The award-winning & New York Times recommended podcast preserving the stories of the Cold War before they are lost…subscribe for free. Produced by Ian Sanders FRHistS
Listen on Apple PodcassListen on SpotifyListen on YouTubeListen on Amazon MusicListen on OvercastListen on Pocket CastsListen on Podcast AddictBecome a Patron! What happens when the man guarding the Iron Curtain decides to escape through it himself? In 1975, Jiří Barteček was a Czechoslovak border guard, trained to track fugitives with a German shepherd … Read more
Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyListen on YouTubeListen on Amazon MusicListen on Podcast AddictBecome a Patron! What would you risk to escape a totalitarian state—and how long would you be willing to wait? In this gripping episode, Peter Kasl, author of Escaping the Grip of Eastern European Communism, tells the extraordinary true story of … Read more
Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyListen on YouTubeListen on Amazon MusicListen on Podcast AddictBecome a Patron! Chris Gueffroy, was the last person to be shot dead at the Berlin Wall and a new short film called “Whispers of Freedom” portrays his story. In a world where history can often fade into obscurity, the story of … Read more
Today is Veterans Day in the US and Armistice Day in the UK and to commemorate I’ve gone back into the archive to remember and share vivid testimony from Korean War veteran Tommy Clough who sadly passed away a couple of weeks ago. Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyListen on Amazon MusicListen on Podcast AddictBecome … Read more
In this comprehensive narrative, Imre recounts his life from his birth in 1936 in Hungary to his emigration to the West after the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. He discusses the influence of his family’s Hungarian and German heritage, his father’s work in the oil industry, and the impact of World War II and communist rule on … Read more
In this deeply personal episode, Norbert, vividly recounts his traumatic childhood journey from Cold War Poland to the United States. Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyListen on Google PodcastsBecome a Patron! He describes the struggles of his parents amid food shortages and the poignant decision of the family to leave everything behind for an … Read more
In August 1989, a group of Hungarian activists did the unthinkable: they entered the forbidden militarised zone of the Iron Curtain – and held a picnic. Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyListen on Google PodcastsBecome a Patron! Word had spread of what was going to happen. On wisps of rumour, thousands of East German … Read more
Jack Wesolek was born in East Germany in 1966. His grandfather was a member of the Red Orchestra, a Communist Anti-Nazi resistance organisation in Germany during World War 2. Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyListen on Google PodcastsBecome a Patron! He later became Chief of the Signals Service of the Volksmarine, the East German Navy. … Read more
This is part two of Henrik’s story. You can hear the first part in episode 307. https://coldwarconversations.com/episode307 It’s the late 1980s and Henrik and his friends plan to escape from East Germany via Czechoslovakia. Henrik provides a very vivid account of their discovery by Czechoslovak border guards in a forest near the Austrian border. He … Read more
Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyListen on Google PodcastsBecome a Patron! South Africa in the 1980s is a brutal, racist Apartheid regime. Those who oppose it risk their lives. Apartheid was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa from 1948 to the early 1990s Sue Dobson is moving easily through … Read more