Ep. 75- Guilt and the Postwar Lives of Nazi Perpetrators with Katherina von Kellenbach

Send us Fan MailWe often hear on this podcast about how historians have sought to recover the past but what is it like trying to do this when you are not a professional? In this episode, I talked with Julie Brill about her personal and family journey toward uncovering her father's Holocaust history in Yugoslavia. We talk about memory, the journey of researching family history, and what it means to be a 2nd generation survivor.Julie Brill is an author and doula.Brill, Julie.  Hidden in Plain Sight: A Family Memoir and the Untold Story of the Holocaust in Serbia (2025)Follow on Twitter @holocaustpod.Email the podcast at [email protected] Holocaust History Podcast homepage is hereYou can find a complete reading list with books by our guests and also their suggestions here.

Send us Fan MailIn Holocaust history much like history in general, women's voices and experiences have often been overlooked or ignored.  In this episode, I talk with an author who has focused on bringing those experiences to light.We talk about the actions of a number of young Jewish women in the Warsaw Ghetto resistance, both during the uprising itself but also before.  From traveling in disguise across occupied Poland to smuggling weapons to leading fighting groups. Elizabeth Hyman documents their remarkable contributions to resisting the Nazis.Elizabeth Hyman is a writer, historian, and archivist.Hyman, Elizabeth. The Girl Bandits of the Warsaw Ghetto: The True Story of Five Courageous Young Women Who Sparked an Uprising (2025)Follow on Twitter @holocaustpod.Email the podcast at [email protected] Holocaust History Podcast homepage is hereYou can find a complete reading list with books by our guests and also their suggestions here.

Send us Fan MailHAve you encountered material on the Holocaust that you find disturbing or upsetting?  Was it in your reading or at a Holocaust site or museum?  In this episode, I talk with Julie Golding about the challenges of presenting such material in Holocaust education and at Holocaust museums.How shoudl museums address the emotional wellbeing of their visitors?  What kinds of content is appropriate (and how do you decide?). We talk about these and many other issues in our conversation.Julie J. Golding is a Holocaust educator, museum professional, and Assistant Professor and Deputy Chair of the Master's in Holocaust Education at Touro University.Golding, Julie J. Unseen Scars:: Vicarious Trauma at Holocaust Museums, Exhibitions, and Memorial Sites (2026)Follow on Twitter @holocaustpod.Email the podcast at [email protected] Holocaust History Podcast homepage is hereYou can find a complete reading list with books by our guests and also their suggestions here.

Send us Fan MailEven as the Holocaust was ongoing, some Jews dreamed of and sought revenge for Nazi attacks on them.  Ironically, the Nazis themselves believed in a particularly antisemitic myth of Jewish vengeance and many Germans after the war feared widespread retaliation by Holocaust survivors.  Indeed, there were some attempts to carry out revenge attacks on Nazis after the war.In this episode, I talked with Laura Jockusch about what revenge meant in all these contexts and more, including in the popular imagination with media like Inglourious Basterds and The Hunters.  Laura Jockusch is the Albert Abramson Associate Professor of Holocaust Studies at Brandeis University.Jockusch, Laura. Jewish Revenge and the Holocaust: History, Memory, and Imagination (2026)Follow on Twitter @holocaustpod.Email the podcast at [email protected] Holocaust History Podcast homepage is hereYou can find a complete reading list with books by our guests and also their suggestions here.

Send us Fan MailThere are lots of popular and sensationalist accounts of the Nazi obsession with the supernatural and occult, but what is the true history of this.  The truth is that various kinds of supernatural, occult, and border scientific beliefs influenced many of the leading Nazis.In addition, these beliefs also ultimately provided a contextual background that influenced Nazi policy.  This is one of the reasons that these fringe and often outlandish beliefs are so important.  In this episode, I talk with Eric Kurlander about his detailed and scholarly exploration of the Nazi supernatural imaginary.Eric Kurlander is the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of History and Director of the Jewish Studies program at Stetson University. Kurlander, Eric.  Hitler’s Monsters: A Supernatural History of the Third Reich(2017)Follow on Twitter @holocaustpod.Email the podcast at [email protected] Holocaust History Podcast homepage is hereYou can find a complete reading list with books by our guests and also their suggestions here.

