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German Studies
Military History May 23, 2023

Dünkirchen 1940

The German View of Dunkirk

Robert Kershaw

Hosted by Stephen Satkiewicz
The surprise success of the German offensive in the West that commenced on May 10, 1940 caught the Allies completely off-guard, and France would soon capitulate to the Germans in …

German Studies

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Interviews with scholars of Germany about their new books.

Jewish Studies May 20, 2023

Flights of Spirit

Elly Gotz

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
Today I talked to Elly Gotz, author of the memoir Flights of Spirit (Azrieli Foundation, 2018). Sixteen-year-old Elly Gotz hides with his family in an underground bunker in the Kovno ghetto in …
Jewish Studies May 19, 2023

Romania and the Holocaust

Events, Contexts, Aftermath

Simon Geissbühler

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
From summer 1941 onwards, Romania actively pursued at its own initiative the mass killing of Jews in the territories it controlled. 1941 saw 13,000 Jewish residents of the Romanian city …
Genocide Studies May 17, 2023

Never Again

Germans and Genocide After the Holocaust

Andrew I. Port

Hosted by Kelly McFall
As reports of mass killings in Bosnia spread in the middle of 1995, Germans faced a dilemma. Should the Federal Republic deploy its military to the Balkans to prevent a …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel May 10, 2023

Bruno Schulz

An Artist, a Murder, and the Hijacking of History

Benjamin Balint

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
The twentieth-century artist Bruno Schulz was born an Austrian, lived as a Pole, and died a Jew. First a citizen of the Habsburg monarchy, he would, without moving, become the …
Ukrainian Studies April 29, 2023

Babyn Yar

Ukrainian Poets Respond

Research Center Coordinator Ostap Kin

Hosted by Nataliya Shpylova-Saeed
In 2021, the world commemorates the 80th anniversary of the massacres of Jews at Babyn Yar. The present collection brings together for the first time the responses to the tragic …
International Horizons April 24, 2023

Why do Transatlantic Relations Matter?

General Consul of Germany David Gill in the 2023 Otto and Fran Walter Lecture

David Gill

Hosted by International Horizons
This week on International Horizons, we present RBI's director John Torpey's interview with David Gill, General Consul of Germany, in New York to celebrate the 2023 Otto and Frank Walter …
MIT Press Podcast April 24, 2023

Haunted Bauhaus

Occult Spirituality, Gender Fluidity, Queer Identities, and Radical Politics

Elizabeth Otto

Hosted by MIT Press
In this podcast we discuss visibility, haunting and fascism with art historian and theorist Elizabeth Otto. Otto's book Haunted Bauhaus explores the marginalized histories of occult spirituality, gender fluidity and …
Military History April 23, 2023

Hitler's Maladies and Their Impact on World War II

A Behavioral Neurologist's View

Tom Hutton

Hosted by Boris Karpa
Toward the end of World War II, Hitler's many health complications became even more pronounced, making an evil man yet more erratic and dangerous. While the subject of Hitler's health …
Jewish Studies April 22, 2023

Beyond the Pale

The Holocaust in the North Caucasus

Crispin Brooks and Kiril Feferman

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
Crispin Brooks and Kiril Feferman's edited volume Beyond the Pale: The Holocaust in the North Caucasus (U Rochester Press, 2020) is the first book devoted exclusively to the Holocaust in the North Caucasus …
Jewish Studies April 18, 2023

Apiqoros

The Last Essays of Salomon Maimon

Timothy Sean Quinn

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
Although Kant considered him the greatest critic of his work, and Fichte thought him the most impressive mind of the generation, Salomon Maimon (1753-1800) has fallen into relative obscurity. Apiqoros …
Military History April 16, 2023

Save the Last Bullet

Memoir of a Boy Soldier in Hitler's Army

Heidi Langbein-Allen

Hosted by AJ Woodhams
Today I talked to Heidi Langbein-Allen about Save the Last Bullet: Memoir of a Boy Soldier in Hitler's Army (Pen & Sword Military, 2022). Willi Langbein was just thirteen when the Nazis …
Eastern European Studies April 16, 2023

Auschwitz

A Monograph on the Human

Piotr M. A. Cywiński

Hosted by Piotr Kosicki
Auschwitz is perhaps the best-known memorial site in the world. Epicenter of the Nazi extermination campaign of Europe’s Jewish population, the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp system also held over 400,000 inmates (Jews …
Military History April 15, 2023

Bloody Verrières

Volume 2: The Defeat of Operation Spring and the Battles of Tilly-La-Campagne, 23 July-5 August 1944

Arthur W. Gullachsen

Hosted by Boris Karpa
South of the Norman city of Caen, Verrières Ridge was seen a key stepping-stone for the British Second Army if it was to break out of the Normandy bridgehead in …
Intellectual History April 12, 2023

Kant on the Human Animal

Anthropology, Ethics, Race

David Baumeister

Hosted by David Kunsman
While Immanuel Kant’s account of human reason is well known and celebrated, his account of human animality (Thierheit) is virtually unknown. Animality and reason, as pillars of Kant’s vision of …
German Studies April 11, 2023

Our Gigantic Zoo

A German Quest to Save the Serengeti

Thomas M. Lekan

Hosted by Eric Grube
How did the Serengeti become an internationally renowned African conservation site and one of the most iconic destinations for a safari? In Our Gigantic Zoo: A German Quest to Save …
Military History April 9, 2023

The Lighthouse of Stalingrad

The Hidden Truth at the Heart of the Greatest Battle of World War II

Iain MacGregor

Hosted by AJ Woodhams
To the Soviet Union, the sacrifices that enabled the country to defeat Nazi Germany in World War II are sacrosanct. The foundation of the Soviets’ hard-won victory was laid during …
Jewish Studies April 7, 2023

The Atrocity of Hunger

Starvation in the Warsaw, Lodz and Krakow Ghettos during World War II

Helene J. Sinnreich

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
During World War II, the Germans put the Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland into ghettos which restricted their movement and, most crucially for their survival, access to food. The Germans saw …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel April 6, 2023

The Pope at War

The Secret History of Pius XII, Mussolini, and Hitler

David I. Kertzer

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
When Pope Pius XII died in 1958, his papers were sealed in the Vatican Secret Archives, leaving unanswered questions about what he knew and did during World War II. Those …
Eastern European Studies April 2, 2023

Rain of Ash

Roma, Jews, and the Holocaust

Ari Joskowicz

Hosted by Vladislav Lilic
Dr. Ari Joskowicz, Associate Professor of Jewish Studies and History at Vanderbilt University, is the author of Rain of Ash: Roma, Jews, and the Holocaust (Princeton University Press, 2023). Jews and Roma …