Dialogues in Holocaust Studies and the Second World War
This podcast features interviews with authors of new research, fresh monographs and recent books about the Holocaust and World War II.
Episodes
27 episodes
Nadia Wheatley, *Strange New World: Belsen's First Year of Freedom*. Melbourne, Australia: Monash University Press, 2026.
The liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp on April 15, 1945, was hailed as a major British triumph over Nazi Germany. Yet, for the 55,000 survivors of the 'Horror Camp', this newfound liberty was accompanied by profound grief: a qu...
Grace Huang, *Chiang Kai-Shek's Politics of Shame: Leadership, Legacy and National Identity in China*. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2021.
Once a powerful leader who prevented the disintegration of China and led the nation to triumph alongside the Allies during World War II, Chiang Kai-shek eventually found himself in exile following his defeat in the Chinese civil war in 1949. As...
Christopher Harrison, *Genocidal Conscription: Drafting Victims and Perpetrators under the Guise of War*. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2023.
In this monograph, Christopher Harrison delineates and contrasts the tactics used by two genocidal regimes engaged in warfare – the Ottoman Empire during World War One and Hungary under Axis control in World War Two – which instituted specific ...
Philip Uninsky, *Invented Lives from Troubled Times: A Jewish Family’s Forms of Resilience after Surviving Pogroms, Revolution and the Holocaust*. Boston: Academic Studies Press, 2026.
This work offers an intriguing and unique viewpoint on the complex routes to resilience, narrating the saga of a large Jewish family that survived decades of intense trauma in the 20th century. In addition to exploring his family’s shared memor...
Frank Stahnisch, *Great Minds in Despair: The Forced Migration of German-Speaking Neuroscientists to North America, 1933 to 1989*. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2025.
The twentieth century saw two catastrophic world wars that resulted in the displacement of millions. Among those affected were numerous neuroscientists and biological psychiatrists from Nazi Germany and neighboring regions who had to flee durin...
Stefanie Fischer, *Jewish Cattle Traders in the German Countryside, 1919-1939: Economic Trust and Antisemitic Violence*. Jeremiah Riemer, trans. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2024.
This study delves into the intricate social and economic networks that this group navigated, highlighting the resilient yet informal connections between Jewish cattle traders and farmers, bonds so strong that not even relentless Nazi assaults c...
Mia Swart, *On Bonifratrow Street: How a Boy from Lwow Escaped the Nazis: Based on the Life of Michael Katz*. Hannover & Stuttgart, Germany: Ibidem Verlag, 2024.
This work tells the tale of Michael Katz, a Jewish boy who survived by hiding 'in plain sight' on the streets of Warsaw after escaping the Janowska concentration camp in Lviv (Lwow) during the Holocaust. He adopted a new name to fit in and beca...
Jacky Comforty and Martha Aladjem Bloomfield, *Stories We Were Never Told: Visualizing the Holocaust in Bulgaria and Beyond*. Self-Published by Jacky Comforty, 2026.
For many years, the Holocaust in Bulgaria remained poorly studied, inadequately represented, and obscured by various political and economic agendas. A common myth arose, claiming that no Holocaust took place in Bulgaria. The narrative of the Je...
Dariusz Jeziorny, *British Diplomacy and the Concept of the Eastern Pact (1933-1935): Analyses, Projects, Activities*. Stuttgart: Ibidem-Verlag, 2017
In this monograph, Dariusz Jeziorny explores British diplomatic relations from 1933 to 1935, shedding light on London's viewpoint regarding the Eastern Pact and highlighting the reasoning and actions of British diplomacy within the framework of...
David Stahel, *The Cambridge Companion to the Nazi-Soviet War*. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2025.
The Nazi-Soviet War stands as the most extensive and savage theatre of the Second World War, waged between two of the most merciless regimes ever to have existed. Uniting twenty-four of the most distinguished historians from both German and Sov...
Robert Cribb and Sandra Wilson, *Twelve Japanese War Criminals and One Who Got Away*. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2026.
In this insightful monograph, Robert Cribb and Sandra Wilson recount the narratives of twelve individuals who were convicted of war crimes in Allied courts in the Asia-Pacific region following the Second World War. Included is the story of a ma...
Pauline Steinhorn, *Dreaming of the River: A Mother and Daughter’s Fight for Survival in Slave Labor Camps and Bergen-Belsen*. Amsterdam: Amsterdam Publishers, 2026.
Bronia Feldman never anticipated becoming the cornerstone of an underground medical network, particularly not within the harsh confines of the HASAG munitions factory's forced-labor system in occupied Poland. In September 1942, she was forcibly...
Evan McGilvray, *Marshal Pilsudski and his Wars for Polish Freedom: Poland's Conflicts with Ukraine, Lithuania and Soviet Russia*. Yorkshire, UK: Pen & Sword Books, 2025.
