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)
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West African food and computer viruses
Wartime surrenders and the birth of Barbie
Five great inventions that changed the world
Tourism arrives in the Maldives and a royal night out
South Korea store collapse and Lady Gaga's meat dress
Somalia's civil war and golf on the moon
Amazing photographs and the people who took them
Inuit children taken from families and Le Mans crash
Scaling Everest, the highest mountain in the world
Bosnian concentration camp photo and hero clown
Singapore executes Filipina maid and German child evacuees of World War Two
World War Two African victory and 'Kai Tak heart attack'
The 'Stone of Destiny' and a self-proclaimed Emperor
Artist Althea McNish and history of the Met Gala
The history of dogs
Unearthing World War II mass graves and the Boston bombing
Escaping Eritrea and inventing Zumba
The godfather of manicures and India's Silicon Valley
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