fatalities and injuries in skirmishes with members of secret organizations like the “Yellow Spears” and the “Big Sword Society.”  After the New Year, the population within the Safety Zone began to dwindle. A week into 1938, the number of refugees at Ginling College, which had peaked at more than 10,000, fell to around 5,000. Less than a month after the conquest, many former residents started returning to their homes during the day and then coming back to the college at night. Still, the city was far from safe, and even for those whose homes were located within the Safety Zone, Vautrin believed it was unwise to stray too far from her refugee camp. One month after Japanese forces had surged through its gates, Nanjing was a thoroughly devastated city, with fires still being set every day and night. By mid-January, estimates suggested that more than half the city had been burned down, with the main shopping district completely gone, as well as the entertainment area surrounding the Confucius Temple. Nevertheless, slowly but surely, the shell-shocked city began to pull itself together and started the long process of renewal. Vautrin considered opening an industrial school offering four-month courses for women to help compensate for the loss of labor resulting from the indiscriminate killing of men. Chinese New Year fell on January 31, 1938. Celebrated throughout Asia, it was also recognized by the Japanese. It was a “dismal, muddy” day, and as many feared, soldiers who appeared “too happy” from excessive drinking attempted to enter the Safety Zone in search of women but were stopped. The sound of thousands of firecrackers filled the air, fulfilling the age-old purpose of scaring away evil spirits. Refugees in Rabe's compound presented him with a large red silk banner adorned with a gold Chinese inscription. His Chinese friends translated the message for him “You are the living Buddha For a hundred thousand people”. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. In December 1937, the battle for Nanjing left its residents in terror as the Japanese army advanced. Following the invasion, a horrific massacre began, with thousands targeted in brutal killings, torture, and humiliation. Civilians and soldiers alike were indiscriminately slain, and the Japanese military showed no mercy. To this day the Nanjing Massacre stands as a testament to the unbelievable evil man holds within him.

In this episode, The Explaining History Podcast explores the dark and complex evolution of genocide during the Second World War. Drawing on the foundational research of Nikolaus Wachsmann in his seminal work, "KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps," and the broader "functionalist" school of historical thought, this episode traces the path to the Holocaust.The discussion will move away from a simplistic view of a pre-meditated plan for mass extermination and instead delve into the radicalization of Nazi policy over time. Listeners will learn how the concentration camp system, initially designed for political opponents, horrifically transformed into a network of death camps. The episode will examine the key turning points and bureaucratic momentums that led to the "Final Solution," highlighting how a series of escalating decisions and the brutalizing logic of the war itself culminated in the systematic murder of millions.Join us as we unpack the complex and often chillingly rational processes that led to the unimaginable, providing a nuanced and deeply researched perspective of one of the Holocaust's key moments of radicalisation.Go Deeper: Visit our website at www.explaininghistory.org for articles and detailed explorations of the topics discussed.▸ Join the Conversation: Our community of history enthusiasts discusses episodes, shares ideas, and continues the conversation. Find us on:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ExplainingHistoryPodcast/Substack: https://theexplaininghistorypodcast.substack.com/▸ Support the Podcast: Explaining History is a listener-supported production. Your contribution helps us cover the costs of research and keep these conversations going. You can support the show and get access to exclusive content by becoming a patron.Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/explaininghistoryExplaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share.▸ Support the Show & Get Exclusive ContentBecome a Patron: patreon.com/explaininghistory▸ Join the Community & Continue the ConversationFacebook Group: facebook.com/groups/ExplainingHistoryPodcastSubstack: theexplaininghistorypodcast.substack.com▸ Read Articles & Go DeeperWebsite: explaininghistory.org Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Anlässlich des 80. Jahrestags der Befreiung Europas vom Nationalsozialismus erstrahlen im Mai 2025 in London, an den legendären großen Screens am Piccadilly Circus, Porträts von sieben Veteranen des zweiten Weltkriegs. Autorin: Larissa Schmitz Von WDR 5.

Born in Amsterdam in 1946, Professor Shulamit Reinharz grew up amid the lingering shadows of wartime trauma, an experience that shaped her later academic path and her role in the creation of the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute. With Hiding in Holland: A Resistance Memoir (Amsterdam Publishers, 2024), she has crafted a unique form of Holocaust memoir, describing it as a “piano duet” between her father's extensive writings and her own historical commentary. The result is a careful interplay between memory and historical verification. The interview also explored Reinhart's research in Gunzenhausen, the Bavarian town where her father's story began before he was forced into exile. Today, with no Jewish residents since 1939, Gunzenhausen has become a setting for remembrance projects that Reinhart has actively supported. She spoke of Emmy Hetzner, a retired teacher who initiated a project with her ninth-grade students to research the town's Jewish history, resulting in a comprehensive online archive. Reinhart's own involvement with a German-Jewish Dialogue Group has led to symbolic but important acts of reconciliation, such as proposals to mark Jewish names on war memorials with Magen Davids, recovering neglected synagogue stones, and supporting a tree-planting initiative where one tree is dedicated to each Jewish family whose descendants have returned. Central to Hiding are the interwoven themes of love, education, and hiding. Reinharz recounted how her father's independence on a Dutch farm enabled him to master the language and build trust with locals. Later, in Amsterdam, he honed useful skills as an auto mechanic, participated in resistance activities, and nurtured enduring bonds. His relationship with Reinharz's mother, which began in a Zionist youth group in Munich, sustained them despite being separated during periods of hiding. Their commitment to one another was paralleled by friendships with individuals like Laura Dorlacher and the Schroden couple, recognized as Righteous Gentiles, who risked everything to protect him. Reinharz also reflected on the role of education during the Nazi era, describing how teachers indoctrinated students into antisemitic ideology, extending propaganda beyond the classroom into public rituals and community life. In this way, education became an instrument of hatred, embedding prejudice in young generations. As the conversation concluded, Reinharz turned to her next project, which will tell her mother's story as a two-time refugee. Unlike Hiding in Holland, which is built on her father's testimony, the new work will examine her mother's displacements across Germany, Holland, and the United States, offering a gendered perspective within Holocaust studies. The exchange illuminated how Reinharz's scholarship bridges her roles as academic, daughter, and custodian of memory. Hiding in Holland, already a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award in Holocaust memoirs, stands as both a historical document and a meditation on love, friendship, resilience, and the responsibility to preserve stories across generations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Born in Amsterdam in 1946, Professor Shulamit Reinharz grew up amid the lingering shadows of wartime trauma, an experience that shaped her later academic path and her role in the creation of the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute. With Hiding in Holland: A Resistance Memoir (Amsterdam Publishers, 2024), she has crafted a unique form of Holocaust memoir, describing it as a “piano duet” between her father's extensive writings and her own historical commentary. The result is a careful interplay between memory and historical verification. The interview also explored Reinhart's research in Gunzenhausen, the Bavarian town where her father's story began before he was forced into exile. Today, with no Jewish residents since 1939, Gunzenhausen has become a setting for remembrance projects that Reinhart has actively supported. She spoke of Emmy Hetzner, a retired teacher who initiated a project with her ninth-grade students to research the town's Jewish history, resulting in a comprehensive online archive. Reinhart's own involvement with a German-Jewish Dialogue Group has led to symbolic but important acts of reconciliation, such as proposals to mark Jewish names on war memorials with Magen Davids, recovering neglected synagogue stones, and supporting a tree-planting initiative where one tree is dedicated to each Jewish family whose descendants have returned. Central to Hiding are the interwoven themes of love, education, and hiding. Reinharz recounted how her father's independence on a Dutch farm enabled him to master the language and build trust with locals. Later, in Amsterdam, he honed useful skills as an auto mechanic, participated in resistance activities, and nurtured enduring bonds. His relationship with Reinharz's mother, which began in a Zionist youth group in Munich, sustained them despite being separated during periods of hiding. Their commitment to one another was paralleled by friendships with individuals like Laura Dorlacher and the Schroden couple, recognized as Righteous Gentiles, who risked everything to protect him. Reinharz also reflected on the role of education during the Nazi era, describing how teachers indoctrinated students into antisemitic ideology, extending propaganda beyond the classroom into public rituals and community life. In this way, education became an instrument of hatred, embedding prejudice in young generations. As the conversation concluded, Reinharz turned to her next project, which will tell her mother's story as a two-time refugee. Unlike Hiding in Holland, which is built on her father's testimony, the new work will examine her mother's displacements across Germany, Holland, and the United States, offering a gendered perspective within Holocaust studies. The exchange illuminated how Reinharz's scholarship bridges her roles as academic, daughter, and custodian of memory. Hiding in Holland, already a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award in Holocaust memoirs, stands as both a historical document and a meditation on love, friendship, resilience, and the responsibility to preserve stories across generations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/jewish-studies

The annual Holocaust remembrance of the Romanian Jewish community in Israel (AMIR) held at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem earlier this month centered on the tragedy of Romanian Jews deported to Transnistria during the Second World War. Ahead of the September 17 event, Romania's ambassador to Israel, Dr. Radu Ioanid, a Holocaust scholar formerly with the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, spoke with KAN reporter Naomi Segal. (Photo: Courtesy)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Born in Amsterdam in 1946, Professor Shulamit Reinharz grew up amid the lingering shadows of wartime trauma, an experience that shaped her later academic path and her role in the creation of the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute. With Hiding in Holland: A Resistance Memoir (Amsterdam Publishers, 2024), she has crafted a unique form of Holocaust memoir, describing it as a “piano duet” between her father's extensive writings and her own historical commentary. The result is a careful interplay between memory and historical verification. The interview also explored Reinhart's research in Gunzenhausen, the Bavarian town where her father's story began before he was forced into exile. Today, with no Jewish residents since 1939, Gunzenhausen has become a setting for remembrance projects that Reinhart has actively supported. She spoke of Emmy Hetzner, a retired teacher who initiated a project with her ninth-grade students to research the town's Jewish history, resulting in a comprehensive online archive. Reinhart's own involvement with a German-Jewish Dialogue Group has led to symbolic but important acts of reconciliation, such as proposals to mark Jewish names on war memorials with Magen Davids, recovering neglected synagogue stones, and supporting a tree-planting initiative where one tree is dedicated to each Jewish family whose descendants have returned. Central to Hiding are the interwoven themes of love, education, and hiding. Reinharz recounted how her father's independence on a Dutch farm enabled him to master the language and build trust with locals. Later, in Amsterdam, he honed useful skills as an auto mechanic, participated in resistance activities, and nurtured enduring bonds. His relationship with Reinharz's mother, which began in a Zionist youth group in Munich, sustained them despite being separated during periods of hiding. Their commitment to one another was paralleled by friendships with individuals like Laura Dorlacher and the Schroden couple, recognized as Righteous Gentiles, who risked everything to protect him. Reinharz also reflected on the role of education during the Nazi era, describing how teachers indoctrinated students into antisemitic ideology, extending propaganda beyond the classroom into public rituals and community life. In this way, education became an instrument of hatred, embedding prejudice in young generations. As the conversation concluded, Reinharz turned to her next project, which will tell her mother's story as a two-time refugee. Unlike Hiding in Holland, which is built on her father's testimony, the new work will examine her mother's displacements across Germany, Holland, and the United States, offering a gendered perspective within Holocaust studies. The exchange illuminated how Reinharz's scholarship bridges her roles as academic, daughter, and custodian of memory. Hiding in Holland, already a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award in Holocaust memoirs, stands as both a historical document and a meditation on love, friendship, resilience, and the responsibility to preserve stories across generations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/biography

