A History of Auschwitz

Dan Snow's History Hit

History Hit

History

4.7 • 12.9K Ratings

🗓️ 27 January 2025

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On January 27th 1945, the Red Army liberated the concentration camp at Auschwitz unveiling its almost unspeakable horrors to the world.

The concentration camp system began almost immediately after Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933. It was an integral part of the Nazi regime's rapid dismantling of German democracy. Within weeks, the first concentration camp, Dachau, was opened to imprison political opponents, marking the start of a vast and brutal system of camps across Germany and later in the occupied territories. The camps began as places to imprison political enemies and people the Nazis deemed to be “undesirables”. But, as the Second World War progressed, these camps became centres of industrial-scale genocide, with Auschwitz becoming perhaps the most infamous.

In this episode, Dan is joined by Nikolaus Wachsmann, Professor of Modern European History at Birkbeck University of London. They discuss the historical context and horrors of Auschwitz, marking Holocaust Memorial Day on the 80th anniversary of its liberation by the Red Army.

Warning: This episode contains a detailed discussion of the Holocaust and genocide which some listeners may find upsetting.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Dan Snow, and if you would like Dan Snow's History Hit ad-free, get early access and bonus episodes, sign up to History Hit.
0:09.7	With a History Hit subscription, you can also watch hundreds of hours of original documentaries with top history presenters and enjoy a new release every week.
0:19.4	Sign up now by visiting historyhit.com slash subscribe.
0:27.3	Hi everybody, welcome to Dan Snow's History Hit.
0:35.2	It was January the 30th, 19 1933, that Adolf Hitler was appointed
0:41.5	Chancellor of Germany. And immediately, his Nazi regime began dismantling what was left of German
0:50.6	democracy. Opposition newspapers were shut down.
0:55.5	Political opponents were silenced.
0:58.0	They were rounded up,
0:59.3	and the Nazi regime instantly realized it needed somewhere to put them.
1:03.9	Within weeks of Hitler becoming chancellor,
1:06.9	the first concentration camp had opened.
1:15.5	At Dachau, 10 miles northwest of Munich in southern Germany. It was the start of a vast system of imprisonment, through which the Nazis
1:23.1	extended their control over Germany and then occupied territories as they invaded one neighbour after another.
1:30.3	That system, already cruel, violent, morphed into something truly terrible,
1:37.5	some of the most horrific places in the long and lamentable catalogue of human crimes.
1:45.0	As the Second World War progressed, camps were built within that system
1:48.4	that functioned as places of large-scale industrial slaughter,
1:54.5	of murder, of genocide, among them famously Auschwitz.
2:01.6	At the end of January every year, we mark Holocaust Awareness Day.
2:05.0	The Red Army liberated the site of Auschwitz-Birkenau on the 27th of January,
2:10.7	1945, 80 years ago.
	...

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