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Achtung, welcome to We Have Ways of Making You Talk with me, Almari and James Holland.

We have a guest for you today and it's to talk about an aspect of the war that I don't think we often get to.

We've touched on it a bit when we've spoken to people like Philippe Sands and to Alex Richie.

The aspects of the German states conduct, the Reichs conduct in the Second World War and the things it did in the East, I think.

So James, who are we talking to today?

Today we are talking to Waitman Wayne Björn and this is altogether a grim subject, isn't it?

I mean this is vermact atrocities in the Eastern Front, not SS. Somehow we all assume it's kind of Einsatzgruppen and badass leather coated SS types doing this kind of work.

But of course it wasn't. Hitler's willing executioners and all the rest of it.

And Waitman's done a particular study into a Bala Ruschen village which makes for pretty grim research I guess.

It's Welk, Welk of Waitman.

Thanks for having me.

Well thank you for joining us and you're in Newcastle, is that right?

I am, yes. I met Northern American University so I'm an expat.

I'm not going to say you're having you ended up there but what for?

How have you ended up there?

Well I mean it's, you know, I've taken certainly a very non-traditional approach probably to academia.

The way one finds a suitable position, you know, you kind of have to go where the jobs are.

And there was a fantastic opportunity at Northumbria for someone who works in the Holocaust like myself.

So very excited to be at Newcastle. I love it up here in the north so it's a good place to be.

And we ran into each other on Twitter. The day I was spoiling people out for calling yourself a pelcon of tank.

And just for the sport of it, I mean not because I care in either direction.

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