Paul Lendvai verkörpert den Journalismus wie kaum ein anderer. Auch mit 96 Jahren schreibt er noch regelmässig Kolumnen für die österreichische Tageszeitung «Der Standard». Gleichzeitig ist er als Holocaustüberlebender und Opfer des Stalinismus Zeitzeuge der dunkelsten Phase des 20. Jahrhunderts. Paul Lendvais Geschichte ist so aussergewöhnlich wie beispielhaft. 1929 in Budapest als Sohn jüdischer Eltern geboren, erlebt er den institutionalisierten Antisemitismus der ungarischen Horthy-Jahre. 1944 wird er verschleppt und auf einen der sogenannte Todesmärsche geschickt, auf denen die ungarischen Juden in die österreichischen KZs gebracht wurden. Mit viel Glück gelingt ihm die Flucht, doch die Verfolgung hört nicht auf. Als junger Journalist im mittlerweile kommunistischen Ungarn gerät er in die Mühlen des Stalinismus und wird interniert. Erst nach dem Aufstand von 1956 und dessen Niederschlagung durch sowjetische Truppen gelingt ihm die Flucht nach Wien und damit der Start in ein neues Leben. Von seinen dunklen Jahren und dem Glück der Befreiung, von seiner Ankunft in Wien und seiner beispiellosen Karriere als Journalist, von seinem Kampf für Demokratie und seinem Engagement für Meinungsfreiheit, von seiner Abscheu gegen Antisemitismus und seinem Ärger über die derzeitige israelische Regierung und natürlich von seinem intensiven Bezug zur Musik erzählt der 96-jährige kerngesunde Paul Lendvai im Gespräch mit Michael Luisier. Die Musiktitel: 1. Richard Strauss – Der Rosenkavalier: «Die Zeit, die ist ein sonderbar Ding» Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, Amsterdam / Marc Albrecht, Dirigent / Camilla Nylund, Sopran 2. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Don Giovanni: Arie (Leporello). Madamina, il catalogo è questo Mahler Chamber Orchestra / Luca Pisaroni, Bass / Yannick Nézet Séquin, Dirigent 3. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Così fan tutte: Ouvertüre (Andante) Scottish Chamber Orchestra / Sir Charles Mackerras, Dirigent 4. Kurt Weill – Die Dreigroschen Oper – «Die Moritat von Meckie-Messer» Roger Bean und sein Orchester / Lotte Lenya, Gesang 5. Gustav Mahler – Das Lied von der Erde: Der Abschied Philharmonia Orchestra / New Philharmonia Orchestra / Christa Ludwig, Mezzosopran / Fritz Wunderlich, Tenor / Otto Klemperer, Dirigent

