Timesuck with Dan Cummins - 171 - The Warsaw Ghetto - A Tale of Nazi Resistance

Episode Date: December 23, 2019

Ummm.... more Nazis this week. Not EXACTLY a normal holiday choice, but what's normal on Timesuck? Today we look at the Warsaw Ghetto - the largest concentration of European Jews was in Poland, and more Polish Jews lived in Warsaw than in any other city - forced to live in a "ghetto," a walled off city-within-a-city. And the Warsaw ghetto residents were treated horribly. They were shot, starved, and forced to live in squalor. They were taken by train to death camps. And they also fought back in the best example of Jewish resistance in WW2 history. Lot of sadness but also some inspiration in today's brave tale. Happy Holidays, everyone! Check out Lynze and I's new horror podcast Scared to Death. Listen on Spotify, Stitcher, iTunes, Youtube, and more! Here's the iTunes link: https://apple.co/2MRMgai 2020 Toxic Thoughts Tour Standup dates: http://dancummins.tv December 26-28 Spokane, WA Spokane Comedy Club CLICK HERE for tix! Listen to the best of my standup on Spotify! (for free!) https://spoti.fi/2Dyy41d Watch the Suck on YouTube: https://youtu.be/RYCFGJ203Sg Merch - https://badmagicmerch.com/ Want to try out Discord!?! https://discord.gg/tqzH89v Want to join the Cult of the Curious private Facebook Group? Go directly to Facebook and search for "Cult of the Curious" in order to locate whatever current page hasn't been put in FB Jail :) For all merch related questions: https://badmagicmerch.com/pages/contact Please rate and subscribe on iTunes and elsewhere and follow the suck on social media!! @timesuckpodcast on IG and http://www.facebook.com/timesuckpodcast Wanna become a Space Lizard? We're over 6000 strong! Click here: https://www.patreon.com/timesuckpodcast Sign up through Patreon and for $5 a month you get to listen to the Secret Suck, which will drop Thursdays at Noon, PST. You'll also get 20% off of all regular Timesuck merch PLUS access to exclusive Space Lizard merch. You get to vote on two Monday topics each month via the app. And you get the download link for my new comedy album, Feel the Heat. Check the Patreon posts to find out how to download the new album and take advantage of other benefits.

Following the Nazi blitzkrieg invasion of Poland on September 1st, 1939, Warsaw suffered heavy air attacks, an artillery bombardment, and 1.5 million German troops entered Poland, many of them making it quickly to the Polish capital city. Within weeks, German civilian occupation authorities required Warsaw's Jewish population to identify themselves by wearing white armbands with a blue Star of David. The German authorities closed Jewish schools, confiscated Jewish-owned property, and conscripted Jewish men into forced labor and dissolved pre-war Jewish organizations.

And on October 12th, 1940, the Germans decreed the establishment of a ghetto in Warsaw. The decree required all Jewish residents of Warsaw to move into a designated area, which German authorities sealed off from the rest of the city in November. and life quickly became hell for those inside. The ghetto was enclosed by a wall that was over 10 feet high, topped with barbed wire, closely guarded to

prevent movement between the ghetto and the rest of Warsaw. The population of the ghetto increased by Jews compelled to relocate to the ghetto from nearby towns was estimated to be over 400,000 Jews. German authorities forced ghetto residents to live in an area of 1.3 square miles with an average of 7.2 people per room. And then in the summer of 1942, life got even worse. Ghetto residents began to be taken out of the ghetto en masse and transported to Treblinka, a death camp.

Shortly after that, those who remain fought back and staged the largest Jewish uprising against the Nazis in the Nazi-occupied territories during World War II. They didn't beat the Nazis, but they inspired others to fight, and some even survived to tell their tales, and we share some of those tales today. We also go over the history of anti-Semitism in Europe that led to a history of ghettos and how all of that led to the Nazi ideological justification of so much evil, evil shit that they did to the Jewish people in World War II. A lot of learning ahead on an important, how can we meat sacks treat one another?

How can we meat sacks not treat one another like that ever again? Edition of Time Suck. This is Michael McDonald and you're listening to Time Suck. You're listening to Time Suck. Happy holidays, meat sacks. Glad I cleared up that last little phrasing before we jumped into this. That would have said a very different tone. If after I said all that, I'm like, yeah, so let's learn from all that.

And let's learn how to apply all the great treatment of people to how we live in our world today. That would have been a very different show. No, no, no. No, this is bad stuff that we're going over today. Happy Hanukkah. Happy whatever else you may be celebrating. May Nimrod and Lucifina bless you with amazement and joy and, I don't know, bigger dicks, firmer breasts, tighter buttholes, more consistent Wi-Fi, faster Wi-Fi, taste your beef jerky. Whatever you want.

Whatever you want. I'm Dan Cummins, the master sucker. Lucifina's pool boy, Santa's stocking stuffer, and you, sweet, sweet meat sack, you are listening to Time Suck, you beautiful bastard. Hail Nimrod, hail Lucifina, praise Bojangles, and did you know that Michael motherfucking McDonald has a classic

holiday album? An album of him singing old holiday Christmassy standards. Songs like Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. Have yourself a merry little Christmas. Make the season bright. From now on, our troubles will be out of sight. Our troubles will be out of sight.

He doesn't do that at the end. I tried to take it up an octave, but I don't know how to do that. I should have stuck with where it was going initially. Sorry he doesn't have a Hanukkah song. It's not one that I know of. I'd sing it if I knew it. I feel like it would be more appropriate for today's subject matter. If you want to see me in person this next year not singing songs, at least not for long,

just released the dates for the 2020 Toxic Thoughts Tour. Heading all over the U.S. from Massachusetts to Hawaii. We'll be adding a few more dates. A few, not many. And then places I can't get to this coming year, I'm going to try and get to in early 2021. I can't make it everywhere. I can't make it to all the places. Also, international suckers, keep spreading the suck.

Already planning a UK invasion for 2021. Would love to line up more overseas locations like Australia, New Zealand. Come on! Spread the suck like the Black Plague spreading through medieval Europe over there. Load the Dan. Aim the Dan. Fire the Dan. Do it, you guys.

Come on. Head to dancummins.tv for ticket links. Follow me on IG. I have to say I'm fucking cool now. I don't even say Instagram. I say IG. Follow me on IG. I'm not a boomer. Add Dan Cummins Comedy for tour announcements. Come see me in Spokane, Washington for the final Happy Murder Tour date. So this year

at least one show is sold out. Limited tickets available for some, if not the rest. Those shows right after Christmas, December 26th, 27th, 28th. Quick note on holiday merch shipments. We know that there have been a lot of questions and concerns about the orders you've been placing. Everyone wants their goodies for Christmas presents. We get it. We want that too.

Here's an update from our merch managers, Axis Apparel, now known as the Spicy Club. All of the orders placed by 12-19 will be shipped on time and should make it by Christmas. The reason some of the orders look like they have not shipped or the tracking has not been updated is because there were some weather employee issues on the Spicy Club's end. Keaton Logan, their small team have literally been pulling all-nighters to ensure that everyone gets their stuff by Christmas. One sad note though, the new patches we're so excited about arrived to the Spicy Club from the third party vendor without the adhesive on the back,

which would make them the iron-on patches. Lindsay and I just found out, not happy. They were immediately sent back to the vendor. The vendor's doing what they can to get the patches back to Spicy Club ASAP. So if you ordered patches, you may get those a little bit later than Christmas. Sorry about that. If you ordered the patches along with other items, you'll receive the rest of the items, just not the patches. They're going to hold off on sending those, obviously, until

they get the correct ones. Some things are just out of our control. Also want to address the coffee mug debacle. Fucking coffee mugs! Why, Lusofena? Why do you hate our fucking cups? We're cursed when it comes to mugs. Remember when the Pudi and Fucking coffee mugs! Why, Lucifino? Why do you hate our fucking cups? We're cursed when it comes to mugs. Remember when the Pudi and Juju mugs flew off the shelves and then arrived in broken

fucking pieces? Eep. This time, the vendor rushed the process, didn't cure the mugs for the appropriate amount of time. So frustrating. The entire batch was not affected, but a lot of them were. And so if you got mugs where shit's peeling off, please contact Kate and Axe. Kate at our Shopify store.

Kate and Logan, you can just, there's the returns and exchanges button. Click that, get a replacement, you know, on us, obviously. Sorry about that. And thanks for understanding that there are a lot of moving parts. We're doing the best we can to give you the best quality items we can when you want them. And we are moving to a new big, well-established distribution company in 2020, Monopile. Improve our merch game substantially. It's going to allow product testing, dedicated customer service staff, bigger workforce to handle bigger order volumes, deliver more stuff on time, direct to garment printing, so shirts, hoodies, certain other items can always be in stock,

right, in all sizes. A lot of other improvements coming. I don't want to bog down this episode any more with to get into, but just know that we're working on it. We appreciate you guys. Promise. Thanks for being patient and understanding. Hail Nimrod. All right.

So get ready, meat sacks. Now strap in. This is another suck that illustrates just how shitty we walking, talking water bags can be to one another. Luckily, there are also meat sacks out there who walk with honor and grace and risk so much, risk everything to help others.

This piece of history shares those tales as well. There's some light in these dark clouds. A weird topic for a Christmas week, you know, holiday week suck, Hanukkah week, you know, or Hanukkah suck. Yeah, maybe, sure. Or maybe perfect. Maybe a perfect reminder to appreciate what you have.

To be reminded things could be so, so much worse than just like, I don't know, not getting the gift you want. You know, having to work on the holidays, that kind of stuff. So let's get in there. Let's get in there. Let's learn some shit and get this done. Right off the rip, let's address the word ghetto. It's not just a word that Elvis, you know, sang a pretty song about.

On a cold and gray Chicago morning, a poor little baby child is born in the ghetto. In the ghetto. It's not just that. What does it mean when we talk about the Warsaw ghetto? Well, the word carries a great deal of baggage with it, as it should. Its history is super, super terrible. According to my dictionary, ghetto is a part of the city, especially a slum area occupied by a minority group or groups, typically as a result of social, legal, or economic pressure.

Ghettos are living visual reminders of racial oppression, discrimination, and segregation here in the U.S., specifically with the African-American community. African-Americans have been employing the term ghetto to refer to their own residential segregation in certain cities as early as the 1910s, when several American cities were passing zoning ordinances prohibiting black citizens from living on blocks where the majority of the residents were white. So why was the term used to describe an area of a European city where there were no, obviously, African Americans? Well, because the origins of the ghetto, that term, are European.

The origins go way back before the 1920s. They go way back before American slavery. They go back before Christopher Columbus landed in the Americas and treated indigenous people like dogs because he was an arrogant, soulless fuckface. And a product of his time. I know, I know, I know. The concept of the ghetto goes back to 13th century Europe. Ghettos came out of European separation laws dating back to the 1200s when Jews were persecuted by an aggressively intolerant Catholic church and were only allowed to live in assigned quarters, quarters that always seemed to be located in the shittiest part of town or a shitty area just outside of town.

always seemed to be located in the shittiest part of town or a shitty area just outside of town. And the term originally applied to Jewish racial segregation. Linguists think the actual term ghetto probably comes from Italy in the 16th century. The Venetian Jewish ghetto of Canaregio was a, Canaregio, maybe I got to move my hand to say things in Italian. Canaregio was established on March 29th, 1516.

And ghetto is probably derived from another Italian word, meaning a settlement outside of a city's walls. And forcing Jewish people to live amongst each other would soon tremendously backfire on the Italians in the Vatican and all of Europe and then eventually all of the world for it gave Jewish people hundreds of years to plan and scheme and evolve into the Illuminati. Wake up, sheeple.

Let me walk you through what obviously happened. Who was forcing the Jewish people to live together? The leaders of Europe. And who were the leaders of Europe beholden to? The Pope, the King of Rome. And who was the Pope beholden to? Satan. Yes, of course, hiding in plain sight.

And who was Satan beholden to? The lizard Illuminati. Avi, wake up and smell the chemtrails. And who is Satan beholden to? The lizard of Illuminati. Avi, wake up and smell the chemtrails. And who do the lizards answer to? The Jews. Clearly, the Jewish people segregated themselves so they could properly plan and scheme to enslave the world's Gentiles and not be overheard.

Ugh! JK. JK, so much JK. Sadly, if you listen to this podcast for any length of time, you know that there are people on this planet who could hear something that fucking crazy and not react with amusement or horror, but with confident agreement. Mm-hmm. Oh, yeah.

I've been saying that since the 90s. Absolutely. Eek. Gosh dang. Okay, so now you know the history of the ghetto. The Warsaw Ghetto wasn't established by the Nazis until after they invaded Poland, but the concept of the European Jewish ghetto had already existed for centuries.

We'll talk about it a bit more a little bit later. And why were the Jewish people initially forced to live in separate neighborhoods? Well, because Christians were sick of having their babies sacrificed to Satan by Jewish people who they knew were behind it because they had devil horns sprouting from their skulls. And obviously that is not true either.

I took that from a Jewish website's article titled 10 Anti-Semitic Myths. While I joke, many medieval Europeans did think that the Jews had devil horns and that they actually did sacrifice Christian babies. Incredibly, there are still people who think that today. Now let's examine the real reason European Jews were forced to live in segregated neighborhoods.

The real reason, of course, good old-fashioned anti-Semitism. Let's explore its origins. The term anti-Semitism wasn't coined until 1879 by the German agitator Wilhelm Marr to designate the anti-Jewish campaigns underway in Central Europe at the time. Marr was, for lack of a better term, a real shithead. A real doo-doo-ding-dong. Marr wrote a pamphlet in 1879 titled The Way to Victory of Judaism over Germanism, and he wasn't talking about this victory as if it were a good thing. It was a warning,

not a celebration. He introduced the idea that Germans and Jews were locked in a long-standing conflict, the origins of which he attributed to race, and he felt that the Jews were locked in a long-standing conflict, the origins of which he attributed to race, and he felt that the Jews were winning. A little bit more about Marr. Homeboy had been married five different times, once to a Jewish woman, another time to a woman whose father was Jewish, and he had grown increasingly embittered over his life towards women and the world in general with the dissolution of each marriage. And at the end of his life, he actually did finally renounce his earlier anti-Semitic ways, arguing that social upheaval in Germany had not been the result of disharmony between the Jews and the Gentiles, but rather it was due to the industrial revolution

and the conflict between various German political movements. So, whoops. Sorry about fanning the flames of racism, everybody. It turns out I had it all wrong. Ha ha, oh, JK, I'll show myself out. By the time Marr changes ways, the anti-Semitic damage had, of course, already been done. The word anti-Semitism, anti-Semitism, by the way, is a bit of a misnomer. It implies a discrimination against all Semites. And little known fact, Jews are not the only Semites.

Arabs, several other groups are also considered Semites. A Semite is a member of any of the peoples whose speaker spoke a Semitic language, including in particular the Jews and Arabs. But because of such consistent Jewish-specific racism, common usage of the term now refers only to Jewish people. What we think of now as anti-Semitism had existed long before Wilhelm Marr coined that hateful term. It existed to some degree ever since the Jews first left Palestine over 2,000 years ago. The Jewish people have been the religious minority in whatever lands

they've existed in for almost their entire, very long history. A third century BCE Egyptian Ptolemaic priest, Remember the Ptolemies? The Cleopatra suck so much. Incest in that family tree. Incest is almost all I think about when I think about Cleopatra now because of that. Anyway, this Egyptian priest, Manetho, wrote about the Jewish people and not in glowing terms when he wrote History of Egypt in Greek over 200 years before the birth of Christ. In this book, Manetho turned the story of Moses' exodus from Egypt upside down. Biblically, it was written about as an act of liberation of the Jewish people by their God

from Egyptian bondage. In Manetho's history, the exodus was written about as an expulsion of the Jews from Egypt, like the Egyptians, you know, kicked them the fuck out at the behest of the Egyptian gods because their country had to be purified of unclean people. Manetho wrote that when the Egyptians took measures to expel the Jews, the Jews organized themselves around a priest, Moses. And he wrote that when they, then they then started a regime of terror

in which the Egyptian population became the victim of brutal violence. The Jews displayed large scale sacrilegious behavior by killing, roasting, and eating the Egyptian population became the victim of brutal violence. The Jews displayed large-scale sacrilegious behavior by killing, roasting, and eating the Egyptian gods. What? They ate the gods? How is that possible? All the Jewish people actually did was eat meat. That meat was considered to come from sacred animals

that were representatives of Egyptian gods. And this pissed off the Pharaoh. Nobody likes their gods to be eaten. And the Pharaoh expelled them. And the expelled Jewish people then formed their own rogue state in and around Jerusalem where they build, you know, their first big temple. So Egyptians, not big fans of the Jews. And again, why was that? Because they refused to worship the same gods. Because living their lives and following their cultural rules put them at odds with the macro culture their micro culture was

surrounded by. And this theme of their minority culture being at odds with the macro culture their micro culture was surrounded by. And this theme of their minority culture being at odds with the majority culture around them will continue right on up through the Warsaw Ghetto. In the Hellenistic age of the ancient Greco-Romans, Jews refused to acknowledge the gods worshiped by other peoples of Southern Europe. In the Middle East, and they pissed off a bunch more people. This time, a bunch of pagans, particularly in first century BCE through the first century CE. Unlike the polytheistic pagan religions of that day,

which acknowledged multiple gods, Judaism is and has always been monotheistic, right? Just one, just one sky daddy. Worshiping this one God and not one of the gods of the ancient Greeks, for example, was viewed by the Greeks as sacrilegious. Also, the Jews refused to worship ancient Greek and Roman emperors as gods. And that was seen not just as being sacrilegious, but as being treasonous.

