Episodes
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Laya Semler was the last Jew sent to a concentration camp from Wennigsen, Germany, in 1945. Her non-Jewish husband Adolf was sent to slave labour for not denouncing her. Both survived. Now, Wennigsen has invited their Australian family back, to commemorate Laya and Adolf’s incredible story of courage and love. In Part 1, their great-grandchildren discovered a town perhaps finally ready to accept the extent of its role in the Nazi regime. In Part 2, they will experience that history face-to-face.
They experience that history face-to-face -- when they visit the slave labour camp, only recently unearthed, where Adolf was held. And where they must reckon with horrors that will shock even the German historians guiding them.
Michaela Kalowski, Joanna's husband John Hempton, Joanna Kalowski and Rick Kalowski
Guests:
Joanna Kalowski - internationally recognised mediator and granddaughter of Laya and Adolf SemlerMichael Wittich - historian for the town of WennigsenChristina Muller - city councillor in WennigsenJutta Henza - historian of the Stolen Gustav slave labour campCredits:
Writers: Rick Kalowski and Michaela Kalowski
Presenters: Michaela Kalowski and Rick Kalowski
Producer: Claudia Taranto
Sound Engineer: Hamish Camilleri
Research assistance : Tadhg Kalowski
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In 1945, Laya Semler became the last Jew sent to a concentration camp from Wennigsen, Germany. Her non-Jewish husband Adolf chose slave labour rather than abandon her. They both survived. In 2022, the village of Wennigsen invited their Australian family back to commemorate Laya and Adolf’s bravery. Told by their great-grandchildren, Laya and Adolf’s story is testament to the power love has to bridge even the greatest differences. But it’s also the story of a town only just coming to terms with the truth of its past. A truth that, as Laya and Adolf’s descendants discover first-hand, not everyone in the town is ready to accept...
Joanna Kalowski at the opening of the new street in Wennigsen, Germany, named after her grandmother Laya Semler
Guests:
Joanna Kalowski - internationally recognised mediator and granddaughter of Laya and Adolf SemlerMichael Wittich - historian for the town of WennigsenFranz Blazek - former mayor of WennigsenSilke Stremlau - resident of WennigsenCredits:
Writers: Rick Kalowski and Michaela Kalowski
Presenters: Michaela Kalowski and Rick Kalowski
Producer: Claudia Taranto
Sound Engineer: Hamish Camilleri
Research assistance : Tadhg Kalowski
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Episodes manquant?
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Fifty years ago, in the early hours of Christmas Day 1974, Cyclone Tracy killed 66 people and decimated the city of Garramilla/Darwin. Afterwards more than 30,000 residents were evacuated, many never returning to Darwin.
Writing down memories of the event helped some survivors of the cyclone process the experience. Hear a handful of these stories, set in crumbling houses, airborne cars, a busy restaurant and an overcrowded hospital, all set to the terrifying real-life soundtrack of Cyclone Tracy.
(image courtesy of the NT Archive : LANT LJ Adams NTRS 3129 P2, item 1 Caption "Chris Adams looking at Cyclone Tracy destruction, 26 December 1974")
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It’s the early 1900s and a gang of men moves through the gritty streets of inner-city North Melbourne: they dress sharp and inspire fear wherever they go. This gang, the Crutchy Push ruled the streets of North Melbourne over a ten year period, from late 1890s. And the reason for their curious name? All the members of this gang were amputees: mostly one-legged, and they used a crutch - and not just for walking!
To mark the International Day for People With Disability, Melbourne-based writer and disability advocate Kaitlyn Blythe digs up the little-known story of the gang and its’ charismatic leader Valentine Keating, and explores how it busts a lot of myths about disabled people in Australian history.
Guests:
Brendan Gleeson
Tansy Bradshaw
Readings - Toby Truslove
Credits:
Producer - Kaitlyn Blythe
Sound design and production - Matthew Crawford
Supervising Producer - Michelle Rayner
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It’s March 25th, 1999, and Australia’s most remarkable prison escape has just taken place, after a helicopter hovers above the recreation grounds at the Silverwater maximum security prison, in Sydney. In the blink of an eye, a prisoner runs towards the chopper, climbs onboard, and is on his way to freedom.
This is the story of that airborne escapee, John Killick, a man who spent much of his life leading the authorities on a merry dance. Somehow he survived his dangerous escapades and many prison stints.
Today, in his early 80s, John is a writer, a public speaker. and a counsellor to ex-crims.