Ralph interviews New York Times reporter, David Gelles, about his new book, “Dirtbag Billionaire: How Yvon Chouinard Built Patagonia, Made a Fortune, and Gave It All Away.” Then, we welcome back former IRS commissioner, John Koskinen, to update us on how the Trump Administration is dismantling the IRS and stealing your personal information.David Gelles is a reporter on the New York Times climate team and he leads the Times's “Climate Forward” newsletter and events series. He is the author of The Man Who Broke Capitalism: How Jack Welch Gutted the Heartland and Crushed the Soul of Corporate America—and How to Undo His Legacy, and his new book is Dirtbag Billionaire: How Yvon Chouinard Built Patagonia, Made a Fortune, and Gave It All Away.He [Yvon Chouinard] saw Patagonia as a role model for other corporations and believed that by running Patagonia in a different way, he could show that capitalism just didn't have to suck so much.David GellesThere's a paradox that runs through the pages of Dirtbag Billionaire and it's never fully resolved…It's the fact that Chouinard is an environmentalist who wants to reduce the impact of mankind on planet earth, and yet he runs a big, complicated clothing company that is taking a toll on the environment that he's trying to protect. He runs a company that in theory, he says, and in practice is largely doing, the work of funding grassroots activists and environmental conservation. But he's doing it by participating in the very capitalist system that is responsible for so much of the damage to our natural world. And the list goes on. These contradictions are what really has animated Chouinard and his executive team for all these years. They understand their own perfections. But unlike most, they are willing to really examine their own failings, to look it square in the eye, straight in the mirror, and try to figure out how to make things better.David GellesChouinard being a “dirtbag” is something he always identified as and he still does at a certain level. The great insult in his mind is being called a “billionaire.”David GellesJohn Koskinen served as the IRS Commissioner from 2013 to 2017.Lobbyists and corporations are very good at making sure that [tax advantages] always stayed. You never hear too often of tax advantages taken out of the code, what everybody argues about as new ones being put into the code.John KoskinenThese (IRS workers) are very skilled people who in fact have given up the opportunity to make two or three times more money in the private sector because they believe in public service.John KoskinenNews 9/19/25* Just weeks after David Ellison's Skydance Media completed their $8 billion takeover of Paramount Global, Ellison is setting his sights even higher – a proposed $70 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, Variety reports. If this deal proceeds, it would mean that Ellison would control CNN in addition to CBS news, the latter of which he seemingly plans to place under the supervision of “anti-woke” arch-zionist media personality Bari Weiss. While true that cable news does not possess nearly as much clout as it did just a few years ago, this would represent a nearly unprecedented consolidation in that sector. Ellison and his lieutenants would wield a tremendous amount of influence in the media, which would translate to real impacts on the political process. It remains to be seen whether the Trump administration media regulators will take any action to block this deal. Based on their actions so far, it seems unlikely.* In more media news, ABC has indefinitely suspended Jimmy Kimmel Live!, which the comedian has hosted since 2003, after he criticized Trump and his allies for “capitaliz[ing]” on the murder of Charlie Kirk to score political points, CNN reports. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr threatened action up to and including revoking the broadcast license for ABC, which airs the program, or possibly blocking their merger with Nexstar. While Rolling Stone reports multiple executives at ABC and its parent company Disney, felt that Kimmel “had not actually said anything over the line,” they folded immediately under the threat of retaliation by the administration. This move represents a major contradiction of Carr's previously stated belief that “[the FCC] must dismantle the censorship cartel and restore free speech rights for everyday Americans.” Democrats are incensed at this attack on free speech, Congressman Ro Khanna is seeking to subpoena Carr to testify to the House Oversight Committee. Trump, feeling confident after claiming the scalp of both Kimmel and Colbert – two outspoken critics – is now calling for NBC to remove Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers, via Truth Social. Variety reports conservative media conglomerate Sinclair will “replace the Friday timeslot of ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!' with a Charlie Kirk tribute special on its ABC affiliate stations — and is offering the special to all other ABC stations across the country.”* Regarding social media, the Wall Street Journal reports that the U.S. and China are nearing a deal on control of TikTok, under a framework in which “an investor consortium including Oracle... Silver Lake and Andreessen Horowitz” would acquire an 80% stake. Oracle is of course run by David Ellison's father, Larry Ellison, one of the richest men in the world, while Andreessen Horowitz is the venture capital firm of Trump ally Marc Andreessen. Silver Lake is another Silicon Valley private equity firm. This deal would finally put an end to the nebulous legal limbo created by Congress passing the TikTok ban and Trump refusing to enforce it. According to this report, the new company that would be created to run TikTok in America, “would also have an American-dominated board with one member designated by the U.S. government.”* The administration is seeking to shore up support in corporate America in other ways too. Trump has renewed his 2018 push to eliminate the reports businesses are mandated to issue on a quarterly basis, moving to a biannual reporting system. Trump argues that this shift would “cut costs and discourage shortsightedness on the part of publicly traded companies.” Others however believe that this change could be harmful to the economy, making companies less transparent and therefore increasing potential investor risk. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said it is “making Trump's proposal a priority.” This from Reuters.* More troubling signs are emerging in the U.S economy. Per Bloomberg, “Consumers in the top 10% of the income distribution accounted for 49.2% of total spending,” in the second quarter of 2025. This is the highest percentage of consumer spending accounted for by that demographic going back to 1989, according to an analysis of the Federal Reserve's Financial Accounts and Survey of Consumer Finance data conducted by Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody's. Chandan Economics reports a spike in late rent payments in August, suggesting stress in the “financial health of renter households,” while for homeowners, Polymarket reports that even more people are searching "help with mortgage" on Google than during the 2008 housing crisis. This comes as only 1.3 million home building permits were issued in August, the lowest level since the Spring of 2020, according to economist and Washington Post columnist Heather Long. Taken together, this data paints a picture of an economy flailing, and kept afloat only by the very rich.* Speaking of the very rich, the first American Pope, Leo the XIV, condemned the precipitous rise in CEO pay compared to their employees. Leo remarked that CEOs now make “600 times more than what average workers are receiving," adding "What does that mean…If [money] is the only thing that has value anymore, then we're in big trouble." Specifically, Leo was referring to the proposed new compensation package for Tesla CEO Elon Musk, which could turn the billionaire into a trillionaire. This from Yahoo! Finance. Senator Bernie Sanders echoed this sentiment, writing “The Pope is exactly right. No society can survive when one man becomes a trillionaire while the vast majority struggle to just survive — trying to put food on the table, pay rent and afford health care. We can and must do better.”* Turning to Israel and Gaza, AP reports Jerry Greenfield of Ben & Jerry's is resigning from the company after 47 years. In a letter, Jerry explains that he could not “in good conscience” remain at Ben & Jerry's because their parent company – the British conglomerate Unilever – has been constraining his ability to advocate against the genocide in Gaza. Jerry writes “For more than 20 years under their ownership, Ben & Jerry's stood up and spoke out in support of peace, justice and human rights, not as abstract concepts, but in relation to real events happening in our world…It's profoundly disappointing to come to the conclusion that that independence, the very basis of our sale to Unilever, is gone.” This is the largest, but by no means only, rupture between Ben & Jerry's and Unilever; this report notes “In March Ben & Jerry's said that its CEO was unlawfully removed by Unilever in retaliation for the ice cream maker's social and political activism.” However, as Greenfield's departure illustrates, the founders have little recourse besides their public platform and resignation.* In a sign of Israel's waning influence in the Democratic Party, POLITICO reports Democratic public affairs “megafirm” SKDK has ended their $600,000 contract with the state of Israel which was supposed to run from April 2025 through March 2026. The firm's recent focus had been “pitching guests for news shows to hear Israel's side of the war in Gaza.” The firm has been tight-lipped on this decision, saying only the work “had run its course.” Yet, this decision comes directly on the heels of reporting that Stagwell, the parent company of SKDK, was involved in “setting up a bot program ‘to amplify pro-Israel narratives on Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, YouTube, and other platforms,'” as revealed in a Foreign Agents Registration Act filing.* On Wednesday, Senator Bernie Sanders crossed a major rhetorical rubicon, labeling Israel's actions in Gaza a “genocide.” In an op-ed appropriate titled “It Is Genocide,” Sanders cites the casualty totals – noting that “The full toll is likely much higher, with many thousands of bodies buried under the rubble” – along with the Israeli blockade on the enclave and their systematic destruction of Gaza's infrastructure, including hospitals, water and sanitation facilities and schools. Sanders also cites the genocidal intent expressed by Israeli leaders, through quotes like “the Gaza Strip should be flattened, and there should be one sentence for everyone there — death. We have to wipe the Gaza Strip off the map. There are no innocents there.” Sanders concludes this piece by warning that if the world fails to act, as during the Holocaust, Netanyahu and other “demagogues” will feel emboldened. History, Sanders writes “demands that the world act with one voice to say: enough is enough. No more genocide.” After Sanders' announcement, Vermont Congresswoman Becca Balint came out with her own statement accepting the genocide label. Zeteo reports a total of 20 members of Congress now say Israel is committing genocide.* Finally, to end on a positive note, on Monday the House passed the bipartisan Mental Health in Aviation Act, which seeks to “break down…barriers and support the mental health of our aviation workforce by changing the current rules which prevent aviation professionals from seeking mental health care by imposing unfair penalties on those who do,” according to a press release by the bill's Republican sponsor Pete Stauber. A press release from the Democratic sponsor, Sean Casten, reads “Aviators should not be unfairly penalized for seeking mental health care…The current system perpetuates a culture of silence, and it's past time that changes.” Some observers have attributed some credit for the passage of this bill to the comedian Nathan Fielder's series The Rehearsal, the latest season of which dealt extensively with the issue of aviators' mental health. While congressional staff have downplayed the show's influence, it seems hard to deny that at the very least it raised the profile of this pressing issue. Either way, hopefully this bill will make it safer to fly by removing the stigma from pilots seeking mental healthcare. Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Tune into the fourth installment of AJC's latest limited podcast series, Architects of Peace. Go behind the scenes of the decades-long diplomacy and quiet negotiations that made the Abraham Accords possible, bringing Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and later Morocco, together in historic peace agreements.  From cockpits to kitchens to concert halls, the Abraham Accords are inspiring unexpected partnerships. In the fourth episode of AJC's limited series, four “partners of peace” share how these historic agreements are reshaping their lives and work. Hear from El Mehdi Boudra of the Mimouna Association on building people-to-people ties; producer Gili Masami on creating a groundbreaking Israeli–Emirati song; pilot Karim Taissir on flying between Casablanca and Tel Aviv while leading Symphionette, a Moroccan orchestra celebrating Andalusian music; and chef Gal Ben Moshe, the first Israeli chef to ever cook in Dubai on his dream of opening a restaurant in the UAE. *The views and opinions expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views or position of AJC.  Episode lineup: El Mehdi Boudra (4:00) Gili Masami (11:10) Karim Taissir (16:14) Gal Ben Moshe (21:59) Read the transcript: https://www.ajc.org/news/podcast/partners-of-peace-architects-of-peace-episode-4 Resources: AJC.org/ArchitectsofPeace - Tune in weekly for new episodes. The Abraham Accords, Explained AJC.org/CNME - Find more on AJC's Center for a New Middle East Listen – AJC Podcasts: The Forgotten Exodus  People of the Pod Follow Architects of Peace on your favorite podcast app, and learn more at AJC.org/ArchitectsofPeace You can reach us at: podcasts@ajc.org If you've appreciated this episode, please be sure to tell your friends, and rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Transcript: El Mehdi Boudra: All the stereotypes started like getting out and people want to meet with the other. They wanted to discover the beauty of the diversity of Israel. And this is unique in the region, where you have Arabs Muslims, Arab Christians, Druze, Beta Yisrael, Ashkenazi, Sephardic Jews, Jews from India, from all over the world. This beauty of diversity in Israel is very unique for our region. Manya Brachear Pashman: In September 2020, the world saw what had been years – decades – in the making: landmark peace agreements dubbed the Abraham Accords – normalizing relations between Israel and two Arabian Gulf states, the United Arab Emirates and the Kingdom of Bahrain. Later, in December, they were joined by the Kingdom of Morocco.  Five years later, AJC is pulling back the curtain to meet key individuals who built the trust that led to these breakthroughs and turning the spotlight on some of the results. Introducing: the Architects of Peace. ILTV correspondent: Well, hello, shalom, salaam. For the first time since the historic normalization deal between Israel and the UAE, an Israeli and an Emirati have teamed up to make music. [Ahlan Bik plays] The signs have been everywhere. On stages in Jerusalem and in recording studios in Abu Dhabi. [Camera sounds]. On a catwalk in Tel Aviv during Fashion Week and on the covers of Israeli and Arab magazines. [Kitchen sounds]. In the kitchens of gourmet restaurants where Israeli and Emirati chefs exchanged recipes. Just days after the announcement of the Abraham Accords, Emirati ruler Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan formally ended the UAE's nearly 50-year boycott of Israel. Though commerce and cooperation had taken place between the countries under the radar for years, the boycott's official end transformed the fields of water, renewable energy, health, cybersecurity, and tourism.  In 2023, Israel and the UAE signed a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) to advance economic cooperation, and by 2024, commerce between the UAE and Israel grew to $3.2 billion. Trade between Bahrain and Israel surged 740% in one year. As one of the world's most water-stressed countries, Bahrain's Electrical and Water Authority signed an agreement to acquire water desalination technology from Israel's national water company [Mekorot].  Signs of collaboration between Israeli and Arab artists also began to emerge. It was as if a creative energy had been unlocked and a longing to collaborate finally had the freedom to fly. [Airplane take off sounds]. And by the way, people had the freedom to fly too, as commercial airlines sent jets back and forth between Tel Aviv, Casablanca, Abu Dhabi, and Manama.  A gigantic step forward for countries that once did not allow long distance calls to Israel, let alone vacations to the Jewish state. At long last, Israelis, Moroccans, Emiratis, and Bahrainis could finally satisfy their curiosity about one another. This episode features excerpts from four conversations. Not with diplomats or high-level senior officials, but ordinary citizens from the region who have seized opportunities made possible by the Abraham Accords to pursue unprecedented partnerships. For El Medhi Boudra, the Abraham Accords were a dream come true.  As a Muslim college student in 2007 at Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane, Morocco, he founded a group dedicated to preserving and teaching the Jewish heritage of his North African home. El Mehdi knew fostering conversations and friendships would be the only way to counter stereotypes and foster a genuine appreciation for all of Morocco's history, including its once-thriving Jewish community of more than 100,000. Five years later, El Mehdi's efforts flourished into a nonprofit called Mimouna, the name of a Moroccan tradition that falls on the day after Passover, when Jewish and Muslim families gather at each other's homes to enjoy cakes and sweets and celebrate the end of the Passover prohibitions. Together.   El Mehdi Boudra: Our work started in the campus to fill this gap between the old generation who talk with nostalgia about Moroccan Jews, and the young generation who don't know nothing about Moroccan Judaism. Then, in the beginning, we focused only on the preservation and educating and the promotion of Jewish heritage within campuses in Morocco. In 2011, we decided to organize the first conference on the Holocaust in the Arab world. Manya Brachear Pashman: So did the Abraham Accords make any difference in the work you were already doing? I mean, I know Mimouna was already a longtime partner with AJC.  El Mehdi Boudra: With Abraham Accords, we thought bigger. We brought young professionals from Morocco and Israel to work together in certain sectors on challenges that our regions are overcoming. Like environment, climate change, water scarcity and innovation, and bring the best minds that we have in Morocco and in Israel to work together. But we included also other participants from Emirates and Bahrain. This was the first one that we started with.  The second was with AJC. We invited also young professionals from United States and France, which was an opportunity to work globally. Because today, we cannot work alone. We need to borrow power from each other. If we have the same vision and the same values, we need to work together.  In Morocco, we say: one hand don't clap. We need both hands. And this is the strategy that we have been doing with AJC, to bring all the partners to make sure that we can succeed in this mission.  We had another people-to-people initiative. This one is with university students. It's called Youth for MENA. It's with an Israeli organization called Noar. And we try to take advantage of the Abraham Accords to make our work visible, impactful, to make the circle much bigger. Israel is a country that is part of this region. And we can have, Israel can offer good things to our region. It can fight against the challenges that we have in our region. And an Israeli is like an Iraqi. We can work all together and try to build a better future for our region at the end of the day. Manya Brachear Pashman: El Mehdi, when you started this initiative did you encounter pushback from other Moroccans? I mean, I understand the Accords lifted some of the restrictions and opened doors, but did it do anything to change attitudes? Or are there detractors still, to the same degree? El Mehdi Boudra: Before the Abraham Accords, it was more challenging to preserve Moroccan Jewish heritage in Morocco. It was easier. To educate about Holocaust. It was also OK. But to do activities with civil society in Israel, it was very challenging. Because, first of all, there is no embassies or offices between Morocco. Then to travel, there is no direct flights.  There is the stereotypes that people have about you going to Israel. With Abraham Accords, we could do that very freely. Everyone was going to Israel, and more than that, there was becoming like a tendency to go to Israel.  Moroccans, they started wanting to spend their vacation in Tel Aviv. They were asking us as an organization. We told them, we are not a tour guide, but we can help you. They wanted to travel to discover the country.  