This study is both captivating and long overdue, focusing on a pivotal figure in modern European history. Josef Pilsudski emerged as the foremost advocate for armed Polish resistance against Tsarist Russian domination in the early twentieth cen...
Christine Schmidt, Elizabeth Anthony and Joanna Sliwa, *Older Jews and the Holocaust: Persecution, Displacement and Survival*. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2026.
Elderly Jews represented one of the most at-risk demographics during the Holocaust; however, there has been a scarcity of scholarly and literary attention directed towards their experiences. They were frequently among the initial victims of Naz...
Hans Soetaert, *The Scattered Library: The Various Fates of the Remnants of Magnus Hirschfeld's Institute of Sexual Science Collection in France and Czechoslovakia, 1932-1942*. Hannover, Germany: Ibidem Verlag, 2025.
The Berlin book burning and the assault on Magnus Hirschfeld’s Institute for Sexual Science ("Institut für Sexualwissenschaft") in May 1933 are essential components of German memorial culture. Recently, there has been a resurgence and recogniti...
Lucia Ceci, *The Vatican and Mussolini's Italy*. Peter Spring, trans. Leiden: Brill, 2017.
Lucia Ceci delves into the complex dynamics between the Catholic Church and Fascism. New insights from the Vatican Archives shed light on specific elements of this intricate relationship: Mussolini's ascent to power, the Ethiopian war, the raci...
Ernest Gyidel, *Ukrainian Public Nationalism in the General Government: The Case of Krakivski Visti, 1940-44*. Hannover, Germany: Ibidem Verlag, 2025.
Most studies on Ukrainian nationalism during the 20th century concentrate on the OUN and UPA and their military efforts for Ukraine’s independence. Ernest Gyidel’s book is distinct. It addresses a lesser-explored aspect of nationalism's history...
Peter Anderson and Miguel Ángel del Arco Blanco ,*Franco's Famine: Malnutrition, Disease and Starvation in Post-Civil War Spain*. London: Bloomsbury, 2021.
In the 1940s, Spain experienced a devastating famine that claimed the lives of at least 200,000 people due to hunger and malnutrition-related illnesses. This book provides a political framework for understanding the famine, bringing together a ...
Daria Mattingly and John Vsetecka, eds., *The Holodomor in Global Perspective: How the Famine in Ukraine Shaped the World*. Hannover, Germany: Ibidem Verlag, 2025.
Between 1932 and 1933, millions of Ukrainians were subjected to enforced starvation. This sorrowful famine, now referred to as the Holodomor, is recognized as one of the most atrocious events in the history of the Soviet Union and the bro...
Izabela Kazejak, *Jews in Post-War Wrocław and L’Viv: Official Policies and Local Responses in Comparative Perspective, 1945-1970s*. Stuttgart, Germany: Ibidem Verlag, 2023.
This book examines the revival of Jewish communities in two post-war European cities – Wrocław (WOs-VOW), Breslau, which changed from Germany to Poland in 1945, and L'viv, which transitioned from Poland to the Soviet Union.These revival...
Michael Halperin, *Out of the Storm: Holocaust to Hope*. Boston: Cherry Orchard Books, 2025.
This memoir recounts the story of Alex and Mela Roslan, a typical yet brave Polish family, who assist Jewish brothers in fleeing the Warsaw Ghetto. They develop a strong relationship and safeguard them throughout the Holocaust, persevering toge...
Istvan Pal Adam, *Budapest Building Managers and the Holocaust in Hungary*. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.
This is the first book, at least within the Hungarian context, that narrates the experiences of a larger group of ordinary individuals during the Holocaust. There were approximately 20,000 building managers, or as we might refer to them using t...
Alexa Morris and Benjamin Parket, *The Courtyard: A Memoir.* Amsterdam, Netherlands: Amsterdam Publishers, 2025.
This memoir about the Holocaust shows how people can be good even when faced with terrible evil. It's a powerful story of bravery and kindness. This book -- The Courtyard -- reminds us that even in the darkest times, a small group can really ma...
Gabriel Laufer, ed. and trans., *A Voice from the Lost Town of Trochenbrod: A Translation of Yisrael Beider’s Poems, Essays and Letters*. Gabriel Laufer, Andrew Cassel and Ellen Cassedy, trans. Newton, MA: Cherry Orchard Books, 2025.
The obliteration of Trochenbrod, the sole Jewish town outside of Israel, stands as a largely neglected tragedy of the Holocaust. This book gathers a remarkable array of poems, essays, and letters penned by Yisrael Beider, a native of Trochenbro...
Laszlo Borhi, *Survival Under Dictatorships: Life and Death in Nazi and Communist Regimes*. Budapest, Hungary: Central European University Press, 2024.
This book--*Survival Under Dictatorships: Life and Death in Nazi and Communist Regimes*--presents a complex view of how people responded to government abuse of power during three horrific events in East-Central Europe's past. These events...
