Episode 78: The U.S. and the Holocaust

Brendan and Andrew are joined by Anne Jaclard, organizational secretary of Marxist-Humanist Initiative. They review and discuss the three episodes of “The U.S. and the Holocaust,” the new documentary by Ken Burns, Lynn Novick, and Sarah Botstein, which premiered on PBS on September 18, and which remains available on the PBS website. The documentary reveals how Nazi persecution of the Jews developed into mass extermination partly because of immigration restrictions in the U.S. and elsewhere. It also examines in detail the struggle between American supporters and opponents of white supremacy and anti-Semitism––before, during, and after the Holocaust, up to the Trumpism of today. After some initial discussion of the overall import of the documentary, Anne and the co-hosts review and comment on each of its three episodes, which tell the story chronologically. Anne and Andrew also offer personal recollections of the early post-Holocaust period and of life in a Jewish family personally affected by the Holocaust.
 
 
 
The episode’s current-events segment is on Vladimir Putin’s unhinged September 30 speech, celebrating Russia’s annexation of eastern Ukraine and Crimea.

 
 
 
Radio Free Humanity is a podcast covering news, politics and philosophy from a Marxist-Humanist perspective. It is co-hosted by Brendan Cooney and Andrew Kliman. We intend to release new episodes every two weeks. Radio Free Humanity is sponsored by MHI, but the views expressed by the co-hosts and guests of Radio Free Humanity are their own. They do not necessarily reflect the views and positions of MHI.

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October 7, 2022

2 Comments

  1. I never read a Putin speech before, and him admitting a mistake is a sign of a lot of pressure against his moves, because no true authoritarian would ever admit a mistake.

    Furthermore, any mention of perpetual western adventures in already devastated countries is just a Hitler reloaded paranoia scenario. You need to force someone with a gun to fake a referendum… It’s just stupid to do a counting fraud while nobody’s watching. Like it is stupid to just blow up a nuclear power plant – that is under your control – with dynamite instead of casually targeting it with artillery. Or executing POWs quietly, Katyn style, instead of targeting them with artillery – from your territory, to your territory.

    I guess everything makes sense in the Putler’s world. He’s insane dictator after all. His moves must be insane to adjust to our framework.

    What is this, Radio Free Europe…

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