All the stereotypes started like getting out and people want to meet with other. They wanted to discover the beauty of the diversity of Israel. And this is unique in the region where you have  Arab Muslims, Arab Christians, Druze, Beta Israel, Ashkenazi, Sephardic Jews, Jews from India, from all over the world. This beauty of diversity in Israel is very unique for our region.  And it's not granted in this modern time, as you can see in the region. You can see what happened in Iraq, what's happening in Syria, for minorities. Then you know, this gave us hope, and we need this hope in these dark times. Manya Brachear Pashman: Hm, what do you mean? How does Israel's diversity provide hope for the rest of the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region?  El Mehdi Boudra: Since the MENA region lost its diversity, we lost a lot. It's not the Christians or the Yazidis or the Jews who left the MENA region who are in bad shape. It's the people of the MENA region who are in bad shape because those people, they immigrated to U.S., to Sweden, they have better lives. But who lost is those countries.  Then us as the majority Muslims in the region, we should reach out to those minorities. We should work closely today with all countries, including Israel, to build a better future for our region. There is no choice. And we should do it very soon, because nothing is granted in life.  And we should take this opportunity of the Abraham Accords as a real opportunity for everyone. It's not an opportunity for Israel or the people who want to have relation with Israel. It's an opportunity for everyone, from Yemen to Morocco. Manya Brachear Pashman: Morocco has had diplomatic relations with Israel in the past, right? Did you worry or do you still worry that the Abraham Accords will fall apart as a result of the Israel Hamas War? El Mehdi Boudra: Yes, yes, to tell you the truth, yes. After the 7th of October and things were going worse and worse. We said, the war will finish and it didn't finish. And I thought that probably with the tensions, the protest, will cut again the relations. But Morocco didn't cut those relations. Morocco strengthened those relations with Israel, and also spoke about the Palestinians' cause in the same time.  Which I'm really proud of my government's decisions to not cut those relations, and we hope to strengthen those relations, because now they are not going in a fast dynamic. We want to go back to the first time when things were going very fastly. When United States signed with the Emirates and Bahrain in September 2020, I was hoping that Morocco will be the first, because Morocco had strong relations with Israel. We had direct relations in the 90s and we cut those relations after the Second Intifada in 2000.  We lost those 21 years. But it's not [too] late now. We are working. The 7th of October happened. Morocco is still having relations with Israel. We are still having the Moroccan government and the Israeli government having strong relations together.  Of course, initiatives to people-to-people are less active because of the war. But you know, the war will finish very soon, we hope, and the hostages will go back to their homes, Inshallah, and we will get back to our lives. And this is the time for us as civil society to do stronger work and to make sure that we didn't lose those two years. [Ahlan Bik plays] Manya Brachear Pashman: Just weeks after the White House signing ceremony on September 15, 2020, Israeli music producer Gili Masami posted a music video on YouTube. The video featured a duet between a former winner of Israel's version of The Voice, Elkana Marziano, and Emirati singer Walid Aljasim.  The song's title? Ahlan Bik, an Arabic greeting translated as “Hello, Friend.” In under three weeks, the video had garnered more than 1.1 million views. Gili Masami: When I saw Bibi Netanyahu and Trump sign this contract, the Abraham Accords, I said, ‘Wow!' Because always my dream was to fly to Dubai. And when I saw this, I said, ‘Oh, this is the time to make some project that I already know how to do.' So I thought to make the first historic collaboration between an Israeli singer and an Emirati singer.  We find this production company, and they say, OK. We did this historic collaboration. And the first thing it was that I invite the Emirati people to Israel. They came here. I take them to visit Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and then I get a call to meet in Gitix Technology Week in the World Trade Center in Dubai. Manya Brachear Pashman: Gitix. That's the Gulf Information Technology Exhibition, one of the world's largest annual tech summits, which met in Dubai that year and invited an Israeli delegation for the first time. Gili Masami: They tell me. ‘Listen, your song, it was big in 200 countries, cover worldwide. We want you to make this show.' I said, OK. We came to Dubai, and then we understand that the production company is the family of Mohammed bin Zayed al Nayhan, the president of UAE. And now we understand why they agree.  The brother of Muhammad bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Sheik Issa Ben Zahid Al Nahyan, he had this production company. This singer, it's his singer. And we say, ‘Wow, we get to this so high level, with the government of Dubai.' And then all the doors opened in Dubai.  And then it was the Corona. 200 countries around the world cover this story but we can't do shows because this Corona issue, but we still did it first. Manya Brachear Pashman: The song Ahlan Bik translates to “Hello, Friend.” It was written by Israeli songwriter Doron Medalie. Can you tell our listeners what it's about? Gili Masami: The song Ahlan Bik, it's this song speak about Ibrihim. Because if we go to the Bible, they are cousins. They are cousins. And you know, because of that, we call this Abraham Accords, because of Avraham. And they are sons of Ishmael. Yishmael. And we are sons of Jacob.  So because of that, we are from back in the days. And this is the real cousins. Saudi Arabia, UAE, Morocco. They are the real ones. And this song speak about this connection. Manya Brachear Pashman: After Morocco joined the Abraham Accords, you also put together a collaboration between Elkana and Moroccan singer Sanaa Mohamed. But your connection to UAE continued. You actually moved to Dubai for a year and opened a production company there. I know you're back in Israel now, but have you kept in touch with people there?   Gili Masami: I have a lot of friends in UAE. A lot of friends. I have a production company in UAE too. But every time we have these problems with this war, so we can do nothing. I was taking a lot of groups to Dubai, making tours, parties, shows, and all this stuff, because this war. So we're still friends.  Manya Brachear Pashman: Given this war, do you ever go back and listen to the song Ahlan Bik for inspiration, for hope?  Gili Masami: I don't look about the thinking that way. These things. I know what I did, and this is enough for me. I did history. This is enough for me. I did [a] good thing. This is enough for me. I did the first collaboration, and this is enough for me. Manya Brachear Pashman: Moroccan pilot and music aficionado Karim Taissir also knows the power of music. In 2016, he reached out to Tom Cohen, the founder and conductor of the Jerusalem Orchestra East & West and invited him to Morocco to conduct Symphonyat, an orchestra of 40 musicians from around the world playing Jewish and Arab music from Morocco's past that often has been neglected.  Karim Taissir: In 2015 I contacted Tom via Facebook because of a story happening in Vietnam. I was in a bar. And this bar, the owner, tried to connect with people. And the concept was a YouTube session connected on the speaker of the bar, and they asked people to put some music on from their countries. So when he asked me, I put something played by Tom [Cohen], it was Moroccan music played by the orchestra of Tom. And people said, ‘Wow.'  And I felt the impact of the music, in terms of even, like the ambassador role. So that gave me the idea. Back in Morocco, I contacted him. I told him, ‘Listen, you are doing great music, especially when it comes to Moroccan music, but I want to do it in Morocco. So are you ready to collaborate? And you should tell me, what do you need to create an orchestra that do this, this excellency of music?'  And I don't know why he replied to my message, because, usually he got lots of message from people all over the world, but it was like that. So from that time, I start to look of musician, of all conditions, asked by Tom, and in 2016 in April, we did one week of rehearsals. This was a residence of musician in Casablanca by Royal Foundation Hiba. And this is how it starts. And from that time, we tried every year to organize concerts. Sometimes we succeed, and sometimes not. Manya Brachear Pashman: I asked this of El Mehdi too, since you were already doing this kind of bridge building Karim, did the Abraham Accords change anything for you? Karim Taissir: In ‘22 we did the great collaboration. It was a fusion between the two orchestras, under the conductor Tom Cohen in Timna desert [National Park], with the presence of many famous people, politician, and was around like more than 4,000 people, and the President Herzog himself was was there, and we had a little chat for that.  And even the program, it was about peace, since there was Moroccan music, Israeli music, Egyptian music, Greek music, Turkish music. And this was very nice, 18 musicians on the stage. Manya Brachear Pashman: Oh, wow. 18 musicians. You know, the number 18, of course, is very significant, meaningful for the Jewish tradition.  So, this was a combination of Israeli musicians, Moroccan musicians, playing music from across the region. Turkey, Greece, Egypt, Israel. What did that mean for you? In other words, what was the symbolism of that collaboration and of that choice of music? Karim Taissir: Listen, to be honest, it wasn't a surprise for me, the success of collaboration, since there was excellent artists from Israel and from Morocco. But more than that, the fact that Moroccan Muslims and other people with Israeli musicians, they work together every concert, rehearsals.  They became friends, and maybe it was the first time for some musicians, especially in Morocco. I'm not talking only about peace, happiness, between people. It's very easy in our case, because it's people to people. Manya Brachear Pashman: How have those friendships held up under the strain of the Israel-Hamas War? Karim Taissir: Since 7th October, me, for example, I'm still in touch with all musicians from Israel, not only musicians, all my friends from Israel to support. To support them, to ask if they are OK. And they appreciate, I guess, because I guess some of them feel even before they have friends from all over the world. But suddenly it's not the case for us, it's more than friendships, and if I don't care about them, which means it's not true friendships. And especially Tom. Tom is more than more than a brother. And we are looking forward very soon to perform in Israel, in Morocco, very soon. Manya Brachear Pashman: So I should clarify for listeners that Symphonyat is not your full-time job. Professionally you are a pilot for Royal Air Maroc. And a week after that concert in Timna National Park in March 2022, Royal Air Maroc launched direct flights between Casablanca and Tel Aviv. Those flights have been suspended during the war, but did you get to fly that route? Karim Taissir: They call me the Israeli guy since I like very much to be there. Because I was kind of ambassador since I was there before, I'm trying always to explain people, when you will be there, you will discover other things. Before 7th of October, I did many, many, many flights as captain, and now we're waiting, not only me, all my colleagues.  Because really, really–me, I've been in Israel since 2016–but all my colleagues, the first time, it was during those flights. And all of them had a really nice time. Not only by the beauty of the Tel Aviv city, but also they discover Israeli people. So we had really, really, very nice memories from that period, and hoping that very soon we will launch flight. Manya Brachear Pashman: Chef Gal Ben Moshe, the first Israeli chef to earn a Michelin Star for his restaurant in Berlin, remembers the day he got the call to speak at Gulfood 2021, a world food festival in Abu Dhabi. That call led to another call, then another, and then another.  Before he knew it, Chef Gal's three-day trip to the United Arab Emirates had blossomed into a 10-day series: of master classes, panel discussions, catered dinners, and an opportunity to open a restaurant in Dubai. Gal Ben Moshe: Like I said, it wasn't just one dinner, it wasn't just a visit. It's basically from February ‘21 to October ‘23 I think I've been more than six, eight times, in the Emirates. Like almost regularly cooking dinners, doing events, doing conferences. And I cooked in the Dubai Expo when it was there. I did the opening event of the Dubai Expo. And a lot of the things that I did there, again, I love the place. I love the people. I got connected to a lot of people that I really, truly miss. Manya Brachear Pashman: When we first connected, you told me that the Abraham Accords was one of your favorite topics. Why? Gal Ben Moshe: I always felt kind of like, connected to it, because I was the first Israeli chef to ever cook in Dubai. And one of the most influential times of my life, basically going there and being there throughout basically everything from the Abraham Accords up to October 7. To a degree that I was supposed to open a restaurant there on the first of November 2023 which, as you probably know, did not happen in the end.  And I love this place. And I love the idea of the Abraham Accords, and I've had a lot of beautiful moments there, and I've met a lot of amazing people there. And, in a way, talking about it is kind of me missing my friends less. Manya Brachear Pashman: So you were originally invited to speak at Gulfood. What topics did you cover and what was the reception like? Gal Ben Moshe: The journalist that interviewed me, he was a great guy, asked me, ‘OK, so, like, where do you want to cook next?' And I said, ‘If you would ask me six months ago, I would say that I would love to cook in Dubai, but it's not possible.' So having this happened, like, anything can happen, right? Like, if you would tell me in June 2020 that I would be cooking in Dubai in February 2021, I'm not sure I was going to believe you. It was very secretive, very fast, very surprising. And I said, ‘Yeah, you know, I would love to cook in Damascus and Beirut, because it's two places that are basically very influential in the culture of what is the Pan-Arabic kitchen of the Levant. So a lot of the food influence, major culinary influence, comes from basically Aleppo, Damascus and Beirut. Basically, this area is the strongest influence on food. A lot of Jordanians are probably going to be insulted by me saying this, but this is very this is like culinary Mecca, in my opinion.'  And I said it, and somebody from the audience shouted: ‘I'm from Beirut! You can stay at my place!' And I was like, it's just amazing. And the funny thing is, and I always talk about it is, you know, I talk about my vegetable suppliers in Berlin and everything in the Syrian chefs and Palestinian chefs and Lebanese chefs that I met in the Emirates that became friends of mine. And I really have this thing as like, I'm gonna say it is that we have so much in common. It's crazy how much we have in common.  You know, we have this war for the past two years with basically everyone around us. But I think that when we take this thing out of context, out of the politics, out of the region, out of this border dispute or religious dispute, or whatever it is, and we meet each other in different country. We have so much in common, and sometimes, I dare say, more than we have in common with ourselves as an Israeli society. And it's crazy how easy it is for me to strike a conversation and get friendly with the Lebanese or with a Palestinian or with the Syrian if I meet them in Berlin or in Dubai or in New York or in London. Manya Brachear Pashman: I should clarify, you run restaurants in Tel Aviv, but the restaurant that earned a Michelin star in 2020 and held on to it for four years, was Prism in Berlin. Tel Aviv was going to be added to the Michelin Guide in December 2023, but that was put on hold after the start of the Israel-Hamas War. Did your time in the Emirates inspire recipes that perhaps landed on your menu at Prism? Gal Ben Moshe: I was approached by a local journalist that wrote cookbooks and he did a special edition cookbook for 50 years for the Emirates. And he wanted me to contribute a recipe. And I did a dish that ended up being a Prism signature dish for a while, of Camel tartar with caviar, quail yolk, grilled onion, and it was served in this buckwheat tortelet. And at the time, it's a concept dish. So basically, the story is this whole story of Dubai. So you have the camel and the caviar, so between the desert and the sea. And then you have the camel, which basically is the nomadic background of Dubai, with the Bedouin culture and everything, and the caviar, which is this luxurious, futuristic–what Dubai is today. And it was really a dish about the Emirates. And I was invited to cook it afterwards in a state dinner, like with very high-end hotel with very high-end guests.  And basically the chef of the hotel, who's a great guy, is like, sending, writing me an email, like, I'm not going to serve camel. I'm not going to serve camel in this meal. And I was like, but it's the whole story. It's the whole thing. He's like, but what's wrong with Wagyu beef? It's like, we're in Dubai. Wagyu beef is very Dubai. And I was like, not in the way that the camel is in that story. Listen, for a chef working there, it's a playground, it's heaven. People there are super curious about food. They're open-minded. And there's great food there. There's a great food scene there, great chefs working there. I think some of the best restaurants in the world are right now there, and it was amazing. Manya Brachear Pashman: There have been other Israeli chefs who opened their restaurants in Dubai before October 7. I know Chef Eyal Shani opened with North Miznon in a Hilton hotel in Dubai. You recently closed Prism, which really was a mom and pop place in Berlin, and you've now opened a hotel restaurant in Prague. Would you still consider opening a kitchen in Dubai? Gal Ben Moshe: I have not given up on the Emirates in any way. Like I've said, I love it there. I love the people there. I love the atmosphere there. I love the idea of being there. I would say that there is complexities, and I understand much better now, in hindsight of these two years. Of why, basically, October 7 meant that much. I live in Berlin for 13 years, and I work with my vegetable suppliers for the past, I would say nine or eight years. They're Palestinians and Syrians and Lebanese and everything.  And even though October 7 happened and everything that's happened afterwards, we're still very close, and I would still define our relationship as very friendly and very positive. The one thing is that, I don't know, but I think it's because we know each other from before. And I don't know if they would have taken the business of an Israeli chef after October 7. So having known me and that I'm not a symbol for them, but I am an individual.  For them it is easier because we're friends, like we worked together, let's say for five years before October 7. It's not going to change our relationship just because October 7 happened. But I think what I do understand is that sometimes our place in the world is different when it comes to becoming symbols. And there are people who don't know me and don't know who I am or what my opinions are, how I view the world, and then I become just a symbol of being an Israeli chef. And then it's you are this, and nothing you can say at that moment changes it.  So I don't think that me opening a restaurant in Dubai before October 7 was a problem. I do understand that an Israeli chef opening a restaurant in Dubai after October 7 was not necessarily a good thing. I can understand how it's perceived as, in the symbolism kind of way, not a good thing. So I think basically, when this war is over, I think that the friendship is there. I think the connection is there. I think the mutual respect and admiration is there. And I think that there is no reason that it can't grow even further. Manya Brachear Pashman: In our next episode, expected to air after the High Holidays, we discuss how the Abraham Accords have held during one of Israel's most challenging times and posit which Arab countries might be next to join the historic pact.  Atara Lakritz is our producer. T.K. Broderick is our sound engineer. Special thanks to Jason Isaacson, Sean Savage, and the entire AJC team for making this series possible.  You can subscribe to Architects of Peace on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts, and you can learn more at AJC.org/ArchitectsofPeace. The views and opinions of our guests don't necessarily reflect the positions of AJC. You can reach us at podcasts@ajc.org. If you've enjoyed this episode, please be sure to spread the word, and hop onto Apple Podcasts or Spotify to rate us and write a review to help more listeners find us. Music Credits: Middle East : ID: 279780040; Composer: Eric Sutherland אלקנה מרציאנו & Waleed Aljasim - אהלן ביכ | Elkana Marziano AHALAN bik أهلاً بيك Moroccan Suite: Item ID: 125557642; Composer: umberto sangiovanni Medley Ana Glibi Biddi Kwitou / Ma Nebra - Symphonyat with Sanaa Marahati - Casablanca - 2022 Middle East: Item ID: 297982529; Composer: Aditya Mystical Middle East: ID: 212471911; Composer: Vicher  

