Episode description

Tom Sutcliffe talks to three historians about the crimes of WWII and the shifting geopolitics, and the lasting reverberations today with the war in Ukraine. Dan Stone’s new book, The Holocaust - An Unfinished History moves beyond the concentration camps to reveal the true extent of the killing in towns and villages, and the depth of collaboration across the continent – from Norway to Romania.

On BBC World Service and BBC Sounds Catherine Merridale uncovers the complex story of loss and silence about the murder of Soviet Jews during the Nazi invasion in 1941, and the extraordinary testimony of what was happening, detailed in The Black Book.

Bernard Wasserstein’s family originally came from Krakowiec and in A Small Town in Ukraine he traces the arc of history across centuries of religious and political conflict through the fortunes of its inhabitants – from the earlier invasions of Cossaks, Turks and Swedes to the horrors of WWII and today’s war with Russia.

Producer: Katy Hickman

Image: Three Jewish women gather their belongings on Haifa dock, Palestine, after leaving the illegal immigrant ship Exodus. (Getty Images)