It was a sign of disloyalty. After pissing off the Egyptians and then pissing off the Greeks and numerous other ancient cultures for not prioritizing those cultures' gods and laws and rulers, the Jews then pissed off the Romans. The writings of the first and second century CE Roman senator and historian Tacitus illustrate how many Romans viewed the Jews. Tacitus wrote that there were concerns that the Jews were outbreeding, quote-unquote, real Romans, that they practiced sacrilegious rituals. They were seen as being disproportionately wealthy, so they must be doing something shady to recruit all those riches. They were cliquish and perverse. What were they hiding? Tacitus painted them as perpetual corrupters, luring

people away from their proper Roman religion, their families, their patriotic duties on purpose as though the Jews had a singular devotion to destroying all civilizations but their own. Then the Christians came along. And as any student of European history knows, the Christians haven't always been the Jews' biggest fans, not the best of friends, despite Christianity springing directly from Judaism. not the best of friends, despite Christianity springing directly from Judaism. Despite Jesus of Nazareth and his disciples being practicing Jews, and despite Christianity's roots in the Jewish teaching of monotheism, Judaism and Christianity became rivals soon after Jesus was allegedly crucified by Pontius Pilate, who executed him according to contemporary Roman practice.

The Christian churches that grew in power in Europe never forgave the Jews for the killing of their Messiah, the literal son of God, despite the fact that it was actually the Romans who ordered the Jewish leaders to execute Jesus. And then the Romans crushed the Jews in the Holy Land and the Christians turned against them even further. In 66 CE, the Jewish people revolted against the Romans in what is now known as the First Jewish-Roman

War. Then in 70 CE, the Romans recaptured Jerusalem, destroyed the city, destroyed the Jewish temple, the heart of Judaism. This temple had stood for almost 500 years, built on the ground of where Solomon's temple, the first Jewish temple, had stood from around 1000 BCE until it was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE. And this devastating defeat was interpreted by Jews and Christians alike as a sign of divine punishment. God had left the Jews. And now with the Jews no longer possessing any ruling power, the early Christian gospels diminished Roman responsibility in Jesus's death. Why? Probably because the Romans were ruthless and they were in charge and it would have been, you know,

detrimental to the health of early Christian writers. Talk a bunch of shit about the Romans. The gospels expressed Jewish culpability in the death of Jesus in Matthew 27, 25. The King James version stating, his blood be on us and on our children. The New Living Translation phrasing it as, we will take responsibility for his death, we and our children. The New Living Translation phrasing it as, we will take responsibility

for his death, we and our children, right? The Jews were officially depicted now as the killers of the Son of God, and this depiction would lead to a lot of Jewish deaths in the coming centuries, right? We and our children, right? Forever, they're the killers of the Son of God now, in many Christians' eyes. Christians now claim to be the new Israel, both in flesh and in spirit. Many early church fathers taught that God no longer watched over the Jews. Their historical purpose was to prepare for the arrival of God's son,

who they then killed, and God was no longer with them. According to this view of Judaism, their religion had served its purpose, right? Time to retire. It had reached its logical conclusion. So why was it still around now? God came back. The prophet returned. To hold on to Jewish beliefs now was just being stubbornly

defiant. And it was also against God's wishes. And when you go against God's wishes, who are you now serving? Well, Satan, right? That was the view. As Christianity spread throughout the first couple of centuries CE, Christians began to see the Jews more and more as an alien and immoral people who, because of the rejection of Christ and his church were condemned to perpetual migration, a belief best illustrated in the legend of the wandering Jew. The wandering Jew is a mystical, immortal man whose legend began to spread in Europe in the 13th century. The original legend concerns a Jew who taunted Jesus on the way to the crucifixion and was then doomed to walk the earth until the second coming.

And this bit of folklore further links the Jews to the murder of the Christian Messiah. They're being punished by God. That's why they're in Germany now. That's why they're in Poland and France, et cetera. They got kicked out of their homeland. You know, they're punished, doomed to Rome for their unforgivable sin. You know, when you get blamed for killing another religion's God, you tend to end up as public enemy number one. And when the Christian church then became dominant throughout the Roman Empire, its leaders inspired various laws passed by Roman emperors designed to segregate Jews and curtail their freedoms so they couldn't threaten Christian religious domination. Right? This mentality of they already killed Christ.

We're not going to let them kill our entire religion. Due to this worldview, Jews were increasingly forced to the margins of European society. From St. Augustine in the 4th century to Martin Luther in the 16th century, some of the most eloquent and persuasive Christian theologians criticized the Jews for being rebels against God. Like I said earlier,

they were described as companions of the devil, a race of vipers drinking Christian blood, murdering Christian babies. These depictions have literally never entirely gone away. Here's a little example of that too, actually. In 2015, an Islamic preacher on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem told his congregants that the Nazis burned the Jews of Europe during the Holocaust because they had been kidnapping children to use their blood and pass over bread. He claimed the Jews worshiped Satan, plotted the 9-11 attacks, controlled the Freemasons.

Oh, here we go with that again. Sacrificed their wives and children to the devil in secret ceremonies. And not one of his congregants stood up and said, What? Come on, dude. What are you talking about, you crazy fuck? Get out of here. Why are you still carrying on with that? You know, played out ignorant tire shit. Get out of here. Go on, get. No are you still carrying on with that? You know, played out ignorant tire shit.

Get out of here. Go on, get. No, seriously, get the fuck out. You know, it's none of that. Just this past August, a Florida Christian pastor had this to say about Jewish comic Sarah Silverman. You know these Jewish false prophets, anti-Christian, anti-God, they're willing to put Jesus to death again. You heard this comedian, Sarah Silverman. Listen, she is a witch. She is a Jezebel. She is a God-hating whore of Zionism. I hope that God

breaks her teeth out and she dies. She's a wicked person and she is like the perfect representation of religious Judaism. She is Satan's scoffer and she is there to take the world and make them laugh and then diss Jesus. Try to take away that respect from Jesus. Holy shit. Listen to that language. That's from 2019 this year. She is the perfect representation of religious Judaism. She is Satan's scoffer, right? None of that dude's shitty congregation walked out either. To this day, Jews still being linked with the Christian devil, still being maligned as being evil. Why? Because they refuse to let go of their culture and religion and just say, all right, all right, all right, you win. I give up. Okay. Jesus is God. You know, or if they're surrounded by Muslims, you know, give up. All right. Oh, you win. I give up.

Muhammad knows the truth. Praise Allah. You know, whatever you want. Much of Europe during the middle ages, religious-based hatred of the Jews and ignorance-based fear of the Jews led them to being denied citizenship and the basic rights afforded other citizens. They were banned from holding posts in government and military, excluded from membership in guilds and a wide variety of professions.

Christians were strongly forbidden in much of Europe from intermingling with Jews, like strongly forbidden. Here's a little example of that. One unnamed Christian deacon who was taking Hebrew lessons with an Oxford Jew in the early 13th century fell so in love with his tutor's daughter that he had himself circumcised and converted to Judaism in order to marry her, for which on April 17th, 1222, right in England, he was found guilty of apostasy and burnt at the fucking stake at Osney Abbey.

Yeek! Burned alive. Because he fell in love with the girl. God, I hope they at least fucked one time. That was so good. That was so, so good. To be fair, some places did offer Jewish people tolerance and acceptance. Even places where Jews were persecuted also showed tolerance and acceptance at various points in their timelines.

But overall, most of Europe sucked serious ass for the Jews for most of, you know, written history. We'll go over a few examples because while none of this excuses what the Nazis did when it comes to Jews, I think understanding where that hatred and dehumanization comes from is so important. Xenophobic feelings still exist all over the world today. We fear what we don't understand. And when we're afraid, just like any other animal, we're more prone to lash out.

So let's keep being curious. Let's keep learning. Let's fear only what is actually scary. Shadow people. Not that which we simply just don't understand. Let's be intolerant of intolerance. So this shit doesn't happen again. In 1096 CE, knights of the first crusade unleashed a wave of anti-Semitic violence in France and the Holy Roman Empire, including massacres in Germany, also in France. Unfounded accusations of ritual murder and of host desecration and of blood libel. Allegations of Jews sacrificing Christian children at Passover

to obtain their blood for unleavened bread. That appeared in the 12th century, right? 12th century satanic panic. God, that shit's been around for so long. All this stuff is unfounded. In the 1930s, the same blood libel, this false allegation of Jews murdering Christian children and using their blood for ritual purposes, such as baking it into Passover bread, would become part of Nazi propaganda. Same old story, just being recycled. How fucking weird is that, by the way? What a strange, ludicrous belief. Baby blood being baked into bread. Right?

But like, like I try not to just say just kind of a carte blanche, like, dude, you're an idiot. You know, but if you actually believe that Jews kidnap and kill Christian babies and then bake their blood into Passover bread as part of some dark ritual, well then, fucking dude, you're an idiot.

Like I'm sure Nazi occultist Heinrich Himmler was all over that bit of slanderous folklore. I would be very careful with that bread you're eating, Vossa. Don't eat the Jew bread unless you like the eating of the little German Christian babies. Yeah, yeah. It is common knowledge that this is what they put in the bread. It's what keeps the devil horns from spouting forth of the Jew heads. Just ask my personal psychic. He's never wrong.

My totally mentally stable Nazi cult wizard, Carl Villagate. Carl, tell them about the Jew bread. Tell them about the blood. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Gotta get the kids away from the bread. The blood is in the bread. The blood is in the bread. More people taught him.

More people put the blood in the bread. The stool tunnels. Cramps the ice giants. I can read it in my mouth. Potatoes, potatoes, potatoes, potatoes, potatoes. Two heads in the sun, they stroll. Thank you, Carl. You have such a wonderful mind. You've really just laid things out in such a sensible way. What I just said makes a lot more sense, by the way, if you listened to last week's episode. That was probably pretty jarring. If you didn't, it's still going to be weird, but it makes a little more sense. As European commerce grew from new and expanded trade routes in the 12th and 13th centuries,

some Jews became prominent in trade banking and money lending, which were some of the few professions they were allowed to have because of Christian usury laws. Quick note on medieval usury laws, huge negative stereotype that Nazis exploited comes directly from these laws, right? The Jewish people were prohibited from almost every job. And then some Jews began to occupy an economic niche as moneylenders in the Middle Ages. Because in Christian-dominated medieval Europe, Jewish folk were allowed to take interest on loans, since the Catholic Church had condemned usury for Christians.

Usury, by the way, defined as lending money with interest attached, you know, like every lender does today, like every bank and credit card company. In medieval times, the church thought this was sinful and it does have biblical basis, right? Exodus 22, 25, if you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be like a money lender to him and you shall not exact interest from him. Or Ezekiel 18, 13, lends that interest and takes profit. Shall he then live? He shall not live. He has done all these abominations. He shall surely die. His blood shall be upon himself. And the Jewish Talmud forbids taking or giving interest to your brother, but Jewish rabbis interpret this as meaning like a fellow Jew. The medieval rabbinical attitude towards lending money with interest to Gentiles was loud.

So some Jewish people became court factors or royal lenders, other types of bankers lending money to Gentiles and eventually in many places to other Jews as well. And this is where that stereotype of the Jews have all the money comes from. It's crazy. Medieval Jews weren't allowed to do much of anything else, you know, other than lend money. In some places, they could only be lenders or peddlers, aka merchants. So that's what they had to do to pay the fucking bills. And then some of them got really good at it. The Rothschild family being the most famous medieval example. And then some Christians got mad at some Jews for excelling at one of the few professions they were allowed

to participate in. Pretty ironic, super illogical. And if you want to learn more about this specifically, I broke down the history of the Rothschild family's rise to banking power in the Secret Suck, Secret Suck episodes 23 and 24. If you don't listen to those, I get it. Just know that Jewish economic success, when it did occur, tended to arouse the envy of non-Jewish people. This economic resentment combined with traditional religious prejudice prompted the forced expulsion of Jews from several countries and regions, including England in 1290 CE, France in the 14th century, Germany in the 1350s, Portugal in 1496, province in 1512, the papal states in 1569. Man, they just could not

catch a break. Ever since the Romans took the Holy Land from them, and then the Ottomans and the Christians would control the Holy Land after that, they would just be the odd man out wherever the fuck they would go. Being different, that has been the real crime of the Jewish people. Not saying goodbye to their culture and worshiping Zeus or Jupiter or Jesus or Allah or whatever God the majority of the people around them worshiped. That has been their only consistent crime. And we're headed to Poland with all of this, I promise. Intensifying persecution of the Jews in Spain culminated in 1492, the same year Columbus sailed on behalf of Spain to the Americas in the forced expulsion of that country's large and long-established Nobody expects a Spanish Inquisition! Sorry, I missed that Monty Python reference last week.

As a result of these mass expulsions, the centers of Jewish life shifted in Europe, from Western Europe and Germany to Turkey, Russia, and, home of Warsaw, Poland. And while many Jews found new homes, the same old stereotypes followed them. In the 16th century, the idea that Jews were evil persisted during the Protestant Reformation, although Martin Luther expressed positive feelings about Jews early in his life and relied on Jewish scholars for his translation of the Hebrew scriptures into German,

he also became furious with Jews over the rejection of Jesus. Like, fucking here we go again. Same old tired story. You won't believe in my invisible friends, so I'm gonna despise you, think you're evil, and maybe even kill you. Right, well, that shit ever go away.

Martin wrote, we are at fault for not slaying them. Jesus. Rather, we allow them to live freely in our midst despite their murder, cursing, blaspheming, lying, and defaming. Right? Despite their murder? Are you talking about the blood libel folklore again here or crucifixion? Probably both. Gosh, motherfucking

goddamn dang! I would quote that King James version Luke 23, 34, right? Father, forgive them for they know not what they do, but they fucking knew. They knew. Deep down, I think we almost always know we're doing something really, really shitty. The Nazi regime, of course,

would echo these racist sentiments. The end of the Middle Ages brought little change in Jews' position in Europe. The Catholic Reformation renewed anti-Jewish legislation, reinforced the system of ghettoized segregation in Roman Catholic countries. European Jews were also subject to the occasional massacre before the Nazis came along, such as those that occurred during wars between Eastern Orthodox Ukrainians and Roman Catholic Poles in the mid-17th century, which rivaled previous massacres of Jews in the Middle Ages.

Christian Crusaders massacred over 800 Jews in the Middle Ages. Christian crusaders massacred over 800 Jews in Worms, Germany, when they refused to be baptized in 1096. There's lots of examples like that. On Easter 1389, a two-day assault was mounted against the Jewish community in Prague, the Prague pogrom that led to the torture and deaths of an estimated 900 Jews. And why did this happen? Because a couple of Jews were accused of mocking a priest as he brought sacrament to Easter mass. Clearly, considerable tension already existed between Jews and Christians before this incident.

Clearly, Christians just looking for an excuse to fuck up a bunch of Jewish people. Now, to be fair to Christians in the Middle East, prior to the 7th century CE, there are also records of Jewish rulers massacring Christians. It's not like Christians are inherently murderers and Jews are inherently victims. Not at all.