Charlie Kirk's assassination has sparked a firestorm of conspiracies. The Live from the Table crew, joined by journalist Ross Barkan, exposes how antisemitic tropes are spreading on the right—from Candace Owens' tweetstorms and Max Blumenthal's “sources” to Holocaust denier Ian Carroll's overt accusations. And why is Megyn Kelly - staunchly pro-Israel - hesitant to call out Candace Owens, even at times praising her, as Owens' conspiracy talk spreads? Why has Kirk's murder been reframed around his Israel stance?

Located near Hayward in Alameda County, Russell City was once home to mostly Black, Latino and poor white families boxed out of other Bay Area neighborhoods by redlining and the cost of living. But in the 1960s, after the county refused to extend water and sewer service to Russell City, it declared it a “blight,” and used eminent domain laws to bulldoze the community and displace more than 1,000 residents.  A few years ago, the City of Hayward made a formal apology to former residents, acknowledging that the destruction of Russell City was part of a nationwide pattern of displacing communities of color.  And this year, lawmakers are considering a program that would give people in similar situations a chance to apply for money or land as compensation. It's called Assembly Bill 62, and it's part of California's wider reparations proposal. It would be the first of its kind in the United States, but it builds on the legacy of reparations efforts around the world, including Germany's decades-long programs for Holocaust survivors.  KQED's Annelise Finney explains how the German model might guide reparations efforts in California. And for the podcast Bay Curious, KQED's Spencer Whitney visits with former residents and other people with deep ties to Russell City to learn about the lasting pain of losing the place they called home. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An 89-year-old Holocaust survivor is beaten to death inside a Brooklyn, New York nursing home, and her 95-year-old roommate now faces murder charges. A Nevada woman is now facing federal charges after being duct-taped to her seat on an American Airlines flight when threats of violence forced the crew to restrain her. Drew Nelson reports. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Shirley Russak Wachtel is the author of the short story collection Three For A Dollar, the book of poetry, In The Mellow Light, and several books for children. Her short stories and poems have appeared in various literary journals. A daughter of Holocaust survivors, Wachtel was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. She holds a doctor of letters degree from Drew University and Professor Emerita of English at Middlesex College in New Jersey.  The mother of three grown sons and grandmother to three precocious granddaughters, she currently resides in East Brunswick, New Jersey, with her husband, Arthur. Learn more at ShirleyWachtel.com Special thanks to Net Galley for advance reader copies. Intro reel, Writing Table Podcast 2024 Outro RecordingFollow the Writing Table:On Twitter/X: @writingtablepcEverywhere else: @writingtablepodcastEmail questions or tell us who you'd like us to invite to the Writing Table: writingtablepodcast@gmail.com.

