Red Orchestra: The Story of the Berlin Underground and the Circle of Friends Who Resisted Hitler with Anne Nelson

Cults, Culture & Coercion with Dr. Steve Hassan

Dr. Steven Hassan

Society & Culture, Education, Self-improvement

4.7 • 843 Ratings

🗓️ 1 September 2025

⏱️ 66 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Anne began our discussion by dispelling the myth that everyone in Nazi Germany simply went along with Hitler’s plans. She examined these resisters in her book Red Orchestra: The Story of the Berlin Underground and the Circle of Friends Who Resisted Hitler. When I read the book, it didn’t become clear to me how vitally important it was that there was a vast resistance movement. One I had never heard about. She hopes that the past might give us clues for potential future playbooks.“I think one thing they did well was create a broad coalition. So, what they did was find people who opposed the Nazi regime, and some of them were monarchists, some of them were communists. They had Lutherans, Catholics, Jews, Atheists, you name it. And they agreed to put their differences aside until the end of the regime, and then they could start infighting again. But, over that period, they worked together.” Anne said, “That’s why I’m so adamant about people getting involved now and getting involved in a practical sense, not just the, you know, the street demonstrations, which are fine, but studying what needs to be done in terms of our government.” She hopes that this would help us figure out how to save our democracy while we still may have time. If you wish to be part of the hope of defeating the authoritarian Cult of Trump, roll up your sleeves and be part of heroic resistance! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Dr. Stephen Hassan with another episode of my podcast, cult conversations,
0:10.0	the influence continuum with me, Dr. Steve Hassan.
0:14.4	And I'm so excited to have Anne Nelson back with me.
0:19.4	It's been years, Anne, and I've been bugging you for months to come
0:23.6	back on with all the stuff that's been happening. I know that you are incredibly busy. I just want to
0:31.1	say that your book Shadow Network, media, money, and the secret hub of the radical right is one of my principal omissions
0:41.7	when I researched the cult of Trump, because I read it right after it came out and I was like,
0:48.6	how could I have missed this? Council for National Policy is so central to understanding the cult of Trump,
0:56.4	and they put in the first editor of the Washington Times,
1:00.6	my former cults newspaper, etc.
1:03.7	So you really have been a big source for educating me about the radical right. I'll also say you are a research scholar at Columbia
1:15.7	University School of International and Public Affairs. You're a contributor to the New Republic,
1:22.1	Washington Spectator, the Times Literary Supplement. And in addition to your book, The Shadow Network,
1:29.5	which is all about the Council for National Policy,
1:32.9	I recently read on your suggestion,
1:36.3	your book called Red Orchestra,
1:39.6	the story of the Berlin Underground
1:43.0	and the circle of friends who resisted Hitler.
1:47.2	And honestly, I was listening to the book because I spent too much time reading and on
1:53.6	computers, but I'm listening to the book. And you're giving me all these details about
1:58.7	these individuals. And I'm like, why did Ann tell me to listen
2:04.0	to this, but you really crescendoed to the fact that there really was a very active resistance
	...

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