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History That Doesn't Suck

185: The Early Holocaust: From the “Jewish Question” to Kristallnacht

History That Doesn't Suck

ProfGregJackson

Education, History, Society & Culture

4.55.1K Ratings

🗓️ 11 August 2025

⏱️ 68 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

“Being a Jew is not a crime, I am not a dog.” This is the story of the start of the Holocaust.  Serving as the scapegoat for everything from a disappearing child to the Black Plague, European Jews are used to “anti-Jewry.” But as the nation state rises in the modern world, it brings the so-called “Jewish Question” to the fore: can one be a faithful Jew and modern citizen? As modern antisemitism rises and European Jews face pogroms and the Dreyfus Affair, some begin to think they need a nation of their own. Jewish nationalism, or “Zionism,” is born. Meanwhile, in the aftermath of the Great War, Adolf Hitler’s Nazism is leaning into the continent’s centuries-old anti-Jewry and antisemitic ideas to claim that the Jews are responsible for Germany’s postwar woes. Once in power, he begins systematically removing rights from the Reich’s Jewish population. This includes taking their citizenship through the Nuremberg Race Laws in 1935, and an unfathomable, deadly, destructive pogrom in 1938: Kristallnacht.  Stateless and persecuted, European Jews try to flee Nazism—can they find safety in America? We’ll see how that goes as we follow the St. Louis to America’s shores, and as the German American Bund gathers in Madison Square Garden… ____ Connect with us on HTDSpodcast.com and go deep into episode bibliographies and book recommendations join discussions in our Facebook community get news and discounts from The HTDS Gazette  come see a live show get HTDS merch or become an HTDS premium member for bonus episodes and other perks. HTDS is part of Audacy media network. Interested in advertising on the History That Doesn't Suck? Contact Audacyinc.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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1:06.1

It's a beautiful Saturday morning, May 13, 1939.

1:14.4

We're in Hamburg, Germany, at the city's port, where 937 passengers are in the midst of boarding the MS. St. Louis.

1:20.5

Among them is Giesla Knappel, and what thoughts must be going through her young mind?

1:29.1

Though only 15 years old, she remembers when, despite having one loving teacher, who'd remind students that Giesla was no different from them, she had to transfer to an all-Jewish school. She remembers when the SS man

1:35.4

started standing in front of her parents' grocery store to drive away business. Only the bravest,

1:41.6

like their Catholic neighbor, the baker, dared to push past him.

1:46.0

She remembers when friends and family described last year's night of broken glass,

1:51.0

a night of terror for German Jews that she luckily did not experience personally.

1:56.2

She remembers the day when two men ordered her Polish-born father to pack a bag, grab his passport,

2:02.6

and go with them. Gieselah will always remember making him those last sandwiches for his unknown

...

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