Shows / World History: True Stories of the 20th Century
World History: True Stories of the 20th Century
World History presents powerful true stories from the most dramatic events of the 20th century. This history podcast explores World War II, the Holocaust, Nazi Germany, war crimes, resistance movements, and the individuals whose actions shaped history. Through carefully researched narration and historical sources, each episode reveals the human stories behind global conflict, from concentration camps and political trials to acts of courage and survival. Produced by the creators of World History…
Episodes
- World History: True Stories of the 20th Century
Son Thang Massacre: U.S. Marines Executed Civilians in Vietnam War
The Son Thang massacre, a war crime during the Vietnam War, saw U.S. Marines execute unarmed civilians in a South Vietnamese village. On February 19, 1970…
- World History: True Stories of the 20th Century
Hans Loritz: Nazi Camp Commandant of Dachau and Sachsenhausen Who Escaped Justice
Hans Loritz, a Nazi concentration camp commandant of Dachau and Sachsenhausen, became one of the key architects of early SS camp brutality during the Second…
- World History: True Stories of the 20th Century
Roland Freisler: Nazi Judge Who Sent Thousands to Death in Hitler’s People’s Court
Roland Freisler, a Nazi judge and President of the People’s Court, became one of the most feared figures of the Third Reich by turning trials into instruments…
- World History: True Stories of the 20th Century
Marcel Petiot: French Serial Killer Who Murdered Jews Under Nazi Occupation
Marcel Petiot, a French serial killer posing as a resistance helper, used Nazi-occupied France to lure victims and murder them under the guise of escape…
- World History: True Stories of the 20th Century
Vidkun Quisling: Norwegian Fascist Leader and Nazi Collaborator Executed for Treason
Vidkun Quisling, a Norwegian fascist leader and Nazi collaborator, became a symbol of treachery during the Second World War. In the 1930s, he founded the…
- World History: True Stories of the 20th Century
Akira Mutō: Japanese General Responsible for Nanjing Massacre Executed for War Crimes
Akira Mutō, a senior Imperial Japanese general responsible for atrocities including the Nanjing Massacre, became one of the most brutal and consequential…
- World History: True Stories of the 20th Century
Truus and Freddie Oversteegen: Teenage Dutch Girls Who Killed Nazis in WW2
Truus and Freddie Oversteegen, teenage Dutch resistance fighters, became some of the most remarkable anti-Nazi operatives in the Netherlands during World War…
- World History: True Stories of the 20th Century
Kyiv Public Execution: Nazis Responsible for the Babi Yar Massacre Hanged After WWII
The Kyiv public execution in January 1946 saw Nazi perpetrators responsible for crimes including the Babi Yar massacre hanged before thousands of residents in…
- World History: True Stories of the 20th Century
Genrikh Yagoda: Soviet Secret Police Chief and Gulag Architect Executed in Stalin’s Purge
Genrikh Yagoda, head of the NKVD, the Soviet secret police, and architect of the Gulag system, rose from a poor Jewish family in the Russian Empire to become…
- World History: True Stories of the 20th Century
Magda Goebbels: Nazi “First Lady” Who Killed Her Children in Hitler’s Bunker
Magda Goebbels, the symbolic “First Lady” of Nazi Germany and wife of Joseph Goebbels, stood at the centre of one of the regime’s most disturbing family…
- World History: True Stories of the 20th Century
Sergei Bunyachenko: Soviet Colonel Turned Nazi Collaborator in WW2
Sergei Bunyachenko, a high-ranking Soviet officer turned Nazi collaborator during the Second World War, is a story of betrayal, ideological conflict, and…
- World History: True Stories of the 20th Century
Feodosia Massacre: Soviet Killing of Nazi German Prisoners in Crimea, 1942
The Feodosia massacre refers to the killing of German prisoners by Soviet forces after the Red Army recaptured the Crimean port city during the Second World…
- World History: True Stories of the 20th Century
Ngo Dinh Diem: The South Vietnamese Dictator Overthrown During the Vietnam War
Ngo Dinh Diem, the first president of South Vietnam, ruled with strong American support until his violent overthrow and assassination during the escalating…
- World History: True Stories of the 20th Century
Max Pauly: The Neuengamme Commandant Linked to the Murder of Children
Max Pauly, commandant of the Neuengamme concentration camp during the Second World War, became responsible for brutal crimes within the Nazi camp system…
- World History: True Stories of the 20th Century
Josias of Waldeck-Pyrmont: The SS Prince Behind the Crimes of Buchenwald
Josias, Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont, a German aristocrat turned SS leader, became deeply involved in the Nazi regime and held authority over the Buchenwald…
- World History: True Stories of the 20th Century
Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper Who Terrorized Wartime London
Gordon Frederick Cummins, an RAF airman during the Second World War, became infamous as the “Blackout Ripper,” a serial killer who terrorized London during the…