In this video, Stephen Woodford cuts through the whitewashing of Charlie Kirk's legacy and let his own words speak for themselves. Since his assassination, the right has worked overtime to recast him as a martyr for free speech, but the reality is far darker. From calling Joe Biden deserving of the death penalty, to demanding public executions, attacking the Civil Rights Act, spreading racist lies, and comparing abortion to the Holocaust—this is who Kirk really was. No commentary, no spin—just the unfiltered extremism of a man the right now wants you to remember as a hero.

This week on Miami Vice: Vice infiltrates a white supremacist group after Holocaust survivors who are planning to testify against a Nazi hiding in Southern Florida are killed by an unknown hitman. As they get deeper into the group, they realize that the shooter may be elsewhere. Trigger warning for the episode Show Notes Gallery S5E16 (https://imgur.com/a/UieURXO) For more Vice and Easy Tiktok: @viceandeasypodcast Instagram: @viceandeasypodcast (https://www.instagram.com/viceandeasypodcast/?hl=en) YouTube: Vice and Easy Podcast (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm2ci7Vb75Tgf1uGMOjfvNQ)

Charlie Kirk's assassination has sparked a firestorm of conspiracies. The Live from the Table crew, joined by journalist Ross Barkan, exposes how antisemitic tropes are spreading on the right—from Candace Owens' tweetstorms and Max Blumenthal's “sources” to Holocaust denier Ian Carroll's overt accusations. And why is Megyn Kelly - staunchly pro-Israel - hesitant to call out Candace Owens, even at times praising her, as Owens' conspiracy talk spreads? Why has Kirk's murder been reframed around his Israel stance?

Henry & Eddie bring you this week's biggest stories and wildest news - UFO the movie reveals kickstarter, Epstein's Birthday Book (it's filled with breasts), Kim Jong Un bans the words “hamburger”, “ice cream”, and "karaoke", Man dies on brand new Epic Universe ride "Stardust Racers", 95-year-old charged with murder of Holocaust survivor nursing home roommate, Scuba clad robber makes it away from Disney Springs resturant with 20,000 dollars, The Return of The Do-Do Bird, Listener E-mails, and MORE!Visit www.UFO.movie to support Henry's new film!Watch The Return of Gor Gor: An Interview with GWAR now For Live Shows, Merch, and More Visit: www.LastPodcastOnTheLeft.comKevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of Last Podcast on the Left ad-free, plus get Friday episodes a whole week early. Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What mattered most for survivors of the Holocaust, indeed, what made their survival possible, was not only that the Allies had better ideas about democracy and civilization, though of course Britain, America, and the other Western Allies did. It was that they actually won the war. They defeated the Germans on the field of battle—on sea, land, and air, in the hills and in the streets. It's not enough for us to rest contentedly on the superiority of our ideas. We also have to fight. But at this moment, the fundamental political fact of the last 80 years—that it was an indispensable and untarnishable achievement for the Allies to have destroyed the Third Reich—is itself under revisionist assault. The Internet talk-show host Tucker Carlson last year promoted the podcaster Darryl Cooper, calling him “America's most honest historian,” and airing his claim that Winston Churchill was the “chief villain” of World War II who “escalated” what Hitler supposedly intended to be a limited conflict. As one of this episode's guests reports in the Wall Street Journal, when the Holocaust-denying podcaster Jake Shields polled his social-media followers about who they thought was “the biggest villain of World War II,” 40.3 percent chose Churchill over Hitler (25.3 percent) or Stalin (25.9 percent). Darryl Cooper or Jake Shields are teaching a new generation of Americans a grotesquely distorted view of our own history. To understand why that is, what can be done about it, and what's at stake for Jews and America, Mosaic's editor Jonathan Silver sat down Rabbi Meir Soloveichik and Andrew Roberts. Roberts is a distinguish historian and the author of more than twenty books. His 2018 biography of Churchill, Walking with Destiny, was the rare work that deserved all of the glowing praise it received, and there is perhaps no person living who knows more about the 20th century's greatest man than Roberts. On November 1, 2022, he was elevated to a peerage as Baron Roberts of Belgravia. Rabbi Soloveichik is the religious leader of Congregation Shearith Israel, the director of the Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought and Yeshiva University, and vice-chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. This conversation took place at a private event held for members of the Tikvah Society. You can learn more about its activities and how to join here.

Shmuel Bak (Samuel Bak), the internationally renowned artist and Holocaust survivor, presented in a lengthy conversation with his friend, The Yiddish Voice co-host Sholem Beinfeld. Excerpts from Pucker Gallery's page about Bak: Samuel Bak was born in Vilna, Poland in 1933, at a crucial moment in modern history. From 1940 to 1944, Vilna was under Soviet, then German occupation. Bak's artistic talent was first recognized during an exhibition of his work in the Ghetto of Vilna when he was nine years old. While he and his mother survived, his father and four grandparents all perished at the hands of the Nazis. At the end of the war, he fled with his mother to the Landsberg Displaced Persons Camp, where he enrolled in painting lessons at the Blocherer School in Munich. In 1948, they immigrated to the newly established state of Israel. He studied at the Bezalel Art School in Jerusalem and completed his mandatory service in the Israeli army. In 1956, he went to Paris to continue his education at the École des Beaux Arts.... Bak has exhibited extensively in major museums, galleries, and universities throughout Europe, Israel, and the United States. He lived and worked in Tel Aviv, Paris, Rome, New York, and Lausanne before settling in Massachusetts in 1993 and becoming an American citizen. Bak has been the subject of articles, scholarly works, and over twenty books, most notably a 400-page monograph entitled Between Worlds. In 2001, he published his touching memoir, Painted in Words, which has been translated into four languages, and a biography entitled Art & Life: The Story of Samuel Bak was published in 2023. Related links: Wikipedia page for Samuel Bak: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Bak Pucker Gallery page for Samuel Bak: https://www.puckergallery.com/samuel-bak Samuel Bak Museum: The Learning Center (Omaha, NE): https://www.unomaha.edu/samuel-bak-museum-the-learning-center/ Sholem Beinfeld is co-editor-in-chief of the Comprehensive Yiddish-English Dictionary and Professor of History, Emeritus, Washington University, St. Louis. He translated The Rudashevsky Diary, which was published as the November, 2024, issue of The Jewish Quarterly. אַ כּ‫תיבֿה וחתימה טובֿה! Featured Announcements for Rosh Hashona: Greetings on behalf of the League for Yiddish / די ייִדיש-ליגע by Gitl Schaechter-Viswanath, Board Chair. Recorded Sept. 9, 2025. Greetings on behalf of the American Association of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Descendants of Greater Boston, featuring members Mary Ehrlich, Rosalie Reszelbach and Tania Lefman (Treasurer). Recorded Sept. 9 and 10, 2025. Greetings from Eli Dovek ז״ל, late proprietor of our sponsor Israel Bookshop, Brookline, MA. Recorded in 2009. Greetings on behalf of the Boston Workers Circle / דער באָסטאָנער אַרבעטער-רינג by Libe Gritz. Recorded Sept. 17, 2025. Greetings by The Yiddish Voice co-hosts Leye Schporer-Leavitt, Sholem Beinfeld and Dovid Braun. Recorded Sept. 17...

In this episode of The Atrium Podcast, Pastors Neal and Mark respond to a heartfelt question: “Why would a loving God allow something like the Holocaust—or other genocides and tragedies—to happen?” The question came from a 10-year-old girl, and the conversation centers on how to approach such deep, difficult topics in a way children can understand.

Also on Arizona Spotlight: Meet the host of a new podcast dedicated to building a stronger Arizona community; and the story of a beloved dog named Betty that takes a surprising turn.

Today's conversation dives into the age-old debate: Was Magneto right? Our hosts, Will Rose and Andy Walsh, are joined by return guest, Jill Elizabeth, for an extremely special and fun episode! With a relaxed vibe and a sprinkle of witty banter, the crew tackles the complexities of Magneto and Professor X, exploring their contrasting philosophies on mutant rights and human coexistence. They delve deep into the theme of polarization, highlighting how both characters, despite their stark differences, share a fierce love for their kind. It's a fascinating examination of how these two iconic figures reflect broader societal issues, all while casually geeking out over their comic book histories and the nuances of their relationships. Prepare for some light-hearted yet thought-provoking exchanges as they navigate the moral gray areas of heroism and villainy in the Marvel universe.The podcast dives deep into the ongoing debate surrounding the characters of Magneto and Professor X from the X-Men universe. The hosts kick things off by posing the intriguing question of whether Magneto was right all along, setting the stage for a lively discussion on the nuances of heroism and villainy within the franchise. They explore the complexity of these iconic characters and how their motivations, shaped by their pasts, reflect deeper societal themes. They highlight Magneto's tragic backstory, rooted in the Holocaust, contrasting it with Professor X's idealistic vision of peaceful coexistence. The conversation shifts into a broader commentary on polarization in society today, tying it back to the X-Men's fight for mutant rights. With witty banter and insightful commentary, the hosts not only examine the moral gray areas of their choices but also touch on the implications of these narratives in our contemporary world. This episode is peppered with humor, personal anecdotes, and a genuine love for comic culture, making it an engaging listen for both fans and newcomers alike.The hosts take listeners on a journey through the intricate relationships and philosophies of Magneto and Professor X, elaborating on how their respective ideologies represent different responses to oppression. They argue that while Professor X embodies a more pacifist approach, Magneto's radical stance stems from a place of deep pain and survival instinct. The episode examines various comic arcs and films, showcasing how both characters have evolved over time, often blurring the lines between hero and villain. They tackle the idea of finding the good in both characters, emphasizing that while their methods differ, their ultimate goal of protecting mutant-kind unites them. With clever quips and relatable humor, the discussion resonates on a personal level, urging listeners to reflect on their own biases and the importance of understanding divergent perspectives in a polarized world. By weaving in pop culture references and personal reflections, the hosts create a rich tapestry of ideas, encouraging listeners to engage critically with the stories they love.In this engaging episode, the hosts wrestle with the age-old question: Was Magneto right? They delve into the philosophical and moral dilemmas faced by both Magneto and Professor X, exploring how their contrasting approaches to mutant rights reflect real-world issues of civil rights and identity. The conversation is lively and sprinkled with humor as they dissect the complexities of each character's journey. They underscore the importance of context, discussing how Magneto's traumatic past informs his aggressive philosophy while also critiquing Professor X's sometimes naive optimism. The hosts also share personal stories about their own experiences with X-Men narratives, drawing parallels between the characters' struggles and contemporary social justice movements. With a blend of wit and wisdom, the episode not only entertains but also challenges listeners to consider how they view conflict and...

