An episode from 06/06/2024: Tonight, I share two stories from the Shoah, or Holocaust.

The first is about the Sonderkommando, those prisoners forced to do the most devastating work in the concentration camps. During a 2015 Fresh Air interview with László Nemes and Géza Röhrig about their 2015 film, Son of Saul, a brief story about an actual Sonderkommando member is told. It remains one of the most overwhelming minutes that I have ever heard.

In the second part, I read from Daniel Mendelsohn’s 2006 book, The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million. The book is Mendelsohn’s attempt to discover what happened to six members of his family who were murdered in the Holocaust, and the section I read from is about the difficulty of truly entering the mind and situation of a sixteen year-old girl, who is rounded up with a thousand other Jews, and murdered.

You can support Human Voices Wake Us here, or by ordering any of my books: Notes from the Grid, To the House of the SunThe Lonely Young & the Lonely Old, and Bone Antler Stone. I’ve also edited a handful of books in the S4N Pocket Poems series.

Email me at humanvoiceswakeus1@gmail.com.


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#217: Voices from 1900-1914 Human Voices Wake Us

An episode from 1/2/23: Tonight, I read a handful of voices from those living in Europe and the United States between 1900 and 1914. Rephrased only slightly, nearly all of their concerns (over technology, gender, nationalism, war, eugenics) feel like they could appear in the news or on the street today. Then and now, what is actually going on alongside all the dread? What can we learn from these voices that sound so much like our own, and what will people look back on 2023 learn for themselves?Each of these quotations can be found in Philipp Blom’s wonderful book, The Vertigo Years.The best way to support the podcast is by leaving a review on Apple or Spotify, sharing it with others, or sending me a note on what you think. You can also order any of my books: Time and the River: From Columbine to the Invention of Fire, due out next year, is now available for preorder. Other books include Notes from the Grid, To the House of the Sun, The Lonely Young & the Lonely Old, and Bone Antler Stone. I've also edited a handful of books in the S4N Pocket Poems series. I also have a YouTube channel where I share poems and excerpts from these books, mostly as YouTube shorts.Email me at humanvoiceswakeus1@gmail.com.
  1. #217: Voices from 1900-1914
  2. #216: Poets, Prophets, Seeresses & Goddesses from Time & the River
  3. #215: 8 Favorite Poems from "Time and the River"
  4. #214: Two of the Best Poems You've Never Heard of (by William Cullen Bryant)
  5. #213: Van Gogh's Early Years
  6. #212: The Most Popular Story in Ancient India
  7. #211: Who Was William Cullen Bryant?
  8. #210: Memories & Legends of William Shakespeare
  9. #209 – Being a Jew in 1900, Being a Jew Now
  10. #208: Bach & God

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