This is an episode of Inside the Tent, a podcast going behind the scenes of Campside’s award winning shows.
Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.
Dear Campside Community,
This is an unusual update, in that we are discussing a German language show - produced by Campside and Wondery - coming out on January 27th, 2025. But it’s a story we think worth learning about one way or the other.
And one way is to listen to this interview - in English - with host Antonia Woloshyn.
When Semiya and Gamze’s fathers were murdered, the German police did something strange: instead of conducting a thorough investigation, they focused on the families.
Meanwhile the killing spree continued, with nine immigrants murdered in the early 2000’s. It even turned out that a German intelligence agent was present during one of the murders.
This brings us to the NSU. The National Socialist Underground, or NSU, was a German neo-Nazi militant organization active between 2001 and 2010. The story of the anti-immigrant murders carried out by NSU members and the human rights lawyer who doggedly pursued justice is well known in Germany, and should be well known generally.
Antonia and Josh discuss the making of Land ohne Vater, a story about a coverup that forced a country to face its past… again. The title roughly translates to ‘Country Without A Father,’ a play on the powerful German notion of a fatherland.
An interesting note: the working title was ‘Operation Confetti,’ a reference to the shredding of key documents by officials likely motivated by racism and fear of prosecution.
Antonia suggests that Germans in particular wanted to ignore this story because the country tries to convince itself that they’ve overcome its past atrocities. But this show highlights that it’s awfully hard to outrun the past and a mistake to ignore it. The far right is very present in Germany today, and that trend is echoed around the world.
Land ohne Vater was produced by a team in multiple time zones, speaking multiple languages. It was a true team effort.
Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. And let us know what you think: questions@campsidemedia.com
We hope to see you inside the tent again soon. Subscribe now for updates on all of Campside’s hit shows.
Share this post