Poland had the largest Jewish community in Europe before the war. Most of the more than 3 million Jews living in Poland were murdered in the Holocaust. In our first episode on Poland, we talk with historian Grzegorz Rossoliński-Liebe about the role played by Polish mayors in the German-occupied General Government during the Holocaust. As part of the occupation, the Germans dismantled the Polish central state. On the local level, however, Polish officials were often allowed to remain in office. It was primarily the mayors who represented the population’s interests to the occupying power.

We speak with the archivist and historian Dorien Styven – our colleague from the Belgian Holocaust Memorial "Kazerne Dossin" – about the Committee for the Defense of the Jews (CDJ). This organization's main goal was to save as many Jews as possible from being murdered by the Nazis. Founded by young communists, the Committee brought together very different Jewish groups. It succeeded in creating a vast network that helped about 3,000 children hide in private families and child care institutions. Partisans close to the Committee also carried out the only known attack on a deportation train to have taken place during the Holocaust.  

Rabbi Leo Baeck was one of the leading scholars of liberal Judaism in his time. When the Nazis came to power, he became the chairman of the newly formed Representative Council of German Jews. He led the Jewish community until his own deportation to the Theresienstadt ghetto. Judith and Jakob speak with Michael A. Meyer, who has written a new biography on Baeck’s fascinating life. Michael was a professor at the Hebrew Union College and published widely on Jewish history and liberal Judaism. He was the editor of the four-volume “German-Jewish History in Modern Times” and edited the last volume of Baeck’s collected works.

The men at the Wannsee Conference planned to extend mass murder to all of Europe. In the protocol of the conference, Jewish populations were reduced to columns of numbers and estimates. We want to challenge this perspective by looking more closely at the specific situations in the different countries and communities that were targeted by the Nazi criminals.