- World History: True Stories of the 20th Century
Jozef Tiso: The Priest-President Who Led Slovakia as a Nazi Puppet State
Jozef Tiso, a Catholic priest who became president of wartime Slovakia, led his country into collaboration with Nazi Germany during the Second World War. A…
- World History: True Stories of the 20th Century
Kenji Doihara: Japan’s “Narco-General” Behind the Invasion of Manchuria
Kenji Doihara, an Imperial Japanese Army general and intelligence officer, became one of the key architects of Japan’s expansion into China and the creation of…
- World History: True Stories of the 20th Century
Francisco Boix: The Mauthausen Prisoner Who Smuggled Photos of Nazi Crimes
Francisco Boix, a Spanish Republican prisoner at the Mauthausen concentration camp, risked his life to preserve photographic evidence of Nazi crimes during the…
- World History: True Stories of the 20th Century
Stutthof Executions: Public Hanging of Nazi Camp Guards in Postwar Poland
The Stutthof executions of 1946 were among the rare public punishments of Nazi war criminals, when former SS guards from the Stutthof concentration camp were…
- World History: True Stories of the 20th Century
Lavrentiy Beria: Stalin’s Secret Police Chief and Architect of Soviet Terror
Lavrentiy Beria, the powerful head of Stalin’s secret police, became one of the most feared architects of repression in the Soviet Union. Lavrentiy Beria was…
- World History: True Stories of the 20th Century
Eva Braun: Hitler’s Secret Companion Who Stayed Until the Fall of the Third Reich
Eva Braun, the longtime secret companion and eventual wife of Adolf Hitler, chose to remain at his side in the Führerbunker as the Third Reich collapsed in…
- World History: True Stories of the 20th Century
Andrey Vlasov: The Soviet General Who Became a Nazi Collaborator
Andrey Vlasov, once a celebrated Red Army general who helped defend Moscow in 1941, later became one of the most notorious collaborators with Nazi Germany…
- World History: True Stories of the 20th Century
Dachau Liberation Reprisals: The Killing of SS Guards After the Camp’s Discovery
The liberation of the Dachau concentration camp in April 1945 exposed the horrors of the Nazi camp system and was followed by controversial reprisals against…
- World History: True Stories of the 20th Century
My Lai Massacre: The Vietnam War Atrocity That Shocked the World
The My Lai Massacre remains one of the most infamous atrocities of the Vietnam War, when U.S. soldiers killed hundreds of unarmed civilians in a South…
- World History: True Stories of the 20th Century
Rudolf Höss: The Auschwitz Commandant Who Built the Nazi Killing Machine
Rudolf Höss, the long-time commandant of Auschwitz, became one of the most infamous figures of the Holocaust as the man who transformed Auschwitz-Birkenau into…
- World History: True Stories of the 20th Century
Joachim von Ribbentrop: Hitler’s Foreign Minister and Architect of Nazi Diplomacy
Joachim von Ribbentrop, Nazi Germany’s Foreign Minister and one of Adolf Hitler’s closest allies, helped shape the diplomatic strategy that paved the way for…
- World History: True Stories of the 20th Century
Johann Eichhorn: The “Beast of Aubing” Serial Killer in Nazi Germany
Johann Eichhorn became one of the most brutal serial killers in German history, committing a series of murders in Munich during the rise of Nazi Germany and…
- World History: True Stories of the 20th Century
Pierre Laval: The Vichy Prime Minister Who Collaborated with Nazi Germany
Pierre Laval, once a socialist politician and prime minister of France, became one of the most infamous collaborators with Nazi Germany during World War II…
- World History: True Stories of the 20th Century
Masaharu Homma: The Japanese General Held Responsible for the Bataan Death March
Masaharu Homma, a general of the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II, became forever linked to one of the most infamous atrocities of the Pacific War —…
- World History: True Stories of the 20th Century
Sophie Scholl: The White Rose Student Who Defied Hitler
Sophie Scholl stands today as one of the most powerful symbols of moral courage in Nazi Germany. This biography explores her life, her resistance, and her…
- World History: True Stories of the 20th Century
Minsk War Crimes Trial: Public Executions of Nazi Perpetrators in 1946
The Minsk War Crimes Trial of 1945–1946 exposed the brutal realities of Nazi occupation in Belarus and ended with the public execution of several German…
- World History: True Stories of the 20th Century
Mikhail Tukhachevsky: Stalin’s Purged Marshal of the Soviet Union
Mikhail Tukhachevsky, Marshal of the Soviet Union and one of the most brilliant military reformers of his generation, became one of the most tragic victims of…
- World History: True Stories of the 20th Century
Lina Heydrich: The Fanatical Nazi Widow of Reinhard Heydrich
Lina Heydrich, the wife of SS leader Reinhard Heydrich, was one of the most fanatical women in the Nazi elite. Fiercely loyal to both her husband and Adolf…