Civilians at War
Civilians at war do not get uniforms, orders, or medals. They get a front line that arrives at their doorstep and a choice nobody should have to make. This show tells the true stories of civilians at war: the families, doctors, teachers, and children caught inside conflicts they never chose. Each episode reconstructs one true story in full, cinematic detail: the city surrounded, the checkpoint that decided who passed, the basement that became a hospital, the neighbor who became an informer. No host chatting between clips, no panel debating politics. Just one complete story, narrated start to finish, built from...
A secret memo saved 15,345 lives from a German estate
A civilian internee on a German estate sends a secret memo through diplomatic channels, requesting the transfer of Norwegian prisoners to Sweden. His actions will expose the true nature of wartime rescue operations.
A secret memo saved 15,345 lives from a German estate
This episode explores the complex life of Johan Bernhard Hjort, a Norwegian lawyer and former fascist co-founder, whose actions during World War II led to a significant rescue operation. It delves into the contradictions of his past and the motivations behind his wartime efforts.
Person: Johan Bernhard Hjort
Date: October 26, 1944
...
Four words exposed a leader's secret knowledge
A leader's past is hidden when a university removes his name, but a financial scandal and a four-word commission finding expose his secret knowledge.
Four words exposed a leader's secret knowledge
This episode explores the life of Balthazar Johannes Vorster, a prominent figure in South African history whose name was quietly removed from a university building decades after his influence. It delves into the circumstances surrounding his internment during World War II and his later political ascent, revealing the complex legacy of a man whose actions shaped a nation.
Person: Balthazar Johannes Vorster
...
The Exemption That Failed to Protect a Man
A British exemption should protect a man, but a Bauhaus artist finds himself aboard a troopship-what will become of him?
The Exemption That Failed to Protect a Man
This episode explores the journey of Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack, a Bauhaus artist and teacher, as he navigates the complexities of pre-war Europe and the British internment policies despite an official exemption. It raises the question of what it truly costs a person to carry a lifetime of work and experience through such upheaval.
Person: Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack
Date: October 1939
Employer: Dulwich College
Invention: Farbenlichtspiele (colour-light...
The Fifteen‑Year‑Old Name She Chose That Survived a Gulag
A Moscow translator seized in 1949 faces Article 58 and a decade in a Gulag-how did the name she chose at fifteen help expose her inner survival?
The Fifteen‑Year‑Old Name She Chose That Survived a Gulag
In this episode, we follow Natalya Yevgenevna Semper from Moscow salons to Soviet prisons, tracing the choices and practices that shaped her life before and during her sentence. What role did a self‑chosen name and a life of language play in the years that followed?
Person: Natalya Yevgenevna Semper (born Sokolova)
Date: Arrest July 1949; sentence ten years...
The letter to Stalin that brought him home to die
A novelist and diplomat returns to the Soviet Union after years abroad, believing it a "long-awaited shore," only to face the regime's growing machinery.
The letter to Stalin that brought him home to die
This episode explores the life of Yusif Vazirov, a prolific writer and diplomat, tracing his journey from his birth in Azerbaijan to his return to the Soviet Union and the unresolved mystery surrounding his most famous work.
Person: Yusif Vazirov
Born: September 12, 1887
Birthplace: Shusha, Azerbaijan
Profession: Novelist, diplomat, lawyer
Pen Name: Chamanzaminli
- Yusif...
The fresh surgical scar that contradicted her hostage video
A young tattoo artist is abducted from a music festival, and her forced hostage video becomes the first glimpse into a brutal captivity. But a fresh surgical scar tells a different story.
The fresh surgical scar that contradicted her hostage video
This episode details the abduction of Mia Schem from the Nova music festival and her subsequent 54-day captivity in Gaza. It explores how a forced video released by her captors presented a stark contrast to the reality of her experience, revealed by a visible injury.
Person: Mia Schem
Date: October 7, 2023
Location...
The Market Stall That Kept Paying Rent While He Vanished
A market stall in Tel Aviv keeps paying rent for 738 days, even though its owner, a logistics manager, has vanished. His family learns he is a Gaza hostage.
The Market Stall That Kept Paying Rent While He Vanished
This episode tells the story of Elkana Bohbot, a logistics manager and aspiring ice cream shop owner, whose life takes an unexpected turn on October 7, 2023. It explores the harrowing experience of being held captive and the profound impact on his family.
Person: Elkana Bohbot
Date: October 7, 2023
Location: Tel Aviv, Mevaseret Zion, Gaza
Event...
The Manzanar Name That Turned a Scientist into a Forest-builder
A Japanese American scientist from Manzanar names a Red Sea mangrove project after the camp - will she build it?
The Manzanar Name That Turned a Scientist into a Forest-builder
In this episode, we trace the life choices that led Gordon Hisashi Hisashi from Manzanar to the National Academy of Sciences and then to planting nearly a million trees in Eritrea. What drove him to choose mangroves, Eritrea, and to keep the name Manzanar for the project?
Person: Gordon Hisashi Hisashi
Date of birth: December 17, 1927
Event: Imprisonment at Manzanar Relocation Camp
...
The Wartime Stall That Shaped a Scholar's Fight for Justice
A two-year-old newborn in a horse stall at Turlock grows into a sociologist who confronts how a nation confines its own - how did that stall expose her?
The Wartime Stall That Shaped a Scholar's Fight for Justice
In this episode, we follow the arc from a toddler’s confinement in a converted horse stall to a lifetime of questions about citizenship, labor, and structural power. It traces the places and decisions that shaped Evelyn Nakano Glenn’s path and asks how those beginnings pushed her into a career of naming systemic injustice.
Person: Evel...
The DENIS facade rolled outward and made Aalbers famous
An architect builds a radical bank facade in colonial Indonesia - then the world shuts down around him. What did this architecture cost him?
The DENIS facade rolled outward and made Aalbers famous
This episode explores the story of Albert Frederik Aalbers, an architect who designed the DENIS Bank on Braga Street in Bandung, Dutch East Indies, and the personal cost of his architectural ambition amidst a changing world.
Person: Albert Frederik Aalbers
Location: Bandung, Dutch East Indies
Year: 1935
Building: DENIS Bank
Topic: Colonial Architecture
- Albert Aalbers...
A Jewish quota blocked his architecture dreams, changing his life
A man rebuilt from a death block dedicates six decades to justice, but his version of events contains contradictions. How did his story change?
A Jewish quota blocked his architecture dreams, changing his life
This episode explores the early life of Simon Wiesenthal, a man who survived five concentration camps and dedicated his life to pursuing justice. It delves into the discrepancies between his autobiographical accounts and documented facts, raising questions about the accuracy of his personal narrative.
Person: Simon Wiesenthal
Date: May 5, 1945
Location: Mauthausen concentration camp
Weight: 41 kilograms
Family...
The Diplomat Who Vanished: Four Years in Rhodesia
A diplomat is interned in Rhodesia for four years without trial, far from Jerusalem. His story reveals what happens when a negotiator's world burns.
The Diplomat Who Vanished: Four Years in Rhodesia
This episode explores the life of Jamal al-Husayni, a diplomat from Jerusalem who was interned in Southern Rhodesia for four years without trial. It questions the kind of life that leads to such an outcome, revealing a story stranger than it first appears.
Person: Jamal al-Husayni
Period: 1894-1982
Location: Jerusalem, Southern Rhodesia, Beirut
Status: Diplomat, interned without trial
...
The Man Who Mapped Hell From The Inside
A man testifies before the US Senate about Soviet Gulag camps, including an atomic reactor, on an Arctic island. No one can prove him wrong.
The Man Who Mapped Hell From The Inside
This episode recounts the extraordinary journey of Avraham Shifrin, from his youth as a "Son of an Enemy of the People" to his testimony before the United States Senate. It explores the personal cost of exposing the Soviet Union's hidden geography of captivity.
Person: Avraham Shifrin
Date: 1973
Location: United States Senate
Topic: Soviet Gulag system
Charge: Espionage<...
A Widow's Photograph Located Karsavin's Lost Grave
A philosopher's grave above the Arctic Circle is lost to history until a single photograph, kept by a widow, exposes its location.
A Widow's Photograph Located Karsavin's Lost Grave
This episode tells the story of Lev Karsavin, a philosopher whose grave was lost for decades in an abandoned cemetery above the Arctic Circle. It explores how a single photograph, preserved by a widow, ultimately led researchers to its discovery.
Person: Lev Karsavin Karsavin
Date: December 13, 1882 (birth)
Location: Abez, above the Arctic Circle
Period: 19th and 20th centuries
Event: Organized expulsion...
The Boy at Beslan Who Kept Training and Became a Champion
An eight-year-old stands outside School Number One as armed men herd his teammates inside-how did that Beslan morning shape a champion wrestler?
The Boy at Beslan Who Kept Training and Became a Champion
In this episode, we follow the life of Zaurbek Sidakov from the grounds of School Number One in Beslan to the elite mats of international freestyle wrestling. The episode traces his training, key matches, and the question his career cannot answer: what becomes of someone who witnessed the worst thing they ever saw but kept moving forward?
Person: Zaurbek Sidakov
...
The ring he bought that kept him asking for five hundred and five days
A man with a ring in his pocket is seized at a desert music festival and spends 505 days chained in tunnels; how did that ring expose them?
The ring he bought that kept him asking for five hundred and five days
In this episode, a chronological account follows Eliya Cohen from the hours before October 7 through the months that followed, tracing his abduction at the Nova music festival and the early days in captivity. The story focuses on the timeline, the conditions he endured, and the single purchased object that recurs in the record - what...
The Phone Call That Shattered an Invisible Ceiling
A six-year-old Japanese American girl is held in a government internment camp during WWII. Decades later, she confronts an invisible ceiling in television.
The Phone Call That Shattered an Invisible Ceiling
This episode explores the experiences of Joan Aiko Shigekawa, who was interned as a child during World War II, and how those formative years shaped her ability to identify and challenge systemic barriers in her later career. It questions what a person carries out of such an experience and how it influences their life's work.
Person: Joan Aiko Shigekawa
Event: Japanese American...
The File She Photocopied That Unmasked the Internment Case
A young woman is imprisoned in a desert camp during World War II, then spends decades uncovering the bureaucratic truth behind her internment. Her research exposes the hidden facts of a national injustice.
The File She Photocopied That Unmasked the Internment Case
This episode explores the life of Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga, from her forced removal as a teenager to her later work in the National Archives. It delves into the personal and systemic impacts of the Japanese American internment, and what she discovered that challenged the official narrative.
Person: Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga
Date: June 26, 1942
...
The East Africa War Showed What Disease Does
A bacteriologist interned during wartime uses his expertise in tropical disease to keep civilians alive with "inadequate and unlikely sources." How did his methods expose them?
The East Africa War Showed What Disease Does
This episode explores the career of George Vance Allen, a bacteriologist and college principal, and his experiences during internment. It highlights how his medical background, particularly in tropical diseases, prepared him for the challenges he faced.
Person: George Vance Allen
Date: February 1942
Location: Singapore
Event: Japanese bombardment of Singapore
Period: World War II
...
The British arrest warrant that sent Zahedi into exile
A British commando arrests a powerful general for Nazi collaboration, finding German weapons and opium. This Cold War figure later becomes a key player in a CIA-backed coup.
The British arrest warrant that sent Zahedi into exile
This episode explores the early life and military career of Fazlollah Zahedi, an Iranian general whose path intertwined with the Pahlavi dynasty and the nationalization of Iran's oil. It questions how a man interned by the British for suspected Nazi ties became a central figure in a major geopolitical event.
Person: Fazlollah Zahedi
Date: May 17, 1892 (birth)<...
The language he learned on the Dunera that saved his career
A Jewish art historian flees 1934 Munich, is interned on the Dunera, and begins learning Russian - how did that language save his career?
The language he learned on the Dunera that saved his career
In this episode, we follow Ernst Kitzinger’s flight from Munich in 1934, his years of unpaid scholarship across Europe, and the startling detour of being interned and shipped to Australia on HMT Dunera. We track the choices, institutions, and moments - including the odd, pivotal decision to learn Russian aboard the Dunera - that shaped a decades-long academic life; what did learning th...
The diplomatic list that handed Štajner back and cost him decades
A printing worker is arrested by the state he served, charged with crimes no record substantiates. His survival hinges on a diplomatic list, but the cost is decades.
The diplomatic list that handed Štajner back and cost him decades
This episode recounts the harrowing experience of Karlo Štajner, a communist activist who endured decades within the Soviet Gulag system. It explores the arbitrary nature of his imprisonment and the extraordinary circumstances that eventually led to his release.
Person: Karlo Štajner
Date: November 4, 1936
Location: Moscow
Event: Arrest by NKVD
Charge: Counterrevolutionary act...
The barbed wire that marked his unmarked grave
A Yiddish writer, "The Hidden One," dies in a Soviet prison, his unmarked grave known only decades later. How did his literary life lead to this fate?
The barbed wire that marked his unmarked grave
This episode explores the life of Pinchus Kahanovich, also known as Der Nister, a prominent Yiddish author whose chosen pseudonym became a literal truth. It examines the forces that led to his unmarked burial and the enduring mystery surrounding his death.
Person: Pinchus Kahanovich (Der Nister)
Born: November 1, 1884
Location: Berdychiv, Ukraine
Died: June 4, 1950
...
The Coins She Counted Bought a Refugee's Escape
In 1938, two girls in a Grantham corner shop count coins from their pockets to help a Jewish refugee escape Nazi Germany. One will later hold power for over a decade.
The Coins She Counted Bought a Refugee's Escape
This episode explores the early life of Margaret Thatcher, from her childhood in a small Lincolnshire town to her time at Oxford. It examines the formative experiences and contradictions that shaped one of the 20th century's most polarizing figures.
Person: Margaret Hilda Thatcher
Date: October 13, 1925 (birth)
Location: Grantham, Lincolnshire
Parent: Alfred Roberts
...
The Dizengoff bomb hurled her across the pavement and redirected a life
A Tel Aviv teen hurled by the Dizengoff Center Purim bombing must rebuild her life-how did that redirect her path?
The Dizengoff bomb hurled her across the pavement and redirected a life
In this episode, we follow Carmen Elmakiyes from the moment the Dizengoff Center explosion throws her across the pavement to the choices she makes afterward, tracing how trauma, schooling, and community work shape her trajectory. What did she do with that morning that kept pressing on every room she entered?
Person: Carmen Elmakiyes
Event: Dizengoff Center bombing, Purim 1994
Location: Tel...
The Diary That Tracked Every Day Behind Barbed Wire
A professional midwife and her grandson are classified as national security threats, forcing them into a Japanese American incarceration camp.
The Diary That Tracked Every Day Behind Barbed Wire
This episode explores the story of the Shimomura family, focusing on Toku Shimomura, a midwife, and her grandson Roger, as they navigate forced relocation and incarceration during World War II. It questions how a family's established life was uprooted by government order.
Person: Toku Shimomura
Date: June 26, 1939
Location: Seattle's Central District
Executive Order: 9066
Camp: Minidoka War Relocation Center
...
Covered Windows Hid the Route, Forged a Congressman
One-year-old Japanese American boy rides in a covered-window vehicle after being removed from home - how will this internment shape him?
Covered Windows Hid the Route, Forged a Congressman
This episode explores the early life of Michael Makoto Honda, from his family's forced relocation to an internment camp in 1942 to his father's service in the US military. It examines the contradictions of a nation at war and the impact of policy on American citizens.
Person: Michael Makoto Honda
Date: 1942
Location: Camp Amache, southeastern Colorado
Event: Japanese American internment
Order: Executive...
The Hospital Canteen That Smuggled Radios-and Sent Him to the Kempeitai
A schoolteacher at a Singapore hospital canteen smuggled medicine and radio parts into Changi-then walked into the Kempeitai looking for her husband.
The Hospital Canteen That Smuggled Radios-and Sent Him to the Kempeitai
In this episode, we follow Elizabeth Choy Su-Moi and the months she spent running a canteen and ambulance service that also supplied contraband to Changi Prison. The story traces her life before the war, the risks of smuggling radio parts, and the moment she returned to the Kempeitai seeking her husband-what did that choice cost her and why did she trust their denial?<...
A wartime letter sent by post nearly activated a shadow government
A wartime letter containing a shadow government list is sent by post, and 32 of 39 names are already under MI5 surveillance.
A wartime letter sent by post nearly activated a shadow government
This episode explores the documented record of John Warburton Beckett, from his origins as a boy in Hammersmith to his career as a Labour Member of Parliament, and his eventual transformation into a fascist propagandist. It questions how a man travels so far from where he started.
Person: John Warburton Beckett
Date: 1940
Location: Britain
Organization: MI5
Event: Wartime letter...
The Suitcase Tracked by Officers Sent Her East
A seventeen-year-old's suitcase is catalogued at Breslau station while she stands cuffed above-how did that bureaucracy expose her?
The Suitcase Tracked by Officers Sent Her East
In this episode, we follow the moment Anita Lasker was arrested at Breslau station and the small, bureaucratic details that shaped her fate. We trace how a single piece of luggage intersected with Nazi procedures and ask what that reveals about the machinery she walked into.
Person: Anita Lasker
Date: September 1942
Location: Breslau station
Topic: Gestapo arrest and luggage documentation
- A suitcase...
The Hermitage Curator's Arrest Forced Him to Refuse a Confession
A former Gulag prisoner and Hermitage curator's husband refuses to confess after her arrest, and a salmon scientist's quiet decisions become evidence against him-how did that expose them?
The Hermitage Curator's Arrest Forced Him to Refuse a Confession
In this episode, we follow Vladimir Tchernavin’s path from ichthyologist and Arctic researcher to prisoner and refusenik, tracing the moments that turned routine professional choices into accusations. What did his refusal to sign mean inside a system that equated confession with fate?
Person: Vladimir Tchernavin
Person: Tatiana (wife), curator, Section of Applied Arts at th...
The Sentence About Lenin's Portraits Sent Him to the Camps
An art critic’s nine-word remark about Lenin’s portraits brands a museum protector as an enemy - how did that sentence expose him?
The Sentence About Lenin's Portraits Sent Him to the Camps
In this episode, we follow the life and career of Nikolay Punin, an art historian who spent decades defending Russia’s great collections and giving public lectures on Rembrandt and the Impressionists. The episode traces the secret file that grew against him and asks how a casual critique of Lenin’s portraits could become the fatal accusation.
Person: Nikolay Punin
Dat...
The steel door refused the axe - he saved his granddaughter
A cartoonist's controversial drawing leads to years of armed protection, culminating in a steel door facing an axe attack with his granddaughter inside.
The steel door refused the axe - he saved his granddaughter
This episode recounts the story of Kurt Westergaard, a Danish cartoonist whose single drawing in 2005 led to a life under constant threat and the construction of a panic room in his home. It explores the events that followed, including an axe attack on New Year's Day 2010.