Send us Fan MailThe Holocaust was a Nazi project, but it required the support, cooperation, complicity, and sometimes collaboration of a wide variety of non-Germans to carry out.  This complicity took a variety of forms and investigating it always generates strong emotional reaction.  In this episode, I talk with Grzegorz Rossoliński-Liebe about his meticulous study of the role Polish mayors played under Nazi occupation and during the Holocaust.  It's a difficult but important conversation.Grzegorz Rossoliński-Liebe is a Lecturer in History at the Frei Universität, Berlin.Rossoliński-Liebe, Grzegorz.  Polnische Bürgermeister und der Holocaust. Besatzung, Verwaltung und Kollaboration (2024)Follow on Twitter @holocaustpod.Email the podcast at [email protected] Holocaust History Podcast homepage is hereYou can find a complete reading list with books by our guests and also their suggestions here.

Send us Fan MailThe Nuremberg trials, though not perfect, represented in many ways an epic achievement in justice for crimes against humanity.  However, a darker and lesser-known element of the trials is what happened to the convicted Nazis after ward.The overwhelming majority of sentences were never fully carried out and almost all those convicted at Nuremberg and in its subsequent trials especially were out of prison by 1958.In this episode, I talk with Robert Hutchinson about his fascinating work on the US policy of releasing Nazi criminals from prison.Robert W. Hutchinson is an Associate Professor of Strategy and Security Studies at the US Air Force School of Advanced Air and Space Studies. Hutchinson, Robert W. After Nuremberg: American Clemency for Nazi War Criminals (2022)Follow on Twitter @holocaustpod.Email the podcast at [email protected] Holocaust History Podcast homepage is hereYou can find a complete reading list with books by our guests and also their suggestions here.

Send us Fan MailThe Janowska concentration camp may well be the most important Holocaust place most people have never heard of.  It was central to the Holocaust in eastern Poland, was the scene of unspeakable cruelty, but also witnessed a successful armed uprising.In this episode hosted by the amazing Holocaust historian Doris Bergen, we talk about my work on the camp and what a study of Janowska tells us about the Holocaust.Waitman Wade Beorn is an associate professor of history at Northumbria University in Newcastle, UK. He is also (most of the time) the host of the Holocaust History Podcast which you are now listening to.Beorn, Waitman Wade. Between the Wires: The Janowska Camp and the Holocaust in Lviv (2024)Follow on Twitter @holocaustpod.Email the podcast at [email protected] Holocaust History Podcast homepage is hereYou can find a complete reading list with books by our guests and also their suggestions here.

Send us Fan MailHow did Nazi war criminals engage with (or deny) their giult?  How was the prosecution and conviction of Nazi perpetrators dealt with in families?  What was the role of religion and faith assuaging guilt?These are some fo the fascinating questions that we cover in this episode with Katherina von Kellenbach who has engaged with this topic using a unique set of really interesting sources.Katharina von Kellenbach is Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies from St. Mary’s College of Maryland.von Kellenbach, Katharina. The Mark of Cain: Guilt and Denial in the Lives of Nazi Perpetrators (2013)Follow on Twitter @holocaustpod.Email the podcast at [email protected] Holocaust History Podcast homepage is hereYou can find a complete reading list with books by our guests and also their suggestions here.

Send us Fan MailWhat is a concentration camp?  What are the distinguishing features of these spaces?  Where did they come from?In this episode, I talk with Andrea Pitzer about the long, global history of the concentration camp and its evolution over time.  We talk about what the definition is, what qualifies something as a concentration camp, and how different societies have learned from each other in their various iterations of "the camp."Andrea Pitzer is a journalist and author.Pitzer, Andrea. One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps (2018)Follow on Twitter @holocaustpod.Email the podcast at [email protected] Holocaust History Podcast homepage is hereYou can find a complete reading list with books by our guests and also their suggestions here.