In 516 CE, a Jewish warlord in Yemen named Yusuf Asar killed roughly 20,000 Christians for not renouncing Christ. So it has gone the other way. Important to point out. Just not as consistently or for as long of a time. Why? Well, I'm speculating here, but I do have a pretty strong opinion that I thought a lot about. I think it's because Christians ruled Europe, right? Had the Jewish culture consistently been the much larger and more dominant culture, could it have gone the other way? Yeah, I think so. Seems to be the meat sack way for a lot of human history, right? The Romans persecuted Christians

until the Romans became Christian. And then they persecuted non-Christians. And the Romans weren't always big fans of the Jews either. Really, if the belief system of a minority group, religious, political, otherwise, is in opposition in some way to the belief system of the cultural majority group, historically massacres ensue, right?

It's gone in a variety of directions as far as religions are concerned. Random persecutions of Jews in Western Europe continued until the late 18th century when the Enlightenment encouraged different, though not that much better thought about Judaism. Although the major Enlightenment figures championed the light of reason

and debunking what they regarded as the superstitions of Christian belief, their thinking did not lead to any real greater or lasting acceptance of Jewish people. Instead of holding Jews responsible for the crucifixion, enlightenment thinkers flipped the script and blamed them for the advent of Christianity and for the injustices and cruelty committed by followers of all the major monotheistic Abrahamic religions. Pretty ridiculous. It went from, how could you kill Jesus? And then it flipped over to, how could you create the foundation for the religion of Jesus that led to so much death?

Right? They just couldn't catch a break. No wonder they started the Illuminati. Until the French Revolution in 1789, the status of Jews in Europe remained pretty fucked. They had few civil rights, were treated as outsiders, even if their families had lived in the city or country for hundreds of years. And then French Jews were the first to be given rights like voting and owning property. In 1791, Jews received legal equality from the French Revolutionary Parliament, which meant full citizenship. To be fair, though, the French were still hoping that they would convert to Christianity. You know, the religion, the majority of France practice a little bit of a, come on guys, we're nice to you. So knock it off with the Jew stuff. Come on, come on, be Christian, stubborn fuckers. Despite France

granting citizenship, the rest of Europe, not ready to be as tolerant. Western and central European states would eventually catch up to French tolerance during the 19th century, but in no way was emancipation coming to the Jews in Imperial Russia, where a massive amount of European Jewish people lived. The Tsarist government forced Jews to settle only in a certain area of Russia, the so-called pale or district of settlement. Here and in the areas Russia had taken over after the division of Poland, most Jews lived in great poverty, crammed into towns, often making up the majority of the inhabitants. Things got a little better in the 19th century. Full emancipation of Jews throughout Germany

came with the unification of Germany in 1871. How sad, really, that things would get a bit better, only to get so much worse. The end of the 19th century saw the rise of various forms of European nationalism. Like, you know, we're the best and you're the worst. All that shit we talked about last week sucked. Man, anti-Semitism shifted from a religious issue now to an ethnic one.

Tons of pseudoscientific theories we talked about last week asserted that the Jews and other races were inferior to the so-called Aryan, you know, quote-unquote race. Jews were now turned into scapegoats for any existing social or political grievances. The smallest ethnic groups have always made for the easiest targets. Anti-Semitism now became a powerful political tool. In the 1890s, Karl Luger became the mayor of Vienna, a city of diverse culture and many Jews

by running on anti-Semitic campaigns. This Karl's political campaigns are seen by many historians as providing Hitler with the blueprint for how to rise to power by rallying a large group of people against the Jews. Luger described Vienna as a big Jerusalem and the Jews as God murderers. Keep beating that fucking drum. Sadly, political campaigns built on scapegoating a minority group continue to this day all around the world. In both Germany and Austria in the late 19th century,

anti-Semitism became an organized movement with its own political parties. And these parties were successful because of the enormous European tradition, longstanding tradition of blaming bad shit on the Jews. The 20th century brought more of the same. And then anti-Semitic hatred would be elevated to a nearly, you know, nearly a complete extermination level with the Holocaust. Shit really hit the fan for the Western world after World War I, specifically politically and economically. See the Treaty of Versailles and German economic collapse. See the Great Depression.

It was the perfect time to double down on pinning blame, right, on the same old suspect. time to double down on pinning blame, right, on the same old suspect. Now that I've given a little overview of the long, long, long history of the European Jewish persecution, let's jump to the 1930s and the Holocaust, when the Nazis played off a centuries of Jewish mistrust to take hatred of the Jews to genocidal levels. Let's talk for a second about the chief hate wizard, the grand dragon Nazi shitlord himself, the man who single-handedly ruined both a mustache style and a method of saluting forever, Adolf Hitler. Hitler was born in Austria. In 1889, he developed his political ideas in Vienna, a city with a large Jewish community, where he lived from 1907 to 1913, where he heard locals speak highly of the great Austrian anti-Semite Karl Luger.

In the first two decades of the 20th century, Austrian Jews in cities like Vienna were just starting to become moderately wealthy and well-respected. People like future Suck subject Sigmund Freud, who had a thriving psychiatry practice in Vienna. And of course, this new social and financial prominence brought some kickback because of historical anti-Semitism, if you were not Jewish and you weren't doing too well, there were plenty of public places where

you could be openly anti-Semitic and not have anyone tell you to shut the fuck up. Places where you could really help stir up the same feelings in others. During Hitler's time in Vienna, Vienna had another mayor who was super anti-Jewish and open hatred of Jews was becoming more and more common in the city. During the first world war, Hitler was a soldier-Jewish and open hatred of Jews was becoming more and more common in the city. During the first world war, Hitler was a soldier in the German army. And at the end of the war, he and many other German soldiers like him could not get over the defeat of the mighty German empire. How could the superior race be defeated? How could they lose? Why did they lose? How could this happen to mighty, you know, Deutschland, to the mighty Aryans, you know,

cue scapegoat. The German army command spread the myth that the army had not lost the war on the battlefield. No, of course not. They could have fucking kicked everyone's ass. Easy. Come on guys. Easy peasy. They lost because they've been stabbed in the back. And who did the stabbing? Well, you guessed it. Yes, of course it was the Poles. Dirty Polish savages, the disgusting ancestors of my wife. Initially, Hitler had gotten it right. Fucking Poland. The backstabbing Poles and their backwards ways had ruined fucking everything for Germany.

When World War I started, the Polish territory was split between Austria-Hungary, the German Empire, and the Russian Empire. And it became the scene of many operations on the eastern front of World War I. And Poland was supposed to fight on behalf of the Germans. And they tried, but they kept messing things up because they're really stupid. They constantly held their guns backwards and shot themselves. Over a million Polish soldiers died exactly that way during World War I. They would get the end of their barrel confused with the gun sight and they would look directly into their barrel, right? And then they would think it had suddenly become nighttime and they would get scared and they'd get spooked and they'd pull the trigger and they'd shoot their

brains out. Another 50,000 Poles died because they confused hand grenades for ripe apples. They tried to eat them. Another 10,000 Polish people died from getting scared on the battlefield and breaking their necks, trying to hide their heads into the ground so they couldn't be seen like an ostrich. It was chaos. And of course, I'm J.K. I'm J.K. No, the Polish people had it rough in World War I because their land was the site of a fuck ton

of fighting and bombing, but they weren't blamed for Germany's loss in World War I. No, of course, Hitler and many other Germans, the German command, blamed the Jews.

Hitler bought into the myth that it was the Jews and the communists that had betrayed his precious Deutschland, but mostly the Jews. They brought their soft as fuck left-wing government into power.

And then that government had thrown into the war towel, war towel, you know, prematurely. And Mein Kampf, a 36-year-old Hitler's autobiography slash manifesto, published in two volumes in 1925 and 1926, Hitler himself explains

that he had no special feelings about Jews before moving to Vienna. And that initially, he thought favorably of them. Then he claims to have seen, quote, the light after Germany's loss in World War I. He wrote that he held the Jews responsible. If you remember from the World War I suck, man, Germany got hammered in the aftermath of World War I. Germany was found to be at fault by the winners of the war, which is, you know, how that tends to work. And Germany was forced to pay enormous crippling restitutions

to France and other nations. And that plunged Germany into a terrible economic depression. Economically, the people of Germany were so destitute that they literally used dollars for toilet paper or for kindling because their money had lost nearly all of its value due to hyper inflation. Please never happen in my lifetime. Please never happen in my lifetime. Please never happen in my lifetime. Dear God, can you imagine, can you imagine if your money suddenly lost its

value? Like basically its entire value, especially if you were just hitting retirement age, like one day you're set next day, the economy collapses and suddenly that nest egg is rotten. It stinks. So terrible, man. So, so terrible. Check out how fucking bad things were. In 1914, I found this fascinating. 1914, when World War I began, the exchange rate of the German mark to the American dollar was about 4.2 to 1. Now, check this out.

Nine years later, it was 4.2 trillion to one, 4.2 trillion to one. I found three separate reputable sources that I put in the show notes. You can download the time stack app to show that I just didn't just make that shit up. I wanted to triple source that because it sounds so fucking ridiculous. One to 4.2 trillion. What that means is your money is completely worthless, right? Goodbye, fat, comfy savings account. Hello, long government handout line. There are stories of Germans bringing a literal wheelbarrow of cash

just to buy a single loaf of bread. And the Jews are blamed by many for all of this. And Adolf believed in the myth we talked so much about last week, right? That his people were the rightful dependents or descendants of the Aryan godfolk who came from the magical lost land of Atlantis. He believed that not only did the Jews cost Germany a World War I victory, they'd also been weakening the German bloodline for centuries, right? Captain Mustache went all in on eugenics, thinking that selective breeding could restore Aryans to their former glory. Nazis didn't invent eugenics, by the way. By the 1930s,

theories of eugenics were well known around the world. The English scientist, Franson Galton, had coined the term eugenics, meaning good birth, in 1883. German biologist, August Weissmann's theory of immutable germ plasm, published in 1892, fostered growing international support for eugenics, as did the rediscovery in 1900 of Austrian botanist Gregor Mendel's theory that the biological makeup of organisms was determined by certain factors that were later identified as genes, a term gene first used by a Danish scientist in 1909.

After classifying individuals into labeled groups using the scientific methods of the day, observation, family genealogies, physical measurements, intelligent tests, they ranked the groupings from superior to inferior. Beginning in the 1930s, Hitler's regime touted the Nordic race as the most superior, the eugenic ideal, and attempted to mold Germany into a cohesive national community that excluded anyone deemed hereditarily less valuable or racially foreign. Public health measures to control reproduction and marriage aimed at strengthening the national body by eliminating biologically threatening genes from the population were enacted. And this all would lead directly to the Warsaw Ghetto and the Holocaust. Hitler and many other Nazis believed in the superiority of

the Aryan German race. That long persecuted Jews were inferior to such an extent that they were almost non-human right in their eyes. Hitler felt that he would be doing the world a favor by wiping out the Jewish race. So now we have really set the stage for the Warsaw ghetto, right? Now, now, if you think like, how did they do that? Then you weren't paying attention to the suck up until this point. Hitler's final solution was an evil plan, not hatched out of thin air. Instead, it was built on the back of almost 2,000 years of Jews being nearly continually persecuted in Europe. And the Jews were persecuted because they refused to give up their gods and customs and accept the gods and customs of the Greeks or the Romans or the papacy and the rest of Europe's Christian leaders. They were

blamed for killing Christ. A few of them successfully lent money, became wealthy, and then they were seen as greedy thieves who took the Gentiles' money. Insane lies were made up about them like they baked the blood of Christian babies into their bread. They were seen as evil, as satanic even. Now back to the ghettos for just a sec before we move on to Warsaw and that infamous ghetto. As I said before, Jewish neighborhoods, or Jewish ghettos, excuse me, were neighborhoods in Europe where Jews were required to live by law. After the first ghetto was set up in Venice in 1516, the ghetto system was spread around Europe in July of 1555 via Pope Paul IV's issuing of the Cum Nimos Absurdum. The change in papal policy.

I'm so glad I don't live back in time. I would have been fucking burned. I think I would have been burned to life. I would have let it slip in front of the wrong people. Like the Pope would have done something like that. I'm like, fucking dumbass Pope. I fucking hate that guy's hat. I hate that guy's stupid fucking decrees.

Fucking jackass. And then next thing you know, I'm, ha ha, guys, it's really hot. Guys, come on. I'm JKing. I'm JKing. It's so hot. It's hot. Oh, this guy. Okay. So the change in papal policy implemented a series of restrictions on Jewish life, dramatically reshaped Jews' place in Catholic society. Among these restrictions were the requirement of Jews to identify themselves by wearing a yellow badge. There were also restrictions on the ownership of property.

There was restrictions on commerce, tighter regulations on banking. The biggest new requirement of this ordinance was the creation of additional Jewish-only neighborhoods, oftentimes in neighborhoods with less maintenance and worse standards of living than the rest of the city. It was very intentional. This contrast allowed religious authorities to highlight the difference between Jews and Christians, make it seem as though the destitute living conditions of the ghetto were the natural consequence for denying the divinity of Christ. The ghetto in Venice was enclosed by a wall and gates that were locked at night. I think it locked in. The ghetto in Venice was crowded, therefore it was necessary to add new floors onto existing buildings. A little bit of trivia. That's what led to the world's first

so-called skyscrapers. The founding of the Venice Ghetto was followed by the establishment of a ghetto in Rome in 1555, and then by creation of other ghettos throughout northern Italy between 1570 and 1620. The largest European ghettos were centered in Venice, Frankfurt, and Prague. Forced to live in special walls and gated quarters set aside within the cities, the Jews developed their own schools, civic institutions, rabbinical courts. By the 20th century, Jews were no longer forced to live in these ghettos, but because they had lived in those ghettos

for so many generations, many continued to live in segregated quarters of town, in cities throughout Europe, including Warsaw. Yes, Warsaw. Now we're Poland-centric from here on out. For centuries, Poland was home to one of the largest and most significant Jewish communities in the world.

Why? Because despite my teasing, despite my JKing, Polish people are actually historically pretty fucking awesome. Polish monarchs had invited the Jews to their country when the rest of Europe was being racist dickheads, awarded them rights of status and total religious tolerance. Poland was so accepting

when the rest of Europe was not that by the mid-16th century, 80% of all of the Jews in the entire world were living in Poland, which really makes today's story that much more sad, right? Poland had been an oasis of tolerance and a continent of persecution. And then the Nazis came along and fucked that all up by being insane, hateful pricks. Things weren't perfect in Poland, right? There were still some Christian versus, you know, Jewish tension, but when are things ever perfect? Before World War II, Warsaw was a diverse, tolerant, and cosmopolitan city. Almost 1.4 million people lived in Warsaw before the war. The pre-war Jewish population of the Polish capital was estimated at 270,000 people.

Then the Nazis moved in. By the time they left, you know, in just over five years, the overall population will be down to 400,000. In just over five years, they knocked a million people out of a city of 1.4 million. Holy shit. It would take Warsaw 30 years to build back up to 1.4 million. Now that invasion, let's talk about it. The invasion of Poland by Germany went down like this. 4.45 a.m., September 1st, 1939, 1.5 million Nazis invaded Poland.

I had to look at a few sources for that number as well. 1.5 million. That's a lot of dudes with guns showing up on your border and showing up on your soil. That's terrifying. Simultaneously, the Germans bombed Polish airfields, German warships and U-boats attacked Polish naval forces in the Baltic Sea. It was a true German blitzkrieg or lightning war. Hit your enemy really fucking hard and really fast. Completely overwhelm them. Don't give them a chance to organize and mount any sort of effective defense. The German invasion began one week after the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact,

declaration of peace between Germany and the Soviet Union. It also seemed to be kind of a sneaky agreement to fuck Poland up. Need to take chunks of it. The Soviets invaded Poland on September 17th, barely two weeks after Germany, avoiding conflict with the Nazis, taking more of Poland for themselves. German forces invaded Poland the morning

after the Gleifitz incident. Good old false flag operation. All right, conspiracy theorists, here we go. A real false flag example. The Gleifitz, there we go. I said Gleifitz, the Gleifitz, the Gleifitz incident was part of Operation Himmler, a series of special operations undertaken by the SS

to serve Nazi German propaganda at the outbreak of the war. The operation was intended to create the appearance of Polish aggression against Germany to justify the invasion of Poland. Fucking Himmler again. What if, hey guys, what if instead of waiting for Poland to maybe attack us and then we, you know, maybe we get to attack them back and they have a chance to get to defense, what if we just say that they attacked us?