South Korean court rules that it's illegal to insult virtual pop idols. Holocaust survivor ends up beaten to death by in a retirement home by a wheelchair. Man arrested in Surprise Arizona after urinating on spectators in a movie theater during a screening of Demon Slayer. // Weird AF News is the only daily weird news podcast in the world. Weird news 5 days/week and on Friday it's only Floridaman. SUPPORT by joining the Weird AF News Patreon http://patreon.com/weirdafnews - OR buy Jonesy a coffee at http://buymeacoffee.com/funnyjones Buy MERCH: https://weirdafnews.merchmake.com/ - Check out the official website https://WeirdAFnews.com and FOLLOW host Jonesy at http://instagram.com/funnyjones

Host Steven Shalowitz welcomes multi-hyphenate entertainer and podcaster Jonah Platt for a candid conversation about Jewish representation, advocacy, and dialogue in a polarized era. Platt argues that contemporary Jews are often flattened on screen—either as Holocaust victims, ultra-Orthodox stereotypes, or casual cultural references. He points to Shtisel and Fauda as refreshing because they tell compelling stories first, with characters who happen to be Jewish, which humanizes modern Jewish life.

Israel's influence, bribery, blackmail, threats, and control of the United States has become so obvious that no serious person could refute the facts. However, despite acknowledging such things it is becoming, it appears, increasingly difficult for people to understand what is happening or where it is leading. *The is the FREE archive, which includes advertisements. If you want an ad-free experience, you can subscribe below underneath the show description.FREE ARCHIVE (w. ads)SUBSCRIPTION ARCHIVEX / TWITTER FACEBOOKWEBSITEBuyMe-CoffeePaypal: rdgable1991@gmail.comCashApp: $rdgable EMAIL: rdgable@yahoo.com / TSTRadio@protonmail.comBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-secret-teachings--5328407/support.

Dr. Alex Kor is the son of two Holocaust survivors — Mickey and Eva Kor. Eva is a well-traveled, (including to Montana) Holocaust speaker and the co-author of Surviving the Angel of Death: The Story of a Mengele Twin in […] The post Dr. Alex Kor – “A Blessing, Not a Burden” first appeared on Voices of Montana.

In dieser besonderen Episode des Lebenswege Podcasts begrüße ich Hannah Lessing, eine beeindruckende Stimme der Erinnerungskultur. Seit 1995 leitet sie den Nationalfonds der Republik Österreich für Opfer des Nationalsozialismus. Wir sprechen über ihren Werdegang, über ihre Motivation diese Aufgabe zu übernehmen über "Wiedergutmachung" und was sie von Überlebenden gelernt hat. Wir sprechen auch über aktuelle Entwicklungen und wieso es wichtig ist weiterhin passende Formate zu finden, um Jugendliche anzusprechen, aber auch darüber, ob ein Holocaust heute nochmal möglich wäre. Mehr über Hannah Lessing und die Arbeit des Nationalfonds findet ihr hier: https://www.nationalfonds.org/person/hannah-m-lessing Mehr über die Audiografien und meine Kontaktdaten findet ihr hier: https://www.andreadomenig.at/audiografien-privatpersonen/ Teil mir auch gerne dein Feedback und Wünsche für neue Interview Gäste, die du gerne hören würdest: https://www.facebook.com/Lebenswege-Podcast-103348588053385https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreadomenig/https://www.instagram.com/andrea_domenig/ Intro: Walk Around by Roa https://soundcloud.com/roa_music1031 Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0 Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/walk-around-roa Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/BimtUhUirnw

In today's episode, Tim engages in a deep conversation with Lucas Wilson, an expert on conversion therapy and its effects on LGBTQ+ individuals. They explore Wilson's personal journey through faith, the impact of Holocaust research on his beliefs, and the complexities of modern Christian nationalism. Lucas on Instagram | @Lukeslamdunkwilson Chapters 09:00 The Journey of Acceptance and Self-Realization 18:53 The Problem of Evil and Theological Perspectives 30:00 The Role of Power in Evangelicalism 39:59 The Intersection of Theology and Politics 50:17 Projection and Moral Relativism in Evangelicalism 01:06:19 Christian Zionism: A Double-Edged Sword 01:15:07 The Role of Narrative in Changing Minds 01:28:10 The Importance of Storytelling in Advocacy ____________________________________________________ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠If you'd like to support our work, you can DONATE here!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Us On Instagram @thenewevangelicals  Subscribe On YouTube @thenewevangelicals The New Evangelicals exists to support those who are tired of how evangelical church has been done before and want to see an authentic faith lived out with Jesus at the center. This show is produced by Josh Gilbert Media | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Joshgilbertmedia.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ We are committed to building a caring community that emulates the ways of Jesus by reclaiming the evangelical tradition and embracing values that build a better way forward. If you've been marginalized by your faith, you are welcome here. We've built an empathetic and inclusive space that encourages authentic conversations, connections and faith. Whether you consider yourself a Christian, an exvangelical, someone who's questioning your faith, or someone who's left the faith entirely, you are welcome here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Shai interviews Jonny Daniels, founder of the From the Depths Foundation, dedicated to preserving Holocaust memory and supporting survivors. Jonny shares his journey from growing up in London to making Aliyah at 18 and joining the IDF paratroopers. He discusses his deep connection to Israel, the challenges of Jewish identity in the diaspora, and the recurring theme of Jews feeling like guests in other countries. Jonny reflects on Jewish history, the importance of pride in Jewish achievements, and the unique moral standards upheld by the Israeli army. The conversation also touches on the resilience of the Jewish people, the lessons learned after October 7th, and the ongoing need for unity and pride within the global Jewish community. This season is dedicated to Shai's grandmother, Leah Davidai, who passed away earlier this year. Sponsored in part by Iron Dome Coffee, visit www.irondomecoffee.com for an exclusive discount just for our listeners. Guest: Jonny Daniels Consider DONATING to help us continue and expand our media efforts. If you cannot at this time, please share this video with someone who might benefit from it.We thank you for your support!COMING SOON BUY MERCH!SUPPORT ME ON PATREON!

"Hacks" costar Hannah Einbinder said "Free Palestine" during her acceptance speech for Best Supporting Actress at the Emmys on Sunday. Questioned by the press afterward, Einbinder said she has friends in Gaza, adding, "I feel like it is my obligation as a Jewish person to distinguish Jews from the state of Israel, because our religion and our culture is such an important and longstanding institution that is really separate to this sort of ethnonationalist state." I've followed Einbinder on Instagram for a long time because she's been one of the few people in Hollywood consistently using their influential voice to oppose this genocide, and it is very good that she said these things. Hopefully we see much more of this. But right now I can't help thinking about how unforgivable it is that all the other Hollywood celebrities haven't been using their platforms at these events to call for an end to the Gaza holocaust this entire time. For two years this nightmare has been normalized in the eyes of the public with the assistance of the vast conspiracy of silence between all the people with the largest and most influential voices in our society. Reading by Tim Foley.

In this conversation, Mia Bloom discusses her extensive background in studying terrorism and genocide, particularly in relation to the Holocaust and contemporary conflicts. She addresses the complexities of genocide claims, the role of Hamas, and the impact of social media on public perception. Bloom emphasizes the importance of understanding the nuances of terrorism, including the involvement of women, and advocates for building bridges between communities to foster peace. - See discounts for all the products I use and recommend: https://everybodyspod.com/deals/ - Shop For Everybody  Use code SFE10 for 10% OFF

Send us a textFor far too many LGBTQ+ people, the idea of changing who they are has been forced upon them—through family pressure, faith communities, or the dangerous practice of conversion therapy. These programs, often cloaked in the language of care or religious devotion, have left deep wounds on survivors—shame, trauma, and fractured relationships with themselves and others. Today In the Den, Sara visits with Dr. Lucas Wilson, editor of Shame-Sex Attraction: Survivors' Stories of Conversion Therapy, a powerful collection of 17 survivor accounts—including his own—shedding light on the emotional and psychological fallout of conversion practices. Together they explore what conversion therapy looks like in practice, how survivors navigate the lasting impacts, and why storytelling is such a powerful tool for healing and change.Special Guest: Lucas WilsonLucas Wilson is a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow at University of Toronto Mississauga and was formerly the Justice, Equity, and Transformation Postdoctoral Fellow at University of Calgary. He is the editor of Shame-Sex Attraction: Survivors' Stories of Conversion Therapy, as well as the author of At Home with the Holocaust: Postmemory, Domestic Space, and Second-Generation Holocaust Narratives, which received the Jordan Schnitzer First Book Publication Award. He is currently working on a new literary anthology about queer experiences in Christian higher education, tentatively entitled Don't Ask, Tell All: Stories of Christian Colleges' Anti-Queer Regimes.Links from the Show:Find Shame-Sex Attraction here: https://bookshop.org/p/books/shame-sex-attraction-survivors-stories-of-conversion-therapy-lucas-wilson/21360797?ean=9781805011323&next=t Find At Home with the Holocaust here: https://bookshop.org/p/books/at-home-with-the-holocaust-postmemory-domestic-space-and-second-generation-holocaust-narratives-lucas-f-w-wilson/21705604?ean=9781978839816&next=t Find Lucas on IG/Threads/TikTok: @lukeslamdunkwilson Lucas on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/lukeslamdunkwilson.bsky.social Lucas on FB: www.facebook.com/luke.wilson.96  Lucas on Twitter/X: https://x.com/wilson_fw Lucas at LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/lucas-wilson-2a0753b1/ Join Mama Dragons today: www.mamadragons.org In the Den is made possible by generous donors like you. Help us continue to deliver quality content by becoming a donor today at www.mamadragons.org.  Support the showConnect with Mama Dragons:WebsiteInstagramFacebookDonate to this podcast

Send us a textHow do we write about Holocaust perpetrators?  What does that tell us about not only the historical figures themselves but also the ways in which we approach, describe, and analyze them.In this week's episode, I talk with Erin McGlothlin about how writers have dealt with perpetrators in both fiction and non-fiction and also about the ways in which fiction narratives influence how we tell non-fiction stories. Erin McGlothlin is Gloria M. Goldstein Professor of Holocaust Studies  and Vice Dean of Undergraduate Affairs at Washington University in St. Louis. McGlothlin, Erin. The Mind of the Holocaust Perpetrator in Fiction and Nonfiction (2021)Follow on Twitter @holocaustpod.Email the podcast at holocausthistorypod@gmail.comThe Holocaust History Podcast homepage is hereYou can find a complete reading list with books by our guests and also their suggestions here.