Credits:
Producer: Brian McKenzie
Sound Engineer: Tim Symonds
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In a shocking and brutal end to a colourful life, Australian wallpaper designer Florence Broadhurst was murdered in her Paddington studio on the 15th of October, 1977.
So who was suspected of this crime and why is the case still unsolved to this day?
Please listen with care - this episode contains graphic content.
Guests:
Tony Russell – Former NSW Police officer Helen O’Neill – Journalist and author, Florence Broadhurst: her secret and extraordinary lives Mark Whittaker – Journalist and author, Granny killer: the story of John Glover Babette Hayes OAM – Interior designer Vincent Jones – VP Sales & Licensing, Asia-Pacific, Centa IP David Lloyd-Lewis – Grandson of Florence BroadhurstCredits:
Producer – Zoe Ferguson Engineer – Simon Branthwaite Executive Producer – Michelle Rayner -
She’s one of Australia’s most prolific and popular designers, and yet not many people know her name, let alone her audacious life story.
Florence Broadhurst was from regional Queensland but people who met her later in life, thought she was English aristocrat. She reinvented herself many times throughout her life.
Today she’s known for her wallpaper designs that cemented her in Australian design history.
But a shadow lingers over her legacy; her unsolved murder in 1977.
Guests:
Helen O’Neill – Journalist and author, Florence Broadhurst: Her secret and extraordinary lives Dr Andrew Field – Associate Professor of Chinese History, Duke Kunshan University Babette Hayes OAM – Interior designer David Lennie – Screen printer, Signature Prints Sheridan Black – Owner, Signature Handprints Tony Russell – Former NSW Police officer David Lloyd-Lewis – Grandson of Florence Broadhurst Laura Doble – Interior design graduateCredits:
Producer – Zoe Ferguson Engineer – Simon Branthwaite Executive Producer – Michelle Rayner -
When superannuation pioneer Mavis Robertson was in her seventies, she was showered with awards and honours. But something was missing from the life story shared with the public at this time: the more than 30 years she spent as a leading member of the Communist Party of Australia. Historian Alice Garner and Mavis's son Peter Robertson delve into this part of his mother's life, including her extensive ASIO security file.
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An entire school is kidnapped at gunpoint. 9 students and their teacher are taken hostage by a prison escapee who demands a ransom of 7 million dollars, the release of 17 prisoners, 100 kilos of cocaine, automatic weapons, and an escape vehicle.
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After World War Two, around 650 Japanese war brides crossed once enemy lines to make a home in Australia, at a time when the White Australia Policy still held sway. But 50 years on, how do the grandchildren of the Japanese war brides understand their family story?
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The Martha Plan was a secret scheme created in the early 1960's to bring unmarried Spanish women to Australia, in the hope that they'd stay and populate the country. Did it work?
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Hidden for nearly a century, two chests of mail found under a Sydney home was declared to be one of the most important hauls in Australia’s postal history. Why the secrecy? And why has a Sydney family been so shocked by their revelations?
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When journalist Annika Blau learnt of the discovery of two tea chests of very valuable mail under the floorboards of an old Sydney home, she uncovered secrets, silences and shame from a chapter of Australia's history some would prefer to forget.
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Where did Jack Karlson learn the lines he delivers in his famous viral video? This moving story of the prison playwright and the performer unravels why Jack uttered those now infamous words “This is democracy manifest.”
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Who is the man behind Australia’s most iconic internet meme, who famously said “This is democracy manifest”?
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59-year-old Ingrid was in her office one day when her phone rang. It was the German Red Cross. They asked if she was Ingrid von Oelhafen? Also known as Erika Matko? It was the call she’d waited for her whole life and it opened the door to a terrible secret from one of Nazi Germany’s sickest experiments. Who was she? And where was she from?
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Ingrid von Oelhafen’s childhood in post-WW2 Germany was full of strange events - her mother inexplicably left her in a children’s home for five years, her doctor called her by another name.
It took her decades to discover the horrific truth - a secret that led straight back to the highest powers of the Nazi regime.
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The Kangaroo dog is unique to Australia. It's a mystery dog with a big story.
Born in the early Sydney colony, this deerhound-greyhound mongrel dog was bred to hunt and kill kangaroos.
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Swimmer Siobahn Paton won multiple medals at the Sydney 2000 games but her dreams were shattered when athletes in a different sport cheated spectacularly. Louise Sauvage delves into the controversy of classification along with the heightened visibility and respect the Games have brought to all people with disabilities.
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Join wheelchair racing legend Louise Sauvage for the fascinating evolution of The Paralympics, from life-saving rehabilitation for World War 2 soldiers to today’s elite sporting event.
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