It's not like anyone has closed circuit cameras or anything. We could totally do it. It would totally work, you guys. It would be so cool. We're such cool guys, yeah? Nazi agent staged a fake attack on the German radio transmission tower at Gleifitz on the German-Polish border.

Adolf Hitler used this attack as a pretext for the invasion of Poland the next day. As the Germans advanced, Polish forces withdrew from their forward bases of operation close to the Polish-German border to more established defense lines to the east, but they would be vastly outnumbered and outgunned, quickly overwhelmed.

By October 6th, a little over a month after the first attack, Poland was done. And if troops could have moved faster back then, they would have been done even faster. Germany and the Soviet Union began dividing and annexing the whole of Poland, Poland, under the terms of the German-Soviet Frontier Treaty. The success of this invasion marked the end of the Second Polish Republic. The scale of the attack on Poland and on Warsaw in particular is staggering. On September 10th alone, the Germans conducted 17 bombing raids on the city.

Three days later, 50 German planes attacked the city center. In total, 140,000 people were killed, including roughly 20,000 civilians. 10% of the city's buildings were completely obliterated. 40% of the city's buildings were heavily damaged in a few weeks of fighting. So half of the city's buildings were completely obliterated. 40% of the city's buildings were heavily damaged in a few weeks of fighting. So half of the city's buildings, like of all of the city's buildings,

were completely destroyed or like really fucked up. After divvying the nation up, Germany ended up in control of Warsaw. Ugh, not good. Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, wasn't great when the Russians controlled you either, but it was like the lesser of two evils. Nazi leader, Adolf Hitler, claimed the massive invasion was a defensive action, right?

Britain and France not convinced. And was like, I just, okay, all right. Maybe it did not work, I'm sorry. It does not matter. September 3rd, they declared war on Germany, kicking off World War II. So why was Poland invaded though by the Nazis in the first place? Why Poland? Well, for Hitler, the conquest of Poland was to bring Lebensraum or living space to the German people. According to this crazy plan, the racially superior Germans would colonize the Polish territory and the subhuman Slavs would become

the Aryan slaves. The Nazis were insane, right? No big whoops. They just wanted to enslave the Slavs, kill the Jews, and give the Germans more room to spread their feet out, have bigger yards and shit. German expansion had actually begun before Poland in 1938 with the annexation of Austria, and then continued with the occupation of a historically German portion of Czechoslovakia called Sudetenland, and then all of Czechoslovakia in 1939. Both had been accomplished without igniting hostilities with the major powers, and Hitler hoped his invasion of Poland would likewise be tolerated. It wasn't, but Hitler didn't really give a fuck. You know, if Britain and France didn't want to play his game, all right, fine, we'll attack you guys as well.

After taking Poland, Hitler didn't waste time setting up the Warsaw Ghetto as part of his Liebensraum plan, right? Living space, let's bring slavery back plan. The World War II ghetto system was begun by Nazi Germany in October 1939, immediately after taking Poland. The Nazis wanted to confine Poland's total Jewish population of 3.5 million for the purpose of persecution, terror, exploitation, and then extermination. terror, exploitation, and then extermination. Starting in 1939, Polish Jews were systematically forced to move away from their homes

into the designated areas of large Polish cities. The first large ghetto of World War II at, this is one of those crazy Polish words, Pietro, Pietrokow, Trybunowski. There we go. Pietrokow, Trybunowski was established on October 8th, 1939, followed by the Wuch ghetto.

This word, by the way, oh boy. Wuch is spelled L-O-D-Z. Yeah, you figure that out. L-O-D-Z pronounced Wuch. Okay. Followed by the Wuch ghetto in April, 1940, the Warsaw ghetto in October, 1940, many other ghettos established throughout 1940, 1941.

The ghettos were walled off as fast as walls could be built. Any Jew found trying to escape from them was shot and the Warsaw ghetto got super crowded, super quick. By the end of September or the September campaign, the number of Jews in and around the Capitol increased dramatically due to thousands of Jewish refugees escaping the Polish German front in any possible way, often on foot, right? Running away from the battlefields. In less than a year, the number of refugees in Warsaw exceeded 90,000. On October 7th, the Jewish council, Judenrat, a council of Jewish people was formed in Warsaw by the Nazis. This Judenrat council was composed of 24 prominent individuals led by Adam Cherniako,

who would be personally responsible for carrying out German orders against his own people. This poor bastard, this Adam Cherniako. His story is especially sad, even amongst a tale of so much sorrow. Adam Cherniako chose a policy of collaboration with the Nazis in the hope of, not that he had much choice, but in the hope of saving more lives that way than would be lost if the council attempted to defy the Nazis in any way. Adam confided his harrowing experience in a diary

that we will examine soon in today's timeline. It's pretty intense. The formation of the council Adam led kicked off a bunch of bullshit laws being made by the Nazis who charged the Judenrat with enforcing these laws. The purpose of these laws was to separate the Jews from the rest of the population, dehumanize them, make carrying out their later

heinous acts that much easier. On October 26, 1939, the imposition of Jewish forced labor was announced and the Jews were forced to clear the rubble from the bombing of their own buildings without being paid for doing so. A month later, on November 20th, the bank accounts of Polish Jews were frozen so they can suddenly only withdraw a tiny amount per day, just enough to buy food for the family for the day, not enough to buy a new life somewhere else and escape. On November 23rd, all Jewish establishments were ordered to display a Jewish star on doors and windows so Nazis could easily and quickly identify where Jewish people were located. On December 1st, all Jews older than 10 years old were compelled to wear a white armband.

And on December 11th, they were forbidden from using public transit and the hits kept coming. January 26th, 1940, the Jews were banned from holding communal prayers, right? And they can't go to church anymore now. The reason given is to cut down on the risk of spreading epidemics. And why would the Nazis be worried that the Jewish people would spread disease? Well, because they thought of them as filthy subhuman monsters. The Nazis also began to consolidate other Jewish settlements around Warsaw and move Jews into the center of the city. The Jewish population of Warsaw reached 359,827 by the end of the year.

Ghetto wall construction began on April 1st, 1940, not quite seven months after the Germans first invaded Poland. The wall circled the area of Warsaw inhabited predominantly by Jews. The work was supervised by the Warsaw Judenrat. To make room for the ghetto, the Nazi authorities kicked 113,000

non-Jewish ethnic Poles out of the neighborhood, and they ordered the relocation of 138,000 Warsaw Jews from various other parts of town into the city center. Then on November 15th, 1940, a year and a month and a half, I guess, after invading Poland, the Germans closed the Warsaw ghetto to the outside world. The wall was about 13 feet high, topped with barbed wire. Escapees were instructed that anyone attempting to sneak out of the ghetto will be shot on sight, and they were shot on sight. Often, German police officers assigned to patrolling the wall would hold victory parties on the days when a large number of

prisoners were shot attempting to escape the ghetto. Some ghetto prisoners did escape, like Janina Davidovits. She was a nine-year-old girl when World War II engulfed Poland. She would live in the ghetto for over two years. She'd attend a secret school forbidden by the Nazis. If teachers and students were caught, they'd be executed just for learning. She would watch almost everyone she'd ever known be rounded up by the Nazis

and sent from the ghetto to concentration camps. Eventually, her father, who was a Jewish police officer the Nazis hired to patrol the ghetto, he snuck her out of the ghetto, got her into the hands of a caring Christian family who risked their life to save hers. She's then taken to a convent where nuns hid her until the end of the war. So Europe, important to note, did have some good Christians as well. Now, I don't want that to get lost in this story. Many Christians in Germany and Poland and elsewhere would risk their lives and or give up their lives to help save Jewish people. Hail Nimrod, little bit of light in all this darkness.

Janina would make it to Australia after the war where she'd work as a social worker. From there, she would eventually move to London where she wrote about her experiences in the Warsaw Ghetto. Her book is called A Square of Sky and is written under the pen name of Janina David, if you ever want to check it out. Now let's get back to the ghetto's beginning. The Nazi in charge of the ghetto was a huge asshole, Waldemar Schoen,

who had also supervised the initial Jewish relocations in 1940 into the ghetto, an early Nazi adopter. This guy joined the party back in 1930. He wasn't just following orders. He loved his shit. Schoen, known to World War II historians mostly for orchestrating

an artificial famine in the ghetto in January of 1941. Yes, he orchestrated an artificial famine. Schoen eliminated virtually all food supplies being sent into the ghetto. And then he was essentially fired for being too cruel, even by Nazi standards in March of 1941. How fucking insane is that? When dudes like Heinrich Himmler think that you're taking it too far. What are you doing, Schoen? Eliminating virtually all the food? It's like there's no chill in you.

Look, I get it. I do not enjoy the Jew. You know that. But virtually no food. That is just cruel, Schoen. So there are tricksy devil horn baby eaters, but they still need to have little bread in their tum-tums. Because it gets so sad. It makes my eyes water. It's hard, Shohan. So they are tricksy devil horn baby eaters, but they still need to have little bread in their tum-tums because it gets so sad.

It's making my eyes water. It's hard to think about. When the ghetto was originally opened under Shohan, it was enormous. Its initial population was roughly 450,000. The Warsaw Ghetto, the largest ghetto in all of Nazi-occupied Europe, and also tiny in size geographically, right?

Over 400,000 Jewish people crammed into an area of 1.3 square miles, 7.2 people per room. Over seven people per room. Not only did the Nazis take away the Jewish people's freedom, they took away their privacy. Right, you can't even get a good jerk in there. How are you supposed to beat it when there's 7.2 people per room?

You gotta be so quick, so quiet. You gotta be like a jerk ninja. Master some kind of little silent flick of the wrist and you're done. Or silent flip of the beam. Flip? Flip of the beam. Flip of the beam. Why did I say flip of the beam?

I meant to say flick of the beam. You guys knew. Warsaw, 30% of the population forced to live in 2.4% of the city's area. With very few exceptions, right? They weren't allowed to leave this ghetto. The Nazis kept them trapped inside. And essentially, this human cattle holding pen gave them the tiniest amount of food to maybe keep them alive. Food was heavily rationed throughout Nazi-occupied Warsaw. The Warsaw Jews were given a disturbingly tiny amount of food. Germans were given 2,613 calories a day. I want to put

this in Taco Bell terms because a lot of people are familiar with Taco Bell and because I desperately want to lighten this darkness to fuck up just a tiny bit at least. So 2,613 calories, that's basically six Taco Bell beefy Frito burritos a day, right? They're 440 calories each. And yes, the beefy Frito burrito is a real thing. It's seasoned ground beef, cilantro rice, warm nacho cheese sauce, and original Fritos corn chips all wrapped in a warm flour tortilla. And it's, I think you should say tortilla, actually, if you're talking about Taco Bell. I'm going to go back. It's a tortilla when it's Taco Bell. And it is guaranteed to full blitzkrieg your fucking butthole. So if you're German,

you get six of these abominations. If you're Polish and not German, but also not Jewish, you get 669 calories worth of food per day. That's almost exactly one and a half butthole bust in Frito-Britos a day. Now, if you're Jewish, this is so disturbing. Jewish, this is so disturbing. 181 calories a day, a day, just a hair over 40% of one of these things, a day, less than half of one super shitty burrito for the whole fucking day. One small chicken soft taco at Taco Bell is 180 calories. You can have one of those, nothing else. A 10 ounce, tiny ass Tropicana, shitty orange juice, 140 calories. Think about, think about, just to put this all in perspective, a packet, a small package, not even a king size, whatever they call it, a small package of peanut M&Ms,

250 calories, a fucking maple bar donut has at least 200 calories. You're getting less than one candy bar, less than one donuts worth of food a day. Nazi food aid given to Jewish people living in the ghetto consisted of dry bread that was literally mixed with sawdust. Sawdust, not good for you in case you don't know how fucking food works. Wood scraps, not in the food pyramid. They were given flour and potatoes at lowest quality, like moldy flour and potatoes, rotten turnips, small monthly supplement of half-spoiled margarine, sugar, borderline rancid meat, or full-on rancid meat. Crowded conditions and malnutrition led to rampant disease. Of course it did in the ghetto. During the first year, despite a large number of Jews and also Romani

peoples, commonly known as gypsies, being brought into the Warsaw ghetto, the population would remain the same, right? Because despite how many extra people they were bringing in, so many people were dying. A lot of people were dying due to epidemics of typhus and other bacterial infections. Also dying from starvation. Because the tiny amount of food rationed out by the Nazis,

because it wasn't enough for ghetto occupants to actually survive on, many Warsaw Jews risked their lives or the lives of their children to smuggle food into the ghetto. Up to 80% of the food consumed in the ghetto was brought in illegally. Food items were usually smuggled in by children alone who crossed the ghetto wall in a variety of ways by the hundreds several times a day,

returning with as much food as they could carry. Many in the ghetto would have died without this smuggling operation. Despite barely having enough food to live on, the Jews did live inside the Warsaw ghetto. They didn't just survive. Even though schools were forbidden, even though they risked their lives to teach, they kept educating their children. In this insane, inhumane, horrific ecosystem, something out of a nightmare, they set up their own hospitals, public soup kitchens, orphanages, refugee centers, recreation facilities.

They had secret libraries, even had a symphony orchestra. A rabbi named Alexander Friedman organized an underground network of religious schools, including a school for boys, a school for girls, a school for elementary Jewish instruction, three institutions for advanced Jewish studies. Now let's talk about the final days of the Warsaw ghetto when the deportations came. Approximately 100,000 ghetto inmates had already died of hunger related diseases and starvation before the mass deportation started in the summer of 42. And why did the mass deportation start? Because earlier that year during the Wannsee conference near Berlin, the final solution was set into motion. The Nazis were continuing to escalate the hate.

It was no longer enough to isolate the Jews or imprison them, no longer enough to force them to work for free and to humiliate them, humiliate them. No, now they wanted to kill them all. This may come as a surprise to some of you, it did to me, but genocide was not always part of Hitler's plan. At first, Hitler just wanted to carry out Liebenstrom, the plan for making room for Germans. But then that plan shifted to the final solution,

which was basically killing all the Jews along with other folks the Nazis determined to be intolerable in their vision of a future world. On January 20th, 1942, the Wannsee Conference was attended by 15 Nazi senior bureaucrats the conference marked a turning point in Nazi policy towards the Jews

an earlier idea was to deport all of Europe's Jews to the island of Madagascar right off the coast of Africa off the eastern coast of Africa this was now abandoned as impractical in wartime I can't believe that was a real idea tossed around for a long time by the way to send all of Europe's Jews to Madagascar just make them live on a big island over 5,000 miles away.

I mean, I mentioned that the Nazis were insane, right? Now the newly planned final solution to the Jewish problem would entail rounding up all Jews throughout Europe, transporting them eastward, mainly into Poland, and executing them. In addition to executing the Jews, the Nazis also planned, I didn't know this, to reduce the population of the conquered territories by 30 million people through starvation in an action called the Hunger Plan. Ruthless. These motherfuckers were ruthless. super scenic Berlin lakefront suburb of Wannsee held in this beautiful villa that's now a museum. Kind of crazy to think about, right? These sadistic assholes just sitting around, eating the finest foods,

sitting in, you know, like these, you know, hoity-toity, you know, and there's hoity-toity furniture in this beautiful villa, looking out at this pristine lake, casually just discussing the worst shit imaginable. So, we're going to kill all the Jews, right? Like, the babies and everything?

Yeah? Okay, that's good. I was worried that some of you would puss out about the babies. What is this cheese they've made out of? Is this Limburger? That is a fine German cheese. I know it. It's really quite wonderful.

Anyway, after the Jews, how many others will we kill? Will we starve 30 million more fathers and mothers and children? Oh, that's good. That's a good start. Did you get my joke? I said that was a good start, even though you said 30 million, which I know is more than just a start. That's why it's, you know,

that's why it's funny, because it's not the right word for the situation. I just... Anyway, the Limburger is so good! Such a wonderful A and cheese! Shortly after this crazy conference, these fucking lunatics,

the captives residents of the Warsaw ghetto began to be rounded up and sent to death camps. Specifically, ghetto captives were sent aboard Holocaust trains to the Treblinka death camp, built in a forest just 50 miles northeast of Warsaw. Around 300,000 Warsaw residents by some accounts were sent aboard Holocaust trains to the Treblinka death camp, built in a forest just 50 miles northeast of Warsaw. Around 300,000 Warsaw residents, by some accounts, were sent to Treblinka and murdered there between July 23rd and September 21st of 1942.

