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A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps

Sinsk via CC license, http://bit.ly/1cSixcp
A train still sits on the tracks at the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland

  Nothing embodied the brutality of the Nazi regime more than the concentration camps. Yes, they were hell on earth, but they were very much human creations, as the historian Nikolaus Wachsmann demonstrates in his new book about the camps. Known as the Konzentrationslager, they were first conceived of as penal colonies, then as camps for prisoners of war, and finally as factories. Wachsmann joins us Tuesday to examine the lifespan of the camps, their place in the Third Reich, and what life was like inside them.

Nikolaus Wachsmann is a professor of modern European history at Birkbeck College, University of London. His new book is called KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps [Amazon|Indiebound].

Doug Fabrizio has been reporting for KUER News since 1987, and became News Director in 1993. In 2001, he became host and executive producer of KUER's RadioWest, a one hour conversation/call-in show on KUER 90.1 in Salt Lake City. He has gained a reputation for his thoughtful style. He has interviewed everyone from Isabel Allende to the Dalai Lama, and from Madeleine Albright to Desmond Tutu. His interview skills landed him a spot as a guest host of the national NPR program, "Talk of the Nation." He has won numerous awards for his reporting and for his work with RadioWest and KUED's Utah NOW from such organizations as the Society of Professional Journalists, the Utah Broadcasters Association, the Public Radio News Directors Association and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.