In 1945, after defeat in the Second World War, many Germans claimed to have known nothing about what had happened to their fellow Jewish citizens – and with that, the idea of the ‘innocent bystander’ was born. But just how true was this claim? Delving into a rich archive of personal accounts of life in the Nazi era, Mary Fulbrook has unearthed a far more complex story, as she tells Rebecca Franks.
(Ad) Mary Fulbrook is the author of Bystander Society: Conformity and Complicity in Nazi Germany and the Holocaust (Oxford University Press, 2023). Buy it now from Amazon:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bystander-Society-Conformity-Complicity-Holocaust/dp/0197691714/?tag=bbchistory045-21&ascsubtag=historyextra-social-histboty
The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Tiger Tamer | 6. battling against Bovril
How was Elizabeth I shaped by her childhood?
Joan of Arc: life of the week
Leftovers: how our ancestors battled food waste
WW1's eastern front: everything you wanted to know
Eric 'Winkle' Brown: Britain's most extraordinary pilot
Tiger Tamer | 5. crazy about wheelbarrows
Will the real Jesus please stand up?
Mary Wollstonecraft: life of the week
An obscenity trial that shocked Victorian Britain
The Capetians: everything you wanted to know
Lothar II vs Theutberga: a marriage scandal that shook the ninth century
Tiger Tamer | 4. celebrity pedestrian
A political earthquake: Britain's first Labour government
James VI and I: life of the week
From Russia to Texas: the search for a Jewish homeland
British Redcoats: everything you wanted to know
The West's attempt to crush Bolshevik Russia
Tiger Tamer | 3. would you let a tiger lick your face?
Mary & George: the real history behind the new drama
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Gone Medieval
Dan Snow’s History Hit
Not Just the Tudors
American History Hit
Empire