For eight weeks, the deportations of Jews from Warsaw to Treblinka continued on a fucking daily basis via two shuttle trains, each transport carrying about 4,000 to 7,000 people crying out for water, crying for their lives, crammed in about 100 people per cattle truck. The first daily trains rolled into the camp early in the morning, often after an overnight wait at a layover yard,

and then the second in mid-afternoon. All new arrivals to Treblinka were sent immediately to an undressing area, and from there, most were sent to the gas chambers. The stripped victims were suffocated to death in batches of 200 with the use of monoxide gas. My God, what a horror. Those final moments, right? It would take several minutes for everyone to die. Children screaming, parents sobbing, death with no dignity. In September 1942, new gas chambers were built, which could kill as many as 3,000 people in just two hours.

Right? The Nazis built new gas chambers because trainloads of Jewish people being taken to a fucking death camp every day. They just weren't dying fast enough for them. In the last two weeks of this operation, which ended on September 21st, 1942, some 48,000 Warsaw Jews were deported to their deaths. The last transport of 2,200 victims from the Polish capital included the Jewish police who had assisted the Nazis, sending everyone else to their deaths first. My God. They helped round up everybody else into the death train so they could just live a little bit longer, only to end up hitching a ride themselves to the same death camp. Altogether, roughly a quarter of a million Jews were taken from the ghetto, gassed in Treblinka in just that one summer. And then in September of 1942, those who remained, about 55,000,

started to resist deportation. They refused to leave the ghetto and get on the train. A newly formed group, the Jewish Fighting Organization, the ZOB, the acronym works in Hebrew, slowly took control of the ghetto. 27-year-old Yitzhak Zuckerman, the ZOB leader, negotiated the gifts and black market purchases of pistols, grenades, few rifles. He smuggled these along with messages into the ghetto through the Warsaw sewers. This fucking badass freedom fighter would smuggle roughly 75 underground fighters out of the ghetto at the end of the uprising, including his future wife, Zivia, and continue to fight, right, in the other areas of Warsaw. Only 34 of the fighters that came with him

had survived the war. One of those was his future wife. Also, neither one of those heroes had been sent to Warsaw, right? They snuck in to help. They volunteered. Heroes, none of Stan Lee's superheroes have shit on these two.

Incredible. For months, the Nazis ignored those who remained in the ghetto, went about dealing with other ghettos, fighting other battles. Then on January 18th, 1943, after almost four months without deportations, the Germans suddenly entered the Warsaw ghetto intent on final roundups, and that's when the remaining Jews fought back. The Germans expected no real resistance, but the attempted roundup was stopped by hundreds of brave insurgents armed with a few handguns and a bunch of Molotov cocktails.

The underground fighters from the ZOB and also the ZZW, the Jewish Military Union, pushed the Nazis back out. The ZOB only had about 500 fighters in its ranks and not very many guns. Like a couple dozen, the ZZW had about 250 fighters. Most of the Jewish fighters died in the battle, but the attack sufficiently disoriented the Germans enough

to allow a lot of Jews arranged in columns to be boarded onto death trains, a chance to disperse. The Nazis did take 5,000 to 6,500 ghetto residents to be deported, but the Germans suspended further deportations on January 21st because of this uprising. And for the next three months, the Nazis, for the most part, stayed out January 21st because of this uprising. And for the next three months, the Nazis, for the most part, stayed out of the ghetto because of Jewish resistance. Then the final battle started on the eve of Passover, April 19th, 1943, when a

Nazi force consisting of several thousand troops entered the ghetto to find the last couple of fighters and other hideouts. The German forces intended to liquidate the Warsaw Ghetto completely when SS and police units entered the ghetto that morning the streets were deserted. All of the residents of the ghetto had gone into hiding places or bunkers and then armed with pistols, grenades, many of them homemade,

and a few automatic weapons and rifles, the resistance fighters stunned the Germans again and on the first day of fighting, forced the German forces to retreat back outside the ghetto wall. God, I hope the resistance fighters celebrated like, oh, just so hard that night. I hope they sang. I hope they danced.

I hope they fucked and laughed and cried and screamed insults against the Nazi devils into the night. Hail, Lusafina! German Commander SS General Jürgen Strupp reported losing 12 men killed and wounded during that first assault in the ghetto. A little bit of payback. That had to have felt good. Killed some ghetto. A little bit of payback. That had to have felt good. Killed some Nazis, a little bit of blood for blood. And then a few hundred resistance fighters fought a few thousand much better equipped Nazis for an entire month.

Significant resistance ended on April 28th and the Nazi operation officially ended in mid-May, symbolically culminating with the demolition of the Great Synagogue of Warsaw on May 16th. After six or three days, the Poles, out of arms, supplies, food, and water were forced to surrender. In the aftermath, the Nazis deported much of Warsaw's population. More fighting outside of the ghetto walls ensued, and the Nazis completely destroyed the city. Ultimately, they lost.

But really, just by fighting back, they won. They inspired other Jews to fight back elsewhere in Europe. They've inspired resistance fighters elsewhere around the world in the years since. They were going to die anyway, so they chose to fight. Killing in the name of, right? Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me. They were full of rage against the machine,

those courageous bastards. Okay, now let's back up a little bit. For a more personal look into the madness of Warsaw, let's return to the diaries. I guess not return, let's look. I mentioned them, we haven't looked into them. Let's look at the diaries of the Jewish man put in charge of helping eliminate his own people, Adam Cherniako and his diaries. Adam keeps a daily diary throughout his time as chairman of the Jewish council in Warsaw. His diary gives us an invaluable light into what daily life in the ghetto must have looked like,

what it did look like under the Nazis. So let's check in with this diary in today's Time Suck Timeline. Strap on those boots, soldier. We're marching down a Time Suck Timeline. October 8th, 1939, the first entry in Adam's diary that we're going to mention. Adam wrote, Now, it sounds pretty boring, but how strange for Adam. This is the beginning. This is the very beginning. The Nazis had just barely invaded a month before. They

bombed the fuck out of his city. He's Jewish. He knows how the Nazis feel about the Jews. Right? He has to. Now, for over three hours, he's waiting for some SS shithead to give him the keys to his own community hall. I doubt that SS dude was super nice and friendly. Sorry about the wait, Adam. Oh, my goodness. Heaven's dispensable. I can that SS dude was super nice and friendly. Sorry about the wait, Adam. Oh my goodness.

Heavens to special. I can't believe it took me so long to find the keys. Oh, sorry. This feels personal, but are you Jewish? Oh, you are? That's so cool. I've always loved the Jews. Such a rich heritage. No. Right fucking dickhead. On October 25th, Adam

simply wrote, office in the morning surrendering the radio set. Simple entry, but not good. Why would you have to surrender the radio? Back then, the radio was one of the best forms of communication you had with the allies and, you know, ask them to help you get the fuck out of Nazi occupied territory, try and find out what's going on, or maybe set up some kind of resistance with other resistance people, right? They're taking control. November 18th, 1939, Adam wrote, ghetto postponed for a few months. The community ordered to place at its borders signs stating danger, epidemics, entry prohibited. But there wasn't an epidemic unless the Jewish people themselves counted as an epidemic. The SS wanted to keep people out of that neighborhood because they were getting ready to wall it off. A couple weeks later, November 30th, Adam wrote, a newspaper was brought in with an announcement on the Jewish armbands,

the marking of Jewish shops, as well as the execution of the 53 from Nalueke Street. Now, those 53 executed were Jews. And why were they killed? Because one Jewish youth had shot and killed a police officer, a Polish police officer, when they came to arrest him for allegedly stealing something. And so the Nazis executed him and 52 other Jewish people from his neighborhood

that had nothing to do with the crime. It was the beginning of a new policy against the Jews called collective responsibility. Someone from your family or one of your friends or one of your neighbors does something, we're going to fuck up all of you. On December 20th, Adam writes, prayers and synagogues prohibited, rumors about Prague ghetto. Okay, now I can't pray together, right? Things are escalating.

It's only been three months since the Nazis took Warsaw. They've already taken the Jewish people's religion from them, demonstrated that they'll kill them for nothing. January 17th, 1940. Today, I must prepare a report on my Jewish property. Alas, I do not possess much. Although in these times, this is a blessing. Now they're registering them, taking their shit. Can you imagine? Can you imagine if some new regime came into your neighborhood, told you you were forbidden to go to church, killed some of your neighbors because one of them shot a cop, and then they made you register your property, which you knew was leading to them just taking all your shit. September 5th, 1940,

in the morning at the Gestapo, In regard to the workers from the battalion And those arrested yesterday at Unia Square Rumanowski From Łódź visited me at the community In the company of an SS man And the chief of the food office The food office The wall's being built now

It'll be finished in two months There's a food office Giving Adam and the other Jews their rations Very little, right? One Taco Adam and the other Jews their rations. Very little, right? One Taco Bell, soft taco a day type rations. What he must be thinking about all of this. Reading survivor stories, it seems that many thought, we're going to get through this.

It's going to be over soon. Dear God, let it be over soon. And then it's going to be fine. Then life's going to go back to normal. It would all be over soon. Just not at all like anyone hoped. Well, unless I guess you were the Nazis. October 14th, 1940, Fisher's proclamation about the ghetto has now just been published. The boundaries do not correspond with the plan that was handed to me. Legions of Jews

from Praga are trekking to Warsaw, their push carts filled with pitiful junk. One month until the wall is sealed and the crowded little ghetto is getting way more crowded. When Adam speaks of the boundaries not corresponding to what was given to him, I'm strongly guessing he means he was given much less land for his people. I highly doubt it went the other way. You know, I highly doubt it was something against. I'm friendly. I says, Adam, Adam, Henry Kimler would like a word with you.

Hey, Adam, hey, buddy. I wanted to talk to you about the ghetto boundaries. I'm going to be honest. I don't like the plan. I mean, barely over a square mile for so many. It doesn't seem reasonable, yeah? What if we give you like 10 square miles? A giant park for the kids,

some room to have some gardens, maybe a swimming pool. I mean, you like swimming pools, yeah? It would be so cool. On November 4th, 1940, he writes, when I appeared at the battalion office, the officer in charge set upon me, hitting me in the head until I fell.

At this point, the soldiers started kicking me with their boots. When I tried to stand up, they jumped on me and threw me down the stairs. Half a flight down, they beat me again. In the end, I was dragged to a truck, but was soon ordered to move into another one. I was then transported with Singer,

let's off a bunch of names, back to Zucca Avenue. Jesus, the ghetto was sealed just 11 days after this. Maybe he was upset about the rations, maybe the cramped living conditions, something. Maybe he dared to tell some SS officers they were being unreasonable. Or maybe the Nazis just didn't like the tone of his voice that day, and they just beat the fuck out of him. November 12th, 1940, he writes, we have received unofficial news that those caught leaving the ghetto will be shot in the Jewish detention facility the day after tomorrow. Three days before the ghetto was sealed off. And Adam hears that if they try to leave without permission,

they're going to be shot, which was true. Five days later, Adam writes, at 730, the execution was carried out in the prison yard. Why were they executed? Well, considering this entry comes two days after the walls are sealed, probably because someone tried to escape. Let's skip ahead eight months now to the summer of 1941. July 21st, he writes, in the community, I received a letter from the commissar on the, uh, Gankwach Bureau, the control office for combating the black market and profiteering in the Jewish district of Warsaw

is hereby dissolved. Okay, so now the Nazis have given up trying to control black market goods, right? Being snuck into the ghetto. Why? Because they're super cool, nice guys? No. I bet it was because they realized

it was easier to do it this way, right? They can spend even less manpower, less money on keeping anyone in the ghetto alive in case the Fuhrer wants to keep them alive for some reason later, like for slave labor, or if, you know, Himmler or some piece of shit wants it for medical experimentation. December 13th, 1941, initially, okay, oh yeah, initially Adam himself did not live in the ghetto due to working with the SS. So this ends in December of 1941. And on the 13th, he writes about his relocation. I moved to an apartment on 20 Choldna Street. January 19th, 1942, he writes, I have heard that the Auerwald, or I have heard that Auerwald has been summoned to Berlin. I

cannot shake off the fearful suspicion that the Jews of Warsaw may be threatened by mass resettlement. And why would he be worried about resettlement? I'm guessing, you know, Adam, mass resettlement. And why would he be worried about resettlement? I'm guessing, you know, Adam, he knew that this meant death. February 19th, 1942, he writes, I went to see Arswald. He inspected, or I guess it'd be Arswald. He inspected the prison yesterday. As a result, 50 people were directed to a camp, probably Treblinka. So this Arswald, Adam is referring to as Heinz Arswald, a German lawyer, SS member put in charge of the Warsaw Ghetto in April of 41. He would oversee the transportation of the residents to the Treblinka death camp. He'd be investigated after the war for war crimes, but not until 1970, sadly.

And then he died at the age of 62 and avoid any charges. April 1st, 1942, he writes, news from Lublin. 90% of the Jews are to leave Lublin within the next few days. The 16 council members together with the chairman Becker were reportedly arrested. Relatives of the other counselors, aside from their wives and children, must also leave Lublin. In the morning hours, about a thousand expellees from Hanover and Gilsikirchen were sent over. They were put in the quarantine at 109 Lesno Street. Okay, Lublin was another Polish ghetto.

Adam knows they're being sent to the death camp. Hanover held a small Jewish community, as did Gelsenkirchen, and they were all being sent to concentration camps. Four days later, on April 9th, he wrote, in the morning at the community, Arswald ordered 160 young German Jews from the quarantine to be taken to Treblinka. Okay, so now the sick at the community, Arswald ordered 160 young German Jews from the quarantine to be taken to Treblinka.

Okay, so now the sick in the Warsaw ghetto are no longer being treated. They're just being taken straight to the death camp. Adam has been working with the SS for over two years now. He has to know what the overall deal is. He has to know eventually they're going to come for them all. His plan now in speculating, and just based on other things I've read,

is just that allies will liberate them before they're all killed. Just hoping that somehow this will all change. April 11th, 1942, later to Oswald about the orchestra. The commissar sent me a letter yesterday suspending performances of the orchestra for two months for having played the works of Aryan composers. How fucking heartless is this? This made me so mad when I read it the first time. The Wannsee Conference has been held back in January. That's where the final solution was decided. At this point, the Nazis have known for months.

They're going to kill all these people, right? They're going to kill them anyway. Men, women, children, all of them, but they're still not going to let them listen to fucking music inside the ghetto. That's evil shit. They're fucking monsters at this point, right? They've done more than just dehumanize them. This is some shit a decent person wouldn't do

to an animal. It's like knowing you're going to put some dog down and then you don't even let the dog have a fucking chew toy for the final hours of its life. Maybe some of these Nazis were just following orders and didn't want any of this to happen, but some of them did want this to happen or it wouldn't have happened. April 22nd, 1942, they brought to the Jewish prison 10 gypsies, men and women with their king, Quik. Good to note here, there wasn't just the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto. Romani people also sent to the Warsaw Ghetto. Also, roughly 5,000 Christians would end up in the Warsaw Ghetto, Christians the Nazis defined as being Jewish in heritage. April 27th, 1942, a transport of a thousand people arrived from Bohemia today. They were unloaded at 6 a.m. Later, they were

assembled in the Great Synagogue. I addressed the gathering. All right, so other Jewish people, you know, still being rounded up, sent to Warsaw to await being taken to concentration camps, to Drablinka. May 3rd, 1942, in the morning at the community, at 10, the film crew from the propaganda office arrives and proceeds to take pictures of my office. Man, the propaganda office, how fucked up is that? They're coming to do some filming, take some pictures, right? Film emaciated and filthy Jewish ghetto residents. Why? To show the German people how nasty they are. The Nazis made them nasty. Didn't give them proper food, forced them to live in unsanitary conditions. And now they're filming them to prove how superior the healthy, well-fed Aryans are compared to the weak Jews. Evil. The shit is so evil, right? Centuries of racism and

propaganda in Europe allowed them to dehumanize the Jewish people. Maybe we shouldn't stereotype any ethnic group ever. It can lead to some really, really bad shit. May 5th, 1942. He writes, the film crew is still much in evidence. They're filming extreme poverty. The positive achievements are of no interest to them. Yep. May 15th, 1942.

At 8.30, I am waiting at home for the film crew. The movie men arrive at 8.45. We're shooting until 12.30. The city is full of rumors about deportations. Tens of thousands are being mentioned. Purposeful work under such conditions is worthy of admiration. And yet we are doing it every day. Tears will not help us. I must repeat Dickens' words once more. You cannot wind your watch with your tears. God damn it, man. They for sure know now. They know the end is near. What can they do? They're vastly outmanned, outgunned. They're hungry and tired and scared. May 25th, 1942,

in the morning at the community. When he says community, it's this big community hall they would gather in. Propst and the commissar arrive at Tzlamaki Street. 30 Jews have been sent to Treblinka. It's begun. Small groups now being sent, small, you know, healthy Jewish people being sent to the Treblinka death camp. June 1st, 1942, Arswald called at 3 p.m. asking for several hundred more people for Treblinka. July 19th, 1942, he writes, in the morning at the community, incredible panic in the city. Cohn, Heller, Ehrlich are spreading terrifying rumors, creating the impression that it is all false propaganda. I wish it were so. On the other hand,

there is talk of about 40 railroad cars ready and waiting. Kahn claims that the deportation is to commence tomorrow at 8 p.m. with 3,000 Jews from the ghetto. Fuck, ramping up big time. The final solution has already begun elsewhere. They know what fate awaits them if they board those trains.

July 20th, 1942. In the morning at 730 at the Gestapo, I ask Mendy how much truth there is in the rumors. He replies that he has heard nothing. I turn to Brant. He also knows nothing. When asked if it could happen, he replies he knew of no such scheme. Uncertain, I left his office. I proceeded to his chief commissar, Bohm. He told me it was not his department, but Hohmann might say something about the rumors. I mentioned that according to the rumors, the deportation is to start tonight at 7.30.

He replied that he would be bound to know something if it were going to happen. Not seeing any way out, I went to the deputy chief of section three, Scherer. He expressed his surprise hearing the rumor and informed me that he knew nothing about it. Finally, I asked whether I could tell the population that their fears were groundless. He replied that I could and that all the talk was utter nonsense. I ordered Lichgen to make the public announcement through the precinct police stations.

I drove to Aursfalt. He informed me that he reported everything to the SS. Meanwhile, first went to some other random names who expressed their indignation and promised an investigation. He's being lied to, right? Does he know that the Nazis are just telling him what he wants to hear to try to get him to keep the ghetto populace from panicking and revolting?

He probably does, right? But the desire to believe that everything's going to be okay, no matter how irrational that desire is, it's got to be so strong in moments like this, right? You just want to believe you're captured when they tell you, oh, no, no, no, no, no,

you guys won't be killed. No, not here. You guys have done everything we've asked. No, no, no. It's the other Jewish people. They're going to be killed. You guys are the good Jewish people. We like you guys, right? It's insane to believe this. It's not logical, but you do anyways, because it's just fucking too terrifying to think anything else. July 21st, 1942, in the morning at the community, just before noon, officers of the security police order me to detain in my office those counselors who were present in the community building. Soon the members of the council in my office are arrested in groups. At the same time, the senior officials of the provisioning authority, with Gipner heading the

list, are also seized. I decide to stay at the community until 6 p.m., having brought my wife, Felicia, there earlier. The evening was quiet during the night deaths. No, during the night deaths. The night deaths. Not sure what he means there. But they've taken his staff. He knows that spells nothing good.

He knows now that no one's going to be spared. July 22nd, in the morning at 730, the community, the borders of the small ghetto surrounded by a special unit in addition to the regular one. Stormenhofer, Hoffel, and associates came at 10 o'clock. We disconnected the telephone. Children were moved from the playground opposite the community building. We were told that all Jews, irrespective of sex and age, with certain exceptions, will be deported to the east. By 4 p.m. today, a contingent of 6,000 people must be provided, and this, at the minimum, will be the daily quota. We were ordered to vacate a building at 103 Zelzana Street for the German personnel who will be carrying out the deportation.

This Sternbahnführer in charge of the deportation asked me into his office. This guy's fucking name, by the way. S-T-U-R-M-B-A-N-N-F-U-H-R-E-R-F-H-O-F-L. Let's get the fuck out of here. Just change it to Smith at this point, you fucking son of a bitch. Sermon Hoffel, in charge of the deportation, asked me into his office and informed me that for the time being, my wife was free, but if the deportation were impeded in any way, she would be the first one to be shot as a hostage. Jesus fucking Christ. Adam is now put in charge of making sure that 6,000 men, at least 6,000 men, women, and children

are loaded into fucking death trains, taken to a death camp every day, and if anything goes wrong, at any, taken to a death camp every day. And if anything goes wrong at any point, they're going to kill his wife. I've had some bad days at work. I've never had a day this bad, like in the ballpark of this bad. Do you hate your job? Well, feel way better right now. Has your boss asked you to coordinate with your friends and neighbors? You're going to send to a death camp? Has your boss told you they're going to kill your fucking wife if you don't do your job right? Maybe not so bad. I mean, this shit is cartoonishly evil now. No wonder some idiots are Holocaust deniers, right? It's hard to process this much evil,

just mentally. It's like, what? And by the way, if you are a Holocaust denier, you're being a huge fucking asshole and idiot. Actually, that word isn't strong enough. You're being a cunt. Pull your fucking head out of your really stupid ass and knock that shit off. But I just keep putting this crazy scenario into a modern office that this guy dealt with in his real life. I mean, it really is. It's hard to wrap my head around to something like, hey, Glenn, Glenn, could you come to my office for a second? I need to talk to you, buddy. First off, good job on handling the MacArthur account. You've done a great job.

Orders are up over 10% year to year. Profit overall is down though. It's down 5%. And that's, well, it's got the board riled up. So I'm going to need you to fire 20% of your staff. I know you don't want to. I know you don't want to. I know it's going to hurt, especially right now before Christmas.

But you got to do it, buddy. If you don't, we're not just going to fire you, Glenn. We're going to kill your fucking wife. It's insane. July 23rd, the following diary entry written the next day. July 23rd, it's going to be Adam's last entry. He writes, in the morning at the community, Werthoff from the deportation staff came and we discussed several problems. He exempted the vocational school students from deportation, the husbands of working women as well. He told me to take up the matter of orphans with Hoffel, the same with reference to craftsmen. When I asked for the number of days per week in which the operation will be carried out on, excuse me, the answer was seven days a week.

Throughout the town, a great rush to start new workshops. Yeah, throughout the town, a great, I don't know, a sewing machine can save a lot. Oh, there's a great rush to start new workshops. Yeah, throughout the town, a great, I don't know, a sewing machine can save a lot. Oh, there's a great rush to start new workshops. A sewing machine can save a life. It is three o'clock. So far, 4,000 are ready to go. The orders are that there must be 9,000 by four o'clock. Some officials came to the post office and issued instructions that all incoming letters and parcels be diverted to the Povayek prison. And that was all Adam would write in his diary. He did write two letters after this, a personal one to his wife and one to the Jewish council he worked with. In the letter to the council, he wrote, they are demanding that I

kill the children of my people with my own hands. There is nothing for me to do but die. And later that night, Adam swallowed a potassium cyanide pill, laid down, and did just that. Ugh. Cherniak's wife survived the war, made the diary available. Joss, their only son,

escaped from the ghetto, fled to the Soviet occupied territory, but did not survive the war. And that takes us out of this heavy as fuck. Ugh. Time's like timeline. Good job, soldier. You made it back.

Barely. My God. How heavy was that? Before we go further, I need just for my own sanity, I need to lighten it up a bit. I need to lighten it up a bit with a stupid, insane sponsor that will just put me in a better mood.

Today's Time Stoke is brought to you by Anton's Satanic Big Top Burlesque Strip Show, Nazi Edition. Uh-huh. Okay. Hey, hey, everybody. Cotton Candy's taking the week off. She's got a yeast infection, which is terrible, but at least it still tastes like sugar in a carny's dirty thumb.

Welcome to the stage, our newest dancer, Heinrich Himmler. Heinrich, say hello, everybody. Hi, guys. Did you know I could dance like this? I like to kind of blow off some steam by dancing my little Nazi heart out. I like to pretend I'm giving the Fjord lap dance and feeling his Aryan steel. I might just find the Holy Grail, but maybe I find Sword of Stone. Okay, guys. I just like to pretend I'm a flying Aryan ice giant when I dance. Hey, Carl,

what does your wonderful mind think of my dancing? Mashed potatoes. Potatoes, potatoes, potatoes. Something like I'm soft like I'm hard, hard, hard, hard, hard, hard. Thu. Thu's where the tool is. Thu's where the tool is. Oh, Carl, potatoes, potatoes. Something like them, soft like them. Hard, hard, hard, hard, hard, hard. Thule. Thule's where the thule is. Thule's where the thule is. Oh, Carl, you're so funny, Carl. You always know just what to say

to make me smile. Okay, now that was ridiculous. But I needed to shake off the heaviness. And just imagine Anton LaVey, right, founder of the Satanic Church, the Satanic Church, they're one of them, play the calliope so Heinrich Himmler could dance while his mentally unstable sidekick,

you know, sidekick Carl, made me laugh because it's so fucking crazy. Okay. Not long after Adam killed himself, the overwhelming majority of ghetto residents would be shipped to Tblinka, executed en masse. Not long after that, a ghetto uprising would occur.

It would be squashed, and then the ghetto would quite literally be burned to the fucking ground. And the Nazis would continue to exterminate millions of other Jews for another two years. So totally depressing, depressing story, no redeeming value, right? Wrong. Uh, one woman who lived through it sees things differently. She finds a positive message in the story of the Warsaw ghetto survival. She says, depends on finding some tiny source of hope and holding on. Now we're going to get a little bit inspirational here on out. Sonia Klein, now 93 years old, living in Brooklyn, told Time Magazine two years ago, when you are drowning and you see a straw, you hang on to that straw. Is a straw going to save you? No, but the touch of hope, but the touch of hope may.

In October of 1940, with Nazi forces occupying Warsaw, hundreds of thousands of Jews confined within the ghetto, Klein recalls that they were promised that if they reported to certain areas of the city, they could find work and food. They were starving already, so they did. Because her uncle already had a building in the ghetto, she and her parents and siblings were able to get a room, which she considered lucky because most people when she arrived were homeless in the ghetto and living on the street. She said, people were starving. It was winter and people were

dying. Every morning that you were able to go out, you saw corpses, not even covered with newspapers because there wasn't enough time to do it. This is how many people were gone. How could one forget this? Around the end of 1942, Klein says word began to spread that the people who had been deported from the ghetto, supposedly to labor camps, were in fact being killed. Her father and a few other men used their hands to dig a hiding spot under the basement of a building with their hands, hoping that their families could survive inside for at least a year. By early 1943, they were underground. Each day, one person would go out to bring back food using a designated knock to get back inside. Man, holy shit, hiding in a hole dug by hand

under a basement inside the ghetto. So intense, so smart. It was from there, in hiding, but with radios informing them about the outside world that they heard what was going on above ground, an uprising. As the uprising continued over the next several weeks, one of Klein's compatriots went out for food, was followed back to the hiding space. The secret knock came when the residents looked up. They saw the tail boots of Nazis there to take them away. Fuck, how much that suck. How sick would you feel your stomach?

Thank God that, spoiler alert, she lives because she's the one telling the story years later. Coming to the surface for the first time since she had gone into hiding, she saw that while they were underground, the ghetto had been utterly destroyed. In the wake of the first wave of resistance, she says, the Germans brought reinforcements from Galicia. Waves of bombers swept over the defenseless ghetto, raining incendiaries and high explosives. It took them 42 days to level every building. At this point, we had two choices, Klein says. One was to remain there. The ghetto was in flames already. The houses were burning

in the ghetto. Life is a very precious thing. And we said, well, either we go or we burn right here. We went out. Klein and the dozens of people she'd been in hiding with were taken to Majdanek, another concentration camp, for the act of not letting go of her young son's hand. Klein's mother was killed. My God, again, how fucking evil can you be to kill a mother for refusing to let her son's, or let go of her son's hand as you're taking both of them to a concentration camp anyway? I hope these motherfuckers were haunted by some of the shit they did in the name of fighting to help a madman destroy the world. Her baby brother was killed too.

Her father, who would die soon thereafter, separated from Klein and her sister, who a few weeks later were transported to Auschwitz. Klein believes that due to the fact that it was the end of April when she was found, she must have been on one of the last transports out of the Warsaw Ghetto. Soon after the uprising ended, Nazi forces deported about 42,000 Jews, almost everyone who remained. Thousands more had been killed during the uprising compared to a dozen Germans killed during the initial fighting. And they were taken to concentration camps or labor camps, according to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Klein's life was spared. She was put to work in the camp.

When the war in Europe ended almost exactly two years later, Klein and her sister had been on a months-long death march after having been shipped from camp to camp with the Allies closing in. All along, she says she kept her spark of hope alive by promising herself that she would not be silent if she survived. Klein met her husband, another camp prisoner, just after the camps were freed, and she says that he started telling people about what he had been through the day he was liberated. She found that talking about what she'd seen was like reliving it, and she ended up keeping most of it inside. While staying quiet, she made a new life in the US, first in Buffalo, New York, then in

New York City after her husband's death. She and her sister, another survivor, still live near one another. About seven years ago, Klein decided that her story was too important not to share. Silence, she says, meant it could happen again. And she now participates in a program called Witness Theater, which pairs Holocaust survivors with high school students for a year-long program during which the students, meeting regularly with the survivors and therapists and drama teachers, write a play to tell the survivors' stories. How fucking cool is that? What the kids talk about is that they take on the obligation, says Greg Schneider,

executive vice president of the Claims Conference, which supports the initiative. It's passing on this obligation to a new generation who then become the witnesses. Hail Nimrod. That shit is fantastic. Other people cannot truly comprehend what she went through, Klein says, but at least they listen.

Not that telling the story has gotten easier over the years. I sit here calm and collected, she says. Do you think I'm going to sleep tonight? No, but that's a small price to pay for what we owe our loved ones. Whew. Man, if you buy some small miracle here, this, Sonia, I love you. Sorry about the bad jokes. Sorry about this.

I'm a weirdo. Sorry. It's my defense mechanism. Oh, another survivor, Stanislaw Aronson was one of the brave souls who fought the Nazis in the Warsaw uprising. This dude's story, my God, born in 1925 as a Polish Jew, Stanislaw survived the Warsaw ghetto, lost his family in the Holocaust, served in a special operations unit of the Polish underground, the Home Army, Home Army, God, fought in the Warsaw Uprising of 1944. And here's an incredible message he recently shared with the world. We're lucky to hear these words.

He says, I know what it means to be at the sharp end of European history. And I fear that the battle to draw the right lessons from that time is in danger of being lost. Now 94 years old and living in Tel Aviv, I have watched from afar in recent years as armchair patriots. That's, oh man, that's some shade, but like I'm sure deserve armchair patriots, wow. As armchair patriots in my native Poland

have sought to exploit and manipulate the memories and experiences of my generation. They may think they're promoting national dignity or instilling pride in today's young people, but in reality, they are threatening to raise future generations in darkness, ignorant of the war's complexity, doomed to repeat the mistakes for which we paid such a high price. Given what I've learned over my lifetime, I would first urge future generations of Europeans to remember my generation as we really were, not as they may wish us to have been. We had all the same vices and weaknesses as today's young people do. Most

of us were neither heroes nor monsters. Of course, many people did extraordinary things, but in most cases, only because they were forced to by extreme circumstances. And even then, true heroes were very few and far between. I do not count myself among them. The same applies to those who failed in their moral obligations during that time. Of course, there were many who committed unspeakable, unforgivable crimes, but it is nonetheless important to understand that we were a generation living in fear, and fear makes people do terrible things. Unless you have felt it, you cannot truly understand it. Oh man, I love that point. Oh, I love the compassion that he's actually sharing here for Nazis. Man, fear makes people do terrible things. Yeah. Man, I understand that as much as I can, not having been through any of this

shit. And then he says, second, just as there is no such thing as a heroic generation, there is no such thing as a heroic nation or indeed an inherently malign or evil nation either. I must confess that for much of my life, I maintained the view that it was important for Poles to feel pride in their wartime record, leading me, when recounting my experiences serving in the Home Army in Warsaw under Nazi occupation, to omit certain examples of indifference and uncooperativeness on behalf of my fellow Poles. It is only in recent years, as I have seen that pride turn into self-righteousness and that self-righteousness into self-pity and aggression, that I have realized just how wrong it was not to be

completely open about the failings I witnessed. The truth is that as a Pole and as a Jew, as a soldier and as a refugee, I experienced a wide spectrum of behavior at the hands of Poles, from those who sheltered me at risk to their own lives, to those who sought to take advantage of my vulnerability, and all possible shades of concern and indifference in between. And although the Third Reich destroyed my world, it was a German woman who saved my life by introducing me to the men who would recruit me into the Polish underground. me to the men who would recruit me into the Polish underground. No nation has a monopoly on virtue, something that many people, including many of my fellow Israeli citizens, still struggle to understand. Wow, listen to the fucking wisdom. This dude's dropping on our asses right now. No nation has a monopoly on virtue. Don't be nationalistic, you shithead, right? Your country has good people and bad people.

People making good choices, people making bad choices. And that's true for every nation on earth and it always will be forever and always, right? And then Stanislaw drops even more important knowledge and wisdom saying, third, do not underestimate the destructive power of lies. When the war broke out in 1939, my family fled East and settled for a couple of

years in Soviet-occupied Lviv in western Ukraine. The city was full of refugees, and rumors were swirling about mass deportations to Gulags in Siberia and Kazakhstan. To calm the situation, a Soviet official gave a speech declaring that the rumors were false. Nowadays, they would be called fake news and that anyone spreading them would be arrested. Two days later, the deportations to the gulags began and thousands were sent to their deaths.

Those people and millions of others, including my immediate family, were killed by lies. My country and much of the continent was destroyed by lies. And now lies threaten not only the memory of those times, but also the achievements that have been made since. Today's generation doesn't have the luxury of being able to argue that it was never warned or did not understand the consequences

of where lies can take you. Confronting lies sometimes means confronting difficult truths about oneself and one's own country. It is much easier to forgive yourself and condemn another than the other way around but this is something that everyone must do i have made my peace with modern germany and hope that all europeans can do the same man god dang man don't yeah don't whitewash history and yeah understand that life is gray now black black and white. Gosh, so much amazing truth, this guy. This is like the third time I've read this and it's still just like, wow.

Finally, do not ever imagine that your world cannot collapse as ours did. This may seem the most obvious lesson to be passed down, but only because it is the most important. One moment I was enjoying an idyllic adolescence in my home city of Wuj, and the next we were on the run. I would

only return to my empty home five years later, no longer a carefree boy, but a Holocaust survivor, a home army veteran living in fear of Stalin's secret police, the NKVD. I ended up moving to what was then the British mandate of Palestine, fighting in a war of independence for a Jewish homeland I didn't even know I had. Perhaps it is because I was only a child that I did not notice the storm clouds that were gathering, but I believe that many who were older and wiser than me at that time also shared my childlike state. If disaster comes, you will find that all the myths

you once cherished are of no use to you. You will see what it is like to live in a society where morality has collapsed, causing all your assumptions and prejudices to crumble before your eyes. And after it's all over, you will watch as slowly but surely these harshest of lessons are forgotten

as the witnesses pass on and new myths take their place. Fuck, I love this dude. Right? We can't let new myths take their place. That's why we got to fight the fucking idiots of the internet, which I don't have in this show, by the way.

This is so heavy. All the videos I was looking at that I was thinking about were just such pieces of shit. It was just the same note over and over. Didn't happen, didn't happen. Racist, racist, racist. I couldn't say. Sorry, this week. But anyway, this dude, man,

if by some miracle you can hear this, can you please be another grandpa for me? Or can you be my spiritual advisor? I'll carry you around piggyback style, whatever you want to do. I can lay down in mud puddles so you can step on me when you cross, you know, your feet wet, whatever you fucking need. Just tell me more stories. Give me more wisdom. Are you Nimrod? Wow, man. Just don't let new myths take their place. That's why we got to keep telling these stories. Stanislaw has a book on Amazon called Years of Turmoil, if you want to read it. Now for one last tale of a Warsaw Ghetto survivor. Now 88 years old, the last remaining member of her family, Kristina Budnicka,

has made it her mission to recount how she survived the Warsaw Ghetto in order to keep her loved one's memories alive. She told the Times of Israel in April of 2018, I lost all six brothers, my sister, my parents, as well as four sister-in-laws. I was left all alone. Christina remembers how the Nazis used tactics to demoralize the Jewish population before they killed him. She witnessed this with her own father, saying one day in the street, the Germans cut off half his beard just to amuse themselves. They started dancing around him.

He came back home completely demoralized. He had lost his will to live, to fight on. Right? Were those dudes just following orders? Fuck no. Right? I hope those dudes lived a life of constant nightmares if they did survive the war. Her brothers picked up the burden of caring for her family after her dad gave up. Skilled at manual labor, they began earning money by building hideouts, first for valuables, then for people themselves. Her family managed to evade the Germans several times thanks to these hideouts. first for valuables, then for people themselves. Her family managed to evade the Germans several times thanks to these hideouts. One was a kind of invisible trap door that allowed them to descend directly into a basement. Another was a ventilation duct hidden behind a shelf. Two of her brothers ended up getting captured during raids and sent to Treblinka.

To save her family, her remaining brothers built a bunker, complete with drinking water, electricity, and a tunnel to the sewers leading from the ghetto under Warsaw into the rest of the city. Man, ingenious. We already knew we were sentenced to die, she said. This was our only chance for survival. We didn't have connections or money or the right look. We had no chance to save ourselves in the Aryan part of the city. The whole family descended into a bunker in January of 43. They stayed down there for nine months. She says at that time, I lived in a state of lethargy. It was like my vital functions were shut off.

My body was functioning only to survive. She described the fires of the Germans' final attempt to liquidate the ghetto and drive out the survivors. She said the whole ghetto was aflame. It was like one big oven. And then this would lead to the uprising where Budnikas' remaining brothers, left for battle. When it became too hot because of the fire, the remaining family members descended into the sewers, but the Germans found out, started tossing in gas bombs. The only one left who knew the layout of

the sewers was my 13-year-old brother, but he was a man already, and he was the one who directed us and who saved my life. Her exhausted parents and sister decided to stay put in the sewer and wait for help. It never came, but Nika, her brother,ikka her brother and a step sister and a sister-in-law managed to emerge from the sewers with help from an underground polish jewish liberation organization that took them in her younger brother sadly died of sepsis two weeks later another brother a member of the resistance was handed over to the nazi germans in 1944 by a Polish person who also portrayed his own father. After the war, 12-year-old Budnicka, the last surviving family member, was put in an orphanage. Jesus. She later became a special education needs teacher and for years tried to leave her memories behind. It was only after the Children of the Holocaust Association

was created in 1991 that she changed her mind. I told myself that it's by sharing what happened that I honor those who died, she says. As long as we're talking about it, they're still alive. Ah, holy shit, man. Teared up a bunch reading those for the first time. I know this is a weird episode to drop for the holidays, but goddamn, man, let it remind you to hold onto your loved ones tight.

You never know what tomorrow brings. In the late 30s and for half of the 40s, man, tomorrow brought Bonica a whole lot of pain and death. Today, she's doing great. She's inspiring others. How amazing is that? How inspirational. She didn't let all of that break her. She's a fucking superhero. She's an inspiration. The Nazis took everything from her, but they couldn't crush her spirit. The Warsaw Ghetto is horrific and hellish as it was. It only represented a small fraction of the total pain brought about by the Holocaust. The final total of the Holocaust, around 6 million Jews who were

murdered by the Nazis, as well as millions of others, including gypsies, homosexuals, and more. The word Holocaust comes from the Greek words, holos, whole, costos, burned. The Nazis burned so many. Dark tale today for sure, but an inspiring one, man. The survivors I just talked about, think of what they overcame. Think about the horrors we just talked about. People lost their entire fucking families. People saw death day after day for years. They were starved, right?

The deaths of their families, friends, and neighbors. After all that, still lived long and productive lives. Found meaning, found love, found hope. They found the courage to tell their stories to future generations. What can you overcome? Seems like it. Seems like almost damn near anything, right?

So overcome. Find the light in your life this holiday season. Enjoy whatever life you have to live right now. We're also reminded yet again, right, how quickly life can go away with this suck, how quickly others can cheapen it. Now, if you need to read a book to feel better over the holidays,

if you want to give somebody else a great gift of hope holidays, if you want to have a, give somebody else a great gift of hope, man, order Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning. It's my favorite book of all time. I've read it twice.

I'm starting to read it for a third time. Both times I read it before, I read it when I was going through some minor mental struggles of my own. You know, my mental machinery, as I'm sure you've figured out

if you listen to this podcast for any length of time. A long way from finely tuned. Right? Remember this? Huh? The calliope in this book helped me. It's the only things. Now I'm going to play this a little bit because it does make me happy. I'm so sad right now. Written in 1946, the book chronicles Victor's experiences as a Jewish prisoner in Nazi concentration camps during World War II.

It describes the psychotherapeutic method he developed from those experiences based on the hope for better days ahead. It involves identifying a purpose in life to feel positive about, and then immersively imagining that positive outcome. According to Frankel, when camp prisoners and concentration camps would lose hope, they would die. So don't die. Don't lose hope. 2020 could be the best year of your fucking life. Hail Nimrod. Time for top five takeaways. Time shock, top five takeaways. Number one, the suffering in the ghetto was extreme and conditions deteriorated rapidly. At its height, more than 450,000 people crammed into an area of 1.3 square miles. In some buildings, as many as 20 people living in a single room. Before the death camp

roundups, about 100,000 people died of starvation, sickness, and just maltreatment. Number two, anyone caught trying to leave the ghettos were shot and non-Jewish Poles caught helping Jews were killed along with their families. Along with their families. Evil. Number three, the Nazis began determined to isolate and control the Jewish population. Then their plans shifted into the final solution, which resulted in a massive attempt at eradicating an entire people. Evil creates more evil, that damn slippery slope, right? Start to dehumanize someone. Things can go real quickly from let's round them up and send them to Madagascar to let's fucking kill them all.

Number four, Treblinka. Madagascar to let's fucking kill them all. Number four, Treblinka, the most infamous concentration camp for the Warsaw captives. Within 10 weeks, 310,000 people murdered at one location, nearly a million total people put to death in the six gas chambers of Treblinka between July of 42 and October of 43. Number five, new info, something to feel good about in this dark episode, Denmark, the only European country to save almost all of its Jewish residents from the Holocaust. After being tipped off by imminent roundups, or about imminent roundups, by prominent Nazis, resistors evacuated the country's nearly 8,000 Jews to Sweden by boat. They left at night, thousands of Jewish families,

setting out by car, bicycle, streetcar, train. Excuse me. They left the Danish cities they had long called home and fled to the countryside. They found shelter in the homes of friends or business partners, squatted in abandoned summer homes, or spent the night with hospital farmers, hospitable farmers. The Danes provided no assistance to the Nazis in their Jewish campaign in Denmark. They viewed the Jews as Danes and placed them under their protection. In the end, 7,742 Jews were able to flee to Sweden across the Baltic Sea. Each of the refugees received government support in Sweden if it

was needed. The Danish government also advocated on behalf of those who had been deported. And after negotiations with Heinrich Himmler, 423 Danes were released from a concentration camp in early 1945. Did not expect that little Himmel moment there. I could be so reasonable. I really just wanted a good cheese Danish. I just wanted some Danishes and maybe like an ice giant superpower. But if you just give me the Danish, I give the Jews back to you. So how many Danish Jews were killed by the Nazis? An estimated 70. Now 70 too many, but also 1% of the country's Jewish population at the time. Poland, by comparison, lost over 90% of the Jewish population. So not everybody just followed orders. Some resisted, some fought back.

Hail motherfucking Nimrod. Time shock, top five takeaways. The Warsaw Ghetto uprising, right? The Jews fought the fuck back. It's been sucked. I hope you're touched and inspired. Maybe even got a couple little laughs in there amongst all the darkness.

Big thanks to the Time Suck team. Thanks to the Queen of the Suck, Lindsay Cummins. High Priest of the Suck, Harmony Vellacamp, Reverend Dr. Paisley. The Bit Elixir App Design Crew, the Merch Artist, formerly known as Axis Apparel, the Spicy Club. Research Intern, Sophie Fact Sorceress Evans, and the script keeper

Zach Flannery. Next week, end of the decade recap. Also a mini-suck on a TBD topic. Not sure what I'm sucking on on the 30th. Gonna think about it a bit more. Most podcasts shut down at least a week, if not two around the holidays. Not us. Not gonna abandon you. But gonna do a different kind of suck

next week. Gonna reflect on how life has changed with this project, what has gone on behind the scenes, what we hope to do in 2020. Hope you enjoy it. And then we'll be back to our regular type of suck, you know, first suck of 2020. Kicking shit off with some true crime because the space lizards have willed it.

It's what Nimrod wants. If you want some more community during the holidays, check out the cult of the Curious Private Facebook group. If you want some, you know, added holiday interaction with even more members, you can go to the Discord channel. You can access that via the TimeSuck app. We got 15,000 cult members roughly in the Private Facebook group,

4,700 diehard suckers in Discord. Now let's move on up. Let's get to moving on up with the TimeSucker updates, right? Come on. We're moving on up. We're moving on up. All right Sucker updates, right? Come on. All right. All right.

Giving me a better move. Yes. Okay. Hard to be sad right now with this song. Focus on this song, everybody. Oh, yes. Uh-huh. We're going to move on up to some good community messages.

Yeah. Okay. I think I'm ready now, and let's do it. Updates? Get your time sucker updates. Got some great updates as usual today. First is a Nazi-related update from an anonymous Meat Sack Supreme who writes, Headmaster Sucker, I feel like I've entered some different wackadoodle dimension. On an Instagram account, there was a picture of a Nazi soldier just hanging out with a cat. I was dumb enough to comment that I thought pictures like that are important to view because it shows how these young men were just young men and the

Nazis taught them to hate. Apparently that was wrong. I am judgmental and stereotyping the poor misunderstood dude in German soldier gear. I have no right to make assumptions about him and what he was taught. Apparently I'm told almost all the soldiers were forced into service. There was only a small handful of Nazis. Everyone else was just confused or afraid. What the fucking fuck? Are people supposed to get a pass on exterminating other people because they supposedly didn't know what was going on? Is it okay to go off and kill someone else because you're afraid of being killed yourself? No one had the tiniest clue. Could none of them read the masses of propaganda the Nazis put out on the regular basis? Their children attended Nazi youth camps?

What, did they not tell their parents what was going on? If all those people were forced to join the Nazis, if all of them had refused, would there have been anyone to crush across Europe, exterminating and destroying? I read this poem in school many years ago. First, they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out, because I was not a socialist. First, they came for the socialists and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me. Ah, it's poignant. Are people just trying to excuse the fact that they're not speaking up for immigrant families in cages now? Refer back to that poem, America, or are they secretly Nazi sympathizers or is it something else I'm missing? I thought we could all agree Nazis were out there doing really fucked up stuff, but now it seems like there weren't any real Nazis. I can't help but think of the family guy where the German is yelling, everyone was on vacation.

Or am I an idiot of the internet who wasn't taught correctly? It's possible. I'm willing to accept that. Better leave my name off if you read this. I didn't write it. I was on vacation. Well, amazing message. Well-written, anonymous, awesome, meat sack. No, I don't think German soldiers get a pass to not be judged. Not at all. Were a lot of them afraid of the consequences of saying no? I'm sure. I'm sure there were real consequences. Consequences of the death of them, maybe their families. Did a lot of them though also hate Jews? Fuck yeah. Think about what we just learned about European culture regarding anti-Semitic lenience, but did they have to? No, because a lot of other people didn't who were raised in that same environment. No, I mean, should we not judge them? That's fucking stupid. Their actions were horrific,

pressured or not, afraid or not. And if we don't judge those actions, I think we're more than likely to repeat them. Once you go to this mental place of you can't judge because you weren't there, pretty soon, no one is responsible for fucking anything, right? He beats his wife because his dad beat his mom. Not his fault. He blew his kid's college phone on gambling addiction. Not his fault. Couldn't help it. He did all those kids because he was a born pedophile. Not his fault. Right? Oh, if those immigrants, you know,

didn't want to be put in cages, they shouldn't have fucking fled a fucking horrific poverty and tried to make a better life for their fucking family. Get the fuck out of here with that shit. Ah, nothing's anyone's fault.