This Day in Legal History: Nuremberg Laws EnactedOn this day in legal history, September 15, 1935, Nazi Germany enacted the Nuremberg Laws, codifying one of the most infamous legal frameworks of racial discrimination and hate in modern history. Announced at the annual Nazi Party rally in Nuremberg, these laws included the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor, the Reich Citizenship Law, and later, the Law for the Protection of the Hereditary Health of the German People. Together, they stripped Jews of German citizenship, prohibited marriage and sexual relations between Jews and “Aryans,” and laid the groundwork for systematic persecution.The Reich Citizenship Law divided citizens into two classes: full citizens, who were of "German or related blood," and subjects, who were denied full political rights. Jews were relegated to the latter category. The Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor banned intermarriage and extramarital relations between Jews and Germans, criminalizing personal relationships based on ancestry. Violators could be imprisoned or sent to concentration camps.To enforce these laws, the Nazi regime devised elaborate charts and pseudoscientific metrics to assess Jewish ancestry, culminating in a 1936 chart issued by the Reich Health Office. This visual aid defined citizens by the number of Jewish grandparents they had, assigning labels like Mischling (mixed race) to those with partial Jewish heritage. Even one Jewish grandparent could strip a person of civil rights.The Law for the Protection of the Hereditary Health of the German People added a eugenic dimension, requiring couples to undergo genetic testing before marriage and barring those deemed "genetically unfit" from reproducing. These legal measures normalized state-sponsored racism and laid a legal foundation for the Holocaust.Big Law firm Perkins Coie terminated an attorney over a social media post that appeared to criticize conservative figure Charlie Kirk following his shooting death. The firm stated the post did not align with its values and that the lawyer's conduct fell significantly below professional expectations. The firing was made effective immediately. Kirk, 31, served as executive director of Turning Point USA and was a prominent supporter of Donald Trump. He was fatally shot while speaking at an event at Utah Valley University. Perkins Coie has a history of political entanglements, notably becoming one of the first law firms to sue Trump after his executive orders targeted firms representing political adversaries. These orders reportedly restricted access to federal facilities, revoked security clearances, and jeopardized client contracts. The firm was a particular focus for Trump due to its work during Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign, including hiring Fusion GPS to conduct research that led to the Steele dossier, which alleged ties between Trump's campaign and the Russian government.Perkins Coie Fires Attorney Over Social Media Post on Kirk ShootingU.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly extended a temporary block on the deportation of unaccompanied Guatemalan children with active immigration cases. The move halts a Trump-era effort that attempted to deport 76 minors without proper notice or legal process, including waking children in the early hours of August 31 to board planes. The judge's ruling followed a contentious September 10 hearing, where he criticized a Justice Department attorney for falsely claiming that all the children's parents had requested their return. A report from the Guatemalan Attorney General's Office later revealed that most parents couldn't be located, and many of those found did not want their children repatriated.The children in question mostly come from Guatemala's Indigenous, rural regions—Huehuetenango, San Marcos, Quiché, and Alta Verapaz—areas known for high poverty and malnutrition. Guatemalan officials emphasized that such a large-scale repatriation request was unprecedented. Some families reportedly mortgaged their homes to finance the children's migration, indicating the high stakes involved.US judge extends block on deportations of unaccompanied Guatemalan migrant children | ReutersU.S. District Judge William Alsup ruled that the Trump administration unlawfully directed the mass firing of around 25,000 federal probationary employees earlier this year. These workers, many of whom had served in their roles for less than a year, were dismissed under a directive from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) in February. The mass terminations sparked lawsuits from unions, nonprofits, and the state of Washington, arguing the firings lacked legal justification.Judge Alsup found that the OPM's directive was unlawful and "pretextual," noting the terminations were falsely framed as performance-related. While he acknowledged that the workers had been harmed, he declined to order their reinstatement, citing recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings limiting judicial power over executive branch hiring and firing decisions. Specifically, the Supreme Court had previously paused a preliminary injunction in April that would have reinstated 17,000 employees.Despite not ordering reinstatement, Alsup mandated that 19 federal agencies, including Defense, Veterans Affairs, and Treasury, correct the employment records of affected workers by November 14. He also prohibited agencies from continuing to follow OPM's original directive. Union leaders praised the decision for confirming the firings were baseless and for requiring agencies to acknowledge the false rationale behind the terminations.Trump administration unlawfully directed mass US worker terminations, judge rules | ReutersThe University of California, Berkeley confirmed it had shared information on 160 students, faculty, and staff with the Trump administration, in response to a federal investigation into alleged antisemitism. The data was provided to the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights as part of an ongoing probe linked to pro-Palestinian protests on campus. The university stated that it acted under legal obligation while striving to protect individual privacy and notified those affected.This move comes amid a broader effort by the Trump administration to penalize universities accused of allowing antisemitic behavior, particularly during recent demonstrations opposing Israel's actions in Gaza. Critics argue that the administration is conflating political protest and advocacy for Palestinian rights with antisemitism, raising serious concerns about free speech, academic freedom, and due process.Trump has threatened to cut federal funding to institutions involved in such protests and attempted to deport foreign student demonstrators, though those efforts have faced legal challenges. The administration has already reached high-profile settlements with Columbia and Brown universities and is in ongoing talks with Harvard. A proposed $1 billion settlement with UCLA was publicly rejected by California Governor Gavin Newsom, who called it extortion.UC Berkeley shares information on dozens of students, staff with Trump administration | Reuters This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.minimumcomp.com/subscribe

Aside from the generic tourist attractions & fantastic restaurants, Paris is also rich in Jewish history. Some locations evoke tragedy such as the Drancy transit camp which was the point of deportation during the Holocaust, and the Place Hotel de Ville where the Talmud was burnt on the orders of King Louis IX in 1242. Others are more quaint, such as the Pletzl, the historic neighborhood of Eastern European Jewish immigrants in the heart of the city. We also visit the gravesite of Rav Yosef David Zintzheim (1745-1812), a towering leader of French Jewry during the challenging times of the French Revolution, the Reign of Terror, emancipation of French Jewry and the Napoleonic era. As the head of Napoleon's ‘Sanhedrin' in 1806-1807, he navigated the challenging questions posed by Napoleon regarding integrating France's Jews without compromising an iota of Halacha or Jewish tradition.  Subscribe to Jewish History Soundbites Podcast on: PodBean: https://jsoundbites.podbean.com/ or your favorite podcast platform Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram at @Jsoundbites For sponsorship opportunities about your favorite topics of Jewish history or feedback contact Yehuda at: yehuda@yehudageberer.com

International Law: Was Hungary "occupied" by the Germans during WWII, enabling Holocaust survivors to sue for the return of stolen art? - Argued: Mon, 08 Sep 2025 12:9:5 EDT

This week, I sit down with my 101-year-old grandfather, Papa Jack, to hear his extraordinary story of survival and love. Born in Poland in 1924, he describes the beauty of his childhood, the rise of antisemitism, and the devastation that followed when Nazi Germany invaded. He shares what it was like to be forced into a ghetto, separated from family, and pushed into camps where survival often came down to instinct and impossible choices.Papa Jack's story and his love story with my grandmother, is the origin of my interest in understanding resilience, the human condition and how we come to be who we are. Their story is one of loss, courage, and hope. In this conversation, you'll hear not just about the horrors he endured, but also about the love and laughter that carried him forward, and why he feels so strongly that his story must never be forgotten. For his birthday this weekend, I'm going to make sure that I do my part and sharing his story with all of you. Sponsors:Great Wolf Lodge: Book your stay today at GreatWolf.com and strengthen the pack!Resposibility.org: Visit Asklistenlearn.org/mentalhealth to view the materials todayOlly: Shop at OLLY.com or retailers nationwide.Bobbie: Bobbie is offering an additional 10% off on your purchase with the code:humans, visit hibobbie.comVisit LiveConscious.com today and use code HUMANS at checkoutZip Recruiter: Try it FOR FREE at this exclusive web address: ZipRecruiter.com/HUMANS.Kiwico: Get up to 50% off your first crate at kiwico.com, promo code RGHPlease note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode.Produced by Dear Media.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Bibi's father wrote THE book on the Spanish Inquisition and Spain's successful persecution of the Jews, especially the sccessful (and brutal) erasure of the Jewish Identity of the Jewsforced to convert. IOW the Spanish "Holocaust"

Eric Metaxas sits down with Larry Taunton to confront the troubling rise of Holocaust revisionism and the platforming of anti-Semitic voices in today’s media. Together, they examine the moral responsibility Christian hosts bear when engaging controversial guests, stressing the importance of pointing audiences toward truth rather than relativism. From Stalin’s brutality to modern-day attacks on Israel, they argue that history must be faced honestly if freedom and faith are to endure.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On Friday's Mark Levin Show, Venezuela, Mexico, and Communist China, are flooding the U.S. with deadly poisons killing many young people. Unlike others who merely complain, President Trump uses his presidential powers and the military to intervene, such as destroying a drug-laden Venezuelan boat and giving orders to eliminate threats like encroaching Venezuelan jets. The reaction from the left is to find a court or a law to try and prevent Trump from protecting Americans from enemies foreign and domestic. Afterward, we're glad to see all those attacking pro-military conservatives as "warmongers" now celebrating the Department of War. We were never warmongers. And we salute POTUS and what he is doing for DOD and our national security. He was never an isolationist or appeaser or pacificist. Peace through strength. Also, Tucker Carlson, Qatarlson, conducted an entire program using a disgruntled reportedly former contractor, who was apparently dropped by the State Department, to smear Mark's step-son David Milstein, who works for Ambassador Huckabee, as well as Huckabee, Speaker Mike Johnson, the entire Rubio State Department, and President Trump's policies. Qatarlson believes that libeling a family member is fair game. Ask yourself, what causes someone like Qatarlson to become so thoroughly evil that they promote 9/11 conspiracies, host Holocaust deniers and Hitler promoters, lavish praise on Putin and other monsters, smear our country's history, military, and great leaders, spread vicious lies and hate about our allies like Israel, trash President Trump for successfully defending our nation against the Iranian terrorist regime and its nuclear program, and smear our country's history? Later, ​unlike ​Joe ​Biden, ​Trump ​is ​protecting ​Christians, ​not ​punishing ​them. DOJ released a report exposing systematic anti-Christian bias under the Biden administration. Key findings include the State Department limiting humanitarian aid to Christians, favoring non-Christian hires, denying leave for Christian holidays, and imposing LGBTQ+ ideology that violated religious beliefs. The task force commits to ending such discrimination, ensuring equal treatment for all faiths. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices