Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service all about figures branded as traitors.
In 1939 Wang Jingwei, once a national hero in China, signed an agreement with Japanese invaders which made his name synonymous with the word ‘Hanjian’, a traitor to China. But Pan Chia-sheng’s memories of living under Wang Jingwei’s government in Nanjing tell a very different story.
Our guest Ian Crofton, author of Traitors and Turncoats, explains the nuances involved in our historic understanding of traitors.
Also, the fascist Norwegian politician Vidkun Quisling blamed for convincing the German dictator Adolf Hitler to invade Norway in 1940. Norwegian journalist Trude Lorentzen explains the story with an account she recorded from Quisling’s Jewish neighbour, Leif Grusd.
And, the story of the former Broadway showgirl, known as Axis Sally, who broadcast antisemitic Nazi propaganda on German State Radio during World War Two, told through the archives.
Plus, the Polish colonel, Ryszard Kuklinski, code-named 'Jack Strong', who passed Soviet military secrets to the CIA that changed the tide of the Cold War.
And, the Hungarian Sándor Szűcs, famous for playing in the country’s star football team, who was executed in 1951 for trying to defect from the communist regime.
Contributors: Pan Chia-sheng - on Wang Jingwei Ian Crofton - author of Traitors and Turncoats Trude Lorentzen - Norwegian journalist on Vidkun Quisling Aris Papas - one of the agents who received intelligence from Ryszard Kuklinski
Erzsi Kovács’ story is told using an archive interview he gave in 2011 to Hungarian journalist Endre Kadarkai on the Arckép programme, on Zuglo TV.
(Photo: Mildred Gillars, known as 'Axis Sally', on trial for treason in 1949. Credit: Corbis via Getty Images)
British black history special
The Mafia and Italian politics
Blackwater killed my son
Stories of resistance and protest from around the world
Prohibition in India
Inventing James Bond
Margaret Ekpo - Nigeria's feminist pioneer
The siege at Ruby Ridge
Beirut's hotel war
The Second World War in Japan
Adrift for 76 Days
The Million Man March
South Korea's 1980s prison camps
Quarantined in a TB sanatorium
Dealing with economic crisis
Sex trafficking and peacekeepers
Black American History Special
The Zanzibar revolution
The Gwangju massacre
Britain's World War Two crime wave
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The Modern West
Global News Podcast
Friday Night Comedy from BBC Radio 4
The Infinite Monkey Cage
You’re Dead to Me
Elis James and John Robins