Pfft. Ah, you know, you're not wrong on my book, anonymous. Oh, man, I'm getting all worked up today. Man, this episode's in my head. Human nature to judge. I think it's healthy. I think, you know,

I think I should be judged. You should be judged. We should all be judged. We should also all be forgiven when we come to our senses, for most shit at least. Ah, some of the things, you know, the Nazis did, some of those guys, nope, fuck it. You can get forgiven in the next world if there is one. I struggle with where that line is, you know, how far is too far. But we should, yeah, we should be judged, man. Hill Nimrod, sane person, sane in my book, not an idiot, my book. Happy holidays.

Okay, next up, kick-ass meat sack, Lisa Dawkins has found a home. And it's right here. This makes me feel so good. Hill Nimrod, Lisa writes, hello, Dan, you beautiful meat sack. First time message believer, loyal spaces, Lisa Dawkins.

Oh, thanks for being a space. This is from Wenatchee, Washington. Just wanted to say I was at your Ant Hill Kids live show in Tacoma, December 7th. Never had so much fun in my gosh dang life. This may be a little long, but in case you do read this on your show, I'm going for it. I'm a 56-year-old grandma raising my granddaughter now four years old since birth due to my son and girlfriend's drug addiction. I'm also divorced, so I'm virtually and literally a single mom. Anyway, my co-worker saw my weirdness potential, told me I should

listen to the strange podcast called Time Suck. Never listened to a podcast before, but I was intrigued. I became obsessed and caught up and surpassed him listening to every episode of Secret Suck. I've never felt more accepted and relieved because my personality has always been pretty dark or leaned towards dark humor. I've never really fit in with most people. And also fuck is probably my favorite word. So I met you after the show in Tacoma this month. On the 7th, I was a short woman with a super tall younger dude, my coworker, not my boy toy, a friend from work. And his birthday is this Friday, the 20th. And I was hoping you could give him a happy birthday shout out that would mean so much to him and me. It would be the best gift I could give him a happy birthday shout out that would mean so much to him and me.

It would be the best gift I could give him for giving me the gift of time sucks, saving my sanity, also feeling validated for being the dark humored person I am. So my coworker's name is Stuart Utley and he's an amazing physical therapist, space desert and friend. Happy birthday from you and Chikatilo would truly be a big deal.

Well, happy birthday, Stuart. What is big deal, Stuart? I saw I missed your birthday. I saw I read the message a little bit late. Hail Nimrod, Lisa. Oh, stroke yourself shamecocks together. I love that you can feel like you can be yourself. Your real

self around us and other Cult of the Curious members. Let that fucking freak flag fly, Lisa. Yeah. Throw some fucks out there. I can't stand people who can't stand the word fuck. Get out of here. Why don't you go fucking put yourself in a bubble, fucking pansy? Keep it dark and weird. Get that boy toy if you want one. Hail Nimrod. Hail Lucifina and happy holidays. Now an important message from Laura. I decided to keep her last name out. Laura motherfucking awesome sack writes,

Dear Master Sucker Dan, this email is deeply overdue. It's taken me a while to sit down and construct honest words that will convey my feelings and thoughts. I want to thank you for episode 145 on Joseph Fritzl. Despite how difficult the research must have been, I can tell you executed it with honorable care. I had heard about the case for several years, was timidly curious to learn more about it, but too afraid to take the plunge. While listening to the suck, I sensed in my heart how trapped Elizabeth felt. I also come from a history of sexual and mental abuse by my father, other parental male figures. I can relate to the feelings of hopelessness, powerlessness, and fear, just to name a few. My experience was nowhere

close to her level of abuse. I'm quite aware of that. However, I believe most people who endure any kind of sexual and mental abuse all feel the same way, trapped and hopeless. What I got out of that episode is don't ever give up. The saying, it's always darkest before the dawn. It feels a lot like a lot of the time that things won't change, get better, improve somehow. The situation looks bleak. I'm all too familiar with that feeling and the thought process one can find themselves getting wrapped up in. Sometimes the pitch black darkness lasts a long time, but it will eventually pass. The sun will inevitably rise. Thank you for sharing her story. I think about her every so often since that episode. I hope her and her children are happy. I hope that those who are feeling hopeless right now will hold on to the

inner strength that Elizabeth clutched onto and that one day see for themselves that things will get better. Very meat sack. Sincerely yours. And then, yeah, Laura. Well, thank you, Laura. First, so sorry. Some shitty guy said a shitty example of, thank you, Laura. First, so sorry. Some shitty guy said a shitty example of how a man can treat a woman like an object. I'm sure you know this. We're not all pieces of shit. Not totally.

I'm going to get weird for a second. I'm a horny dude. I mean, you know, Lucifina, she came from me. But I can view my wife, Lindsay, the object of my physical desires, as more than just a body. You know, we can all do that. We can all have lots of sex, healthy sex,

and not be fucking pieces of shit and hurt people. And yes, I too think about Elizabeth and her family from time to time, and I hope they're doing so, so well. Thanks for sharing your story. Just like her story inspires you, I bet your stories can inspire others. Find that light. Look for it in the darkness. Remember it, you know, when the darkness surrounds you. It's kind of the theme today, right? Hope, hope in the darkness. Love you, Laura. Next up, kick-ass meat sack, Hunter Lutke with some nice reminders. Hunter writes, what's up, master sucker?

Your space is at Hunter. Lutake, there we go. Thanks for the pronunciation guide. I recently have gone back and listened to you. Your first few times sucks. Just to do some catch up, during part one of the JFK assassination, you had mentioned that Jackie Kennedy was crawling out of the back of the Lincoln to escape what she thought was to be her

fate. Sadly, that's not true. I know there's different opinions on this. No, she was reaching for a part of her husband's scalp that was rolling off the truck at the limousine. What a dedicated wife. Oh, Jesus. I recently went to the Arlington National Cemetery in DC this last year. And yes, I of course got a little teary eyed seeing the gravesite of this man and his family. I don't know if you'd gotten an update on that regarding Jackie, but just thought you might find it interesting as I did. I'm about two months. Bojangles balls deep into the suck and have listened to well over half as I have eight hours a day to listen. I fucking love your content. I lean towards Trump, throw the stones, but I'm telling you that because there hasn't been one

time so far that you have upset me. Even with the gun control and immigration sucks. You keep it neutral and real. It's unbelievable. And yes, even with Pizzagate. I was ashamed of some of these Republicans spreading lies about people, especially with horrific accusations. It certainly doesn't look good when they call the Dems liars and cheats. I have very liberal standings. I'm not so arrogant to just stick with just one side and one side only with every single belief. Excuse me.

If a Democratic candidate made more sense, I would vote for them. That's how it should be. I hate extremists on both sides. I have plenty of liberal friends. We share healthy disagreements by never speaking to one another again, JK. But in a world so torn, I am glad that I found a podcast that is so chill. Love your standup, podcasts, and sweet, sweet merch. You got a fan for life here, man. Thanks for the endless research you do to make awesome shows. So glad I got to meet you in Tacoma with my brother and fellow Spacers. Sorry for the long message. Hope you have time to read it.

Hail, Lucifina. Hail, Nimrod. Praiseful Jangles Hunter. I love it, Hunter. You beautiful, logical bastard. Yeah, man, I lean, you know, I like it. I can lean both ways, you know. I like how, you know, yeah, you lean Republican.

You know, some people lean Democrat. You know, you lean towards Trump. That's, you know, Some people lean Democrat You lean towards Trump That's fine If you align with certain policies and values That you have sound reasons for having I'll be honest, I don't like Trump But I bet you and I would get along And I don't like a lot of people on the left too

Before people on the right are like, what the fuck A lot of them I don't like I struggle with politics in general There's some good ones, but I struggle with the whole system I need to educate myself more on that Glad you had fun in Tacoma I struggle with politics in general. There's some good ones, but I fucking struggle with the whole system. I need to educate myself more on that. Glad you had fun in Tacoma. Glad you're thinking critically.

Maybe more of that. Hail Nimrod and happy holidays. Next up, Vanessa Walker with the great subject line, The Impact Your Show Has Made. Vanessa writes, Hail Nimrod and praise Bita Bojangles. Huge fan of the suck. Member of the cult, the curious Facebook group. I have my own cloak, but I had it before the cult, so you know. I also live with depression, anxiety, PTSD, plus my husband's been in the hospital for typhus. Yeah, typhus. Needless to say, this has been a

difficult year for me. The one constant is getting to listen to Time Suck. On Wednesday last week, there was a real possibility I was going to be a widow by 31, and there you were talking about Stan Lee. Yesterday, I didn't think he'd be home by Christmas. I belly laughed about hearing about Heinrich Himmler being called a racist ding dong. It was the first time I laughed in days. Thanks for the show. It's got me through the darkest times. Give me a reason to hang on. If I lose my mind, oh, if I lose my mind, I can't listen to next week's suck. Oh, I'm so looking forward to it. Merry Christmas. Happy Saturnalia. Saturn.

I have that stuck in my head now. And praise Alexander Fleming. Vanessa. Oh, I'm glad, Vanessa. Vanessa, thank you. Why did Master Sucker have to call me Ding Dong? I seem excessive. I just wanted to find the magic girl from my castles.

Maybe learn to talk with my mind. Ice giants. No big whoops. But thank you, seriously. Happy holidays. I hope 2020 kicks the fucking dick off 2019. Last up, Johnny Dillon. Wow, Johnny Dillon. You look like someone just walked over your grave.

Sorry, Johnny. Tombstone reference hit me. Johnny Awesome Meets Zach, who writes, subject in the mind of a killer. Then writes, all right, canned dummies. This is going to be a really long email, but I'm not sorry because if if the cultic curious is like me Then they love this portion of the show the most

Well, hi, Master Sucker My name is, oh My name is John Sorenson I don't know why Johnny Dillon showed up It must have showed up in some email I don't know why that showed up at the top there But John Sorenson, okay My name is John Sorenson, I would like to share the impactful influence you've had on my young life

I'm 21 years old And about to be 22 on December 31st. Happy birthday. Also, sorry for the unstructured mess of this email. I have terrible ADHD, and I just kind of throw out what's going on in my mind so I don't forget. I relate. Now my story that you have improved by an unthinkable amount. I'm not going to go through my whole childhood, but give you a little gist of it.

According to your homeless sucks definition of homelessness, I've been homeless twice. Had a drunken, abusive father. Mentally and physically. More mentally, though. Mom was good, but she has her own quirks like we always do. I battled depression and anxiety since I was four years old. Now you know some of my background. I'll tell you what happened in my life the last two years and how you've helped.

Also, no pity for me, please, or I'll slap you with Bojangles, Big Commie, Hayden Balls. Okay, so the start of 2018. My best friend's grandmother dies, which was my grandmother. I was more a part of his family than my own. He actually housed me when everyone left. Then my dog of 12 years or so died out of nowhere. He fell down the stairs. Ah, man.

Lodged. I'm sorry about all of it. I don't know why the dog hates me more. Lodged a dormant tumor into his lower back, paralyzing the lower half of his body, organs and all. Had to carry him out to the car, take him to the vet to kill him. He was shitting and pissing uncontrollably. He was a Kurdish Kangol.

If you want to look up his breed, I did. They're huge. He was illegal in the U.S., so shh. All right, next death, the one that really fucked me up. My best friend died in a bike accident on July 13th, which was Friday. Cue Illuminati music. Yeah, he was my best friend, and a lot of times, the only one I had since I was five years old. I don't even like calling him my best friend, dude, he was my brother. A few days later, my neighbor dies out of nowhere. Jesus. Then every one thing was quiet for a few months until September, October. I went out and bought

my first car, got a Subaru hatchback with 196,000 miles for $2,500. Three weeks out of having this car, the head gasket blows, warps my engine block. The repair is going to be three grand, but I needed the car. So I start working overtime, tried getting a second job and selling drugs. Also this time I was sleeping maybe one to 10 hours a week. Nightmares flooded my brain with Tyler, my best friend that died in my car. I was under so much stress. I barely got enough money to get it fixed. Had like 50 bucks left for bills and shit. February of 2019, my boss of a very small company dies out of nowhere. Actually, the day after the Patriots won the Super Bowl. He was the biggest Patriots fan out there. Maybe he died from overjoyment.

Well, this put the whole company in shambles. Honestly, I thought that I'd be out of a job. The job, by the way, is me being an infrared sensor engineer, which is not a common job to find. The company to this day is still shaky, but stable enough, stable enough for me to work. So that's good. Next couple of months, I have one of my aunts die that I wasn't at all close with, but it still sucks. Oh, well. And then a month or so afterwards, another one of my aunt dies who I was close with. They were both deaths, but we were expecting, but it still sucks. She was 50 years old and died because heroin ruined her life. She has three kids, 18, 21, and 30 years old. Next up, right up on my street, someone hits another person head on like 100 feet from my

house. They probably die. They got instantly rushed to the hospital. A month after, a kid on a bike did definitely die in front of my house. Jesus Christ, you got the fucking Grim Reaper next door. I know these moments don't seem to affect my situation, but it seems like death follows me and triggers my PTSD. Around this time, I started listening to Time Suck. Initially, I was only interested in the serial killers because I kind of wanted to be one. I'll explain more on that later on. Then I fell in love with the Cult of the Curious and how we all go on about things. And then there's still happiness in people and all that shit, even though it's hard to find it for myself.

Growing with this community has been amazing. I went through and listened to every single episode, about three episodes a day while it worked to keep my head quiet. I became a space user at the end of August. Started listening to the secret suck episodes, trying to catch up on everything. Holy shit, rereading this is a fucking mess.

That's his words, not mine. Well, good luck on understanding any of this. Laugh my ass off on the wackadoodle now. All right. Now that I kind of told you about the stuff that has happened the last two years, let me tell you about the serial killer thing, since I'm guessing you're wondering about that, LOL. So yeah, I'm in the middle of all this death and I became dead inside. I have trouble feeling empathy for others, no matter what the situation. I laugh at horrible shit. Think of how lifeless bodies dancing could be hilarious. But my main target that would get these thoughts going

were people I would feel that had it easy. I was just so angry at the world. Oh shit, I forgot to tell you, I also became an alcoholic a week after Tyler died. Sorry. Yeah, I was so intensely angry at the world, seen no good, wanted to just kill people to ruin their days

and their families because I was angry. I felt like if I can't have anyone in my life, why should you? Thankfully, don't feel like that anymore because of you. This thing you're doing with TimeStuck is amazing. You're putting the dedicated time into making content you enjoy. It makes me enjoy it.

It doesn't even matter if I care about the topic. I see you as the father I wish I had. Oh man, that's sweet, dude. Again, I'm terribly sorry about how this email is structured. I'm at work and I'm just rush typing because I know if I put this off any longer, I'll never send it.

Well, dude, I love you. Hopefully I'm allowed to typing because I know if I put this off any longer, I'll never send it. Well, dude, I love you. Hopefully I'm allowed to still be part of the cult of Curious and a Space Citizen and come to your show in Boston. Keep on sucking. Fuck yeah, you are. Yeah, thanks, John, man. Glad you're not murdering anyone.

Holy shit, man. What a rough ride you've had. Jesus, you're strong as fuck to come out of all that with a good sense of humor like you've done. So bravo, man. Hail Nimrod to you. Your update felt pertinent to this week's suck. So glad this show in the cold has helped you so much.

I hope you have the best holiday fucking ever. I hope you start dating a nymphomaniac who's also a masseuse and an award-winning chef and a CEO who owns a summer home in Morocco. Love you too, man. I hope 2020 blows you like every day. Just sucks it. Just mines the balls.

And I should stop now and hit a little button. Next time, suckers. I needed that. We all did. Thanks for listening, everybody. Happy holidays. Merry Christmas. Happy whatever else you're celebrating.

Don't try to open up any death camps. Don't be racist because it's super dumb every time. And you know, fucking keep on sucking. I fucking hate that guy's hat.