meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Radiolab

Nazi Summer Camp

Radiolab

WNYC Studios

Natural Sciences, History, Documentary, Science, Society & Culture

4.644.5K Ratings

🗓️ 22 May 2015

⏱️ 30 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Reporter Karen Duffin and her father were talking one day when, just as an aside, he mentioned the Nazi prisoners of war that worked on his Idaho farm when he was a kid. Karen was shocked ... and then immediately obsessed. So she spoke with historians, dug through the National Archives and oral histories, and uncovered the astonishing story of a small town in Alabama overwhelmed by thousands of German prisoners of war.  Along the way, she discovered that a very fundamental question  - one that we are struggling with today  -  was playing out seventy years ago in hundreds of towns across America: When your enemy is at your mercy, how should you treat them? Karen helps Jad and Robert try to figure out why we did what we did then, and why we are doing things so differently now. Produced by Kelsey Padgett.  CORRECTION: A previous version of this podcast stated that the Nuremberg Laws and the Mississippi Black Code could be viewed side by side at a museum in Nuremberg. We were unable to confirm the existence of such an exhibit. We were also unable to confirm that the Nuremberg Laws were literally copied from the Mississippi Black Codes. The audio has been corrected to reflect this. We've gathered more photos of Camp Aliceville here Special thanks to: Mary Bess Paluzzi, founding director of the Aliceville Museum  John Gillum, current Director of the Aliceville Museum Sam Love, a filmmaker who gathered the oral histories Ruth Beaumont Cook, who wrote a great book about Aliceville

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Wait, you're listening.

0:03.6

Okay.

0:04.9

All right.

0:05.9

Okay.

0:07.5

All right.

0:08.9

You're listening to Radio Lab.

0:11.9

Radio Lab.

0:12.4

From W. N. Y.

0:14.4

C.

0:15.3

See?

0:15.6

Yeah.

0:17.1

And NPR.

0:19.5

Okay. I'm Chad I boomrod. I'm Robert Krollwich. This is Radio Lab, and today... What we're going to tell you is an old story. It's about 70 years old, but it's not really as old as that at all, because you will notice that it hasn't ended. And it comes to us from reporter Karen Duffin. Yeah. Okay.

0:38.0

All right.

0:38.4

So where to start?

0:39.1

I mean, do you have a sense of where to start?

0:40.3

I feel like I could blame.

0:41.5

Well, I can.

0:42.1

I could blame this on my dad. And that's the house I grew up in, just so you know. Oh, right. Well, that was my bedroom window. This is Karen and her dad looking at pictures of his childhood home.

0:51.9

He grew up in this tiny town in Idaho called Aberdeen.

0:54.7

On a potato farm.

0:57.3

He loves to talk about the farm. at pictures of his childhood home. He grew up in this tiny town in Idaho called Aberdeen.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from WNYC Studios, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of WNYC Studios and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.