Nazis in Egypt and Spain's La Tomatina

The History Hour

BBC

History, Society & Culture, Personal Journals

4.4 • 879 Ratings

🗓️ 23 August 2024

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A warning, this programme includes an account of antisemitic views and descriptions of violence.

Egypt recruited thousands of Nazis after World War Two to bolster its security. We hear from Frank Gelli, who in 1964 met Hitler's former propagandist, Johann von Leers, in Cairo.

Author, Vyvyan Kinross is our guest and talks about Nazis in Egypt.

Also, the celebrity murder case that divided France and how in 2001, Argentina went through five leaders in two weeks.

Shatbhi Basu, talks about how became known as India's first female bartender and finally the origins of La Tomatina, one of Spain’s most popular international festivals, as well as the largest tomato fight in the world.

Contributors:

Eduardo Duhalde – former Argentine President. Vyvyan Kinross – author. Michelle Fines- journalist. Shatbhi Basu - beverage consultant, mixologist and writer. Frank Gelli -met Nazi propagandists in Cairo. Goltran Zanon – involved in the first La Tomatina. Maria Jose Zanon - daughter of Goltran Zanon. Enric Cuenca Yxeres - Valencian history teacher.

(Photo: Johannes von Leers. Credit: ullstein bild via Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to the History Hour Podcast from the BBC World Service with me
0:09.6	Max Pearson the past brought to life by those who were there.
0:13.0	This week the celebrity murder case that divided France.
0:17.0	Some music magazines journalist
0:20.0	they tried to explain that Marie was some kind of serial lover.
0:26.0	They say that she was a bit crazy.
0:29.0	Plus the origin story of the largest food fight in the world, Spain's Latomatina.
0:35.2	There must be 22 or 23,000 people and there are six or seven lorries that unload tomatoes at different
0:42.1	points on the route to make sure they are available for everyone.
0:46.0	And the woman who is said to be India's first female bartender.
0:50.0	I was really short and skinny, so they thought, what's puny little thing going to do in the
0:55.0	barge she's probably going to ask us for favors you know she won't do all the heaviest thing
0:59.7	that's all coming up later in the podcast first though how Hitler's Nazis spread That's among those countries which enthusiastically recruited thousands of Nazis and their collaborators
1:15.1	to bolster their defense and security systems.
1:18.0	Frank Gellie was a member of a far-right group in Italy.
1:21.3	He was sent to Cairo in 1964 to meet a man called Johann von Leres, who during the war had worked directly for Adolf Hitler.
1:30.0	Frank has been telling Ben Henderson about their conversation and a word of warning this includes an account of anti-Semitic views. So what I did I press the button and after a while someone came to a door.
1:50.0	It was someone who looked like wearing a pajamas.
1:53.0	I said,
1:54.0	Ms Guzy, sorry, I got a letter for Dr. Fonliers.
1:59.0	And he looked tense and suspicious.
2:03.4	Joanne von Les was one of Adolf Hitler's Nazi propagandists.
	...

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