Evolution of the Holocaust

In this episode, we trace the radicalisation of Nazi policy toward Europe’s Jews, beginning with early efforts to force emigration before examining the regime’s first mass‑killing programme, Aktion T4, and how its methods and personnel became a blueprint for later atrocities. We explore how the invasions of Poland, France, and the USSR each transformed Nazi strategy, expanding both opportunity and intent as occupation brought millions more Jews under German control and unleashed unprecedented violence in the east. From there, we follow the path to systematic genocide, including the coordination and bureaucratic clarity provided by the Wannsee Conference, before charting the evolving machinery of mass murder from 1942 to 1945. Join us as we uncover how war, ideology, and administrative planning converged to create the most destructive phase of the Holocaust.