Person: Kurt Westergaard
Date: January 1, 2010
Location: Aarhus, Denmark
Topic: Cartoon controversy<...
The printed notice that gave them seven days and took their lives apart
A 1942 executive order forces Japanese Americans from their homes. One woman's detailed record reveals the impact of official policy on ordinary lives.
The printed notice that gave them seven days and took their lives apart
This episode explores the documented life of Kazuko Itoi, an American-born woman whose family managed a Seattle hotel, as she navigates the sudden upheaval of forced removal during World War II. It questions what a government believes it is doing when it interns its own citizens.
Person: Kazuko Itoi
Date: 1942
Location: Seattle, Washington
Order: Executive Order 9066<...
A campus directory renames forty million Americans
A man uses a campus directory to identify students with Asian surnames already in political groups, sparking a movement to rename forty million Americans.
A campus directory renames forty million Americans
This episode explores the origins of the term "Asian American" and the historical work that accompanied its creation. It delves into the life of Yuji Ichioka, whose personal experience with forced relocation shaped his dedication to self-definition and historical recovery.
Person: Yuji Ichioka
Date: 1968
Location: Berkeley
Event: Founding of the "Asian American" term
- Yuji Ichioka, at six...
The Room Assignment That Starved Their Charity
A room-assignment committee in a Shandong internment camp rationed space and dignity-how did those allocations expose them?
The Room Assignment That Starved Their Charity
In this episode, we follow the arrival of Western civilians at the Weihsien Civilian Assembly Center and the committee work that assigned rooms inside a mission compound pressed into service. The story tracks how everyday decisions about space and rations tested assumptions about faith, education, and civilized behavior, and asks what those choices reveal about the people who made them.
Person: Langdon Brown Gilkey
Person: Eric Liddell
Location...
The surgical instrument salesman who built the Blackshirts
A surgical-instrument salesman became the architect of Britain's Blackshirts and sat four years in prison without charge - how did that expose him?
The surgical instrument salesman who built the Blackshirts
In this episode, we follow Neil Francis Hawkins from his early life in commerce to the centre of Britain's fascist movement, tracing the decisions, mergers and internal purges that made him indispensable - and asking what the gaps in the record reveal about the man behind the organisation.
Person: Neil Francis Hawkins
Occupation: Surgical instrument salesman; later BUF Director-General of Organisation: British...
The Trevi Fountain's Silence Mourned a Star
Rome's Trevi Fountain is silenced for the first time in centuries to mourn a star. His private life, however, remains a public battle.
The Trevi Fountain's Silence Mourned a Star
This episode explores the life of Marcello Mastroianni, an actor whose quiet survival and unique screen presence defied the logic of his own legend, even as his death sparked a final argument among the women in his life.
Person: Marcello Mastroianni
Date: December 19, 1996
Location: Rome, Italy
Event: Trevi Fountain silenced
Films: 147
- On December 19, 1996, Rome's Trevi Fountain was...
The memoir that withheld her life for decades
A woman who ran a spy network is arrested by the state she served for knowing too much. How did her memoir expose her Cold War past?
The memoir that withheld her life for decades
This episode explores the life of Nadezhda, a woman who navigated the tumultuous 20th century under multiple identities, from her origins in the Russian Empire to her work as a Soviet agent. It delves into the extraordinary circumstances that shaped her and the quiet, yet profound, impact she had as a civilian caught in the machinery of ideological war.
...
The Secret Pact That Traded a Nation
Latvia's leader cooperates with occupiers, dissolving his republic and asking for a pension, only to face a one-way journey into the Soviet prison system. This is a WWII civilian wreckage story.
The Secret Pact That Traded a Nation
This episode explores the life and mysterious death of Kārlis Ulmanis, Latvia's leader during World War II, who vanished into the Soviet prison system. How did a head of state, who once ruled a nation, meet such an end?
Person: Kārlis Ulmanis
Date: September 20, 1942
Location: Soviet prison transport
Status: Died of dy...
