Listen to the episode here.

Sometimes the events covered in Unhinged History are as zany as they are unexpected. Other times, things get dark.

This week, Theresa shares the life of Charles Sumner, the senator who was beaten for giving an abolitionist speech. This attack would polarize the country and start it on the path toward the Civil War.

Angie apparently didn’t get the memo that Theresa was telling such a tale, because she takes us further into the darkness when she covers the Theresienstadt Ghetto. This WWII camp was established by the Nazis and, at one point, camouflaged as a “spa town” for older Jewish citizens.

This episode pairs with:
The Wide Awakes: How fashion led to Civil War
Josef Mencik – The Knight of Strakonice

Transcript

Theresa: Hi, and welcome to the Unhinged History Podcast. The podcast where two friends years ago signed up for homework every single week where they would compulsively study stories about things they only vaguely knew and then they would regurgitate those stories to their opponent, their friend, their person they are slowly getting to know more and more, much the sugar they are about. I’m host one, I’m Teresa and that’s host two. 

Angie: I’m Angie and to be completely honest we would have done the research anyway. We just now have someone to share it with. 

Theresa: Yes, yes, and now we actually record our sources. I think I saw this, was it a book or was it the, no that was the TikTok but they did talk about. 

Angie: I watched it, I read it on the National Parks website. 

Theresa: This podcast has me logging to JSTOR so many more times post college. 

Angie: Dude, dude, so many more, actually yes, so many more times. 

Theresa: I’m going to go first. You went last time, you took the whole episode with the Amber Room and this is good because the potential of me needing a palette cleanser is, I mean there’s the probability. 

Oh, okay. Do you remember how when I did like a couple of really delightful stories you’re like this, this doesn’t, this is us. Did somebody up my Teresa’s anti-anxiety meds because this isn’t quite right. I appreciate it but the dopamine is a bit higher than normal. 

Angie: Right, so she’s trying to tell you all to just keep thinking about Felicia the ferret while she tells this story. 

Theresa: Right, okay, so I’m fully going to ratchet you up like this is the train car of the roller coaster going click, click, click higher and higher up. 

Angie: Cool, so for like the next six weeks. 

Theresa: I’m going to tell you the story of Charles Sumner. 

Angie: Okay, my sources. Off the top of my head, doesn’t ring a bell, let’s go. 

Theresa: It will, it will and I’m just going to, as soon as you hear the sources and you’re going to get it. Theciddit.gov, the canning of Senator Charles Sumner, the Journal of the Early Republic, Volume 23, number two, summer of 2003. The canning of Charles Sumner slavily raised an ideology in the age of the Civil War by Benisha Sinha and the book John Brown, Evolutionist by David S. Reynolds. Okay, let’s go. Let’s get ready to rumble. Okay, so it is 1811, January 6th. Baby boy Charlie Sumner is born in Boston. His parents, utilitarians. Nope, unitarians. 

Angie: Unitarians. I was like, do you want to know how many pockets they’re pants have? 

Theresa: You know, it was, she was rocking a cargo skirt. Yes, get a girl. Yep, his father didn’t have the cargo skirt. He is Charles Picney. Okay, I’m not Pinkney, it’s P-I-N-C-K-N-E-Y. Sumner. So I’m assuming that is Mother’s maiden name that is now his middle name. I didn’t do the family tree, but that is just a strange name. I’m, you don’t get the name. 

Theresa: That sounds like it. Yeah, okay. Yeah, yeah. He’s Charles Daddy. 

Theresa: He is the sheriff of Suffolk County. Now, our man holds some very strong anti-slavery, anti-slavery even convictions. Now, since he’s sheriff, he gets involved in one of the very first fugitive slave rescue controversies, and then this happens in 1836. He ends up also helping a man named William Lloyd Garrison. 

Garrison is an abolitionist editor who was attacked by a mob the year before in 1835. Right? Okay. So there’s a lot of strong themes that are going to become stronger and stronger. Okay. Prepare for foreshadowing. 

Okay. Sumner, Charles Sumner, the one we’re the, the protagonist, he, because we have two Charles Sumners, so I’m trying to clear up the waters. He goes on to attend Boston Latin School where the future abolitionist orator named Wendell Phillips is his classmate. Okay. And after Boston Latin School, he goes on to attend Harvard. 

Angie: Don’t every, everybody at some point in one of our stories attends Harvard. 

Theresa: I mean, if they were born in America. It was fairly prestigious, but they’re just letting anybody in. Doesn’t it seem that way? I mean, I think what happens is when you are of a certain ilk, you have a certain lineage, then Harvard is easier, right? Like, I was never, Harvard was never on my sheet. It was never on my bingo card. 

Angie: Got it. You were doing something. I think you’re right. Yeah. Yeah. 

Angie: I do the Harvard or West Point if you’re an American in one of our stories. 

Theresa: In one of our, yeah, for the most part. Yeah. But for me, and that me and my line, we’ve avoided prestigious and individual, institutions. This is apple juice and water. And it sounds like I made beer Zen. 

So brace for impact. Now, after Harvard, he goes and trains under Supreme Court justice, Joseph story, and these two develop a very close relationship. Okay. 

So close that he ends up, you know, the story becomes his mentor and he would sub for story as a lecturer at Harvard Law School. Okay. So our man has the chop to come in and do stuff because you’re not going to ask me to pitch it to lecture at Harvard Law. That’s just not, not if you want attendance to be up the next semester. 

Angie: Now, during or you do because you all have no idea what she’s going to talk about. Right. 

Theresa: It’s like, let’s, let’s roll the dice. Let’s see how this goes. Now, he’s doing a ton. Like this man is a bit extra because he’s writing a ton on his dance on slavery and he’s got some controversial ideas because at this point in time, Britain is stopping American ships in international waters if they’re suspected of participating in the slave trade. 

And our man Charles Sumner is like, hell yeah. If they’re doing something that could be illegal, I don’t care if it’s Guant, pull them over after their, you know, their papers. License and registration, please. 

Angie: Also, we have a lot of debt. Yeah. 

Theresa: Yeah, we’re going to need you to pop the trunk. I mean, it’s that kind of thing and he’s just like, hell yeah. And so that’s kind of a spicy take. Yeah. Now, he’s also writing a bunch of pamphlets opposing slavery and the concept of writing a pamphlet is so foreign to me as a modern marketer. 

Angie: Yeah, it’s just the same. I mean, to me, like the equivalent of that is the Instagram post or a blog or something. 

Theresa: But for me, I’m like pamphlet. Like I keep thinking back to like high blood pressure and pregnancy. Just as she’ll die be with you. I’m also a pamphlet. You’re right. You know, so for me, I’m just like, those are the only pamphlets that exist. And I think those are the only ones I’ve gotten and my kids 13. You know what I mean? Like, so it’s been a minute that I’ve gotten my hands on a pamphlet. 

Angie: Now, guys, this is her saying mail her every pamphlet you can find. 

Theresa: My address is Jamestown, California. General delivery. I’m going to end up having to edit all out anyhow. So he does all the stuff opposing slavery. Now this solid stance of his really pisses off the who’s who of his region of Beacon Hill. There’s some cotton magnets involved. And so they’ve got their feels about the slave trade and about people’s positions within the social hierarchy. Now they end up ostracizing our boy. 

And when he comes up, what? I said I’m shocked. It’s a surprise, right? So he comes up for a faculty position at Harvard Law School and they’re like, you know, now this does suck for him, but he earns a spot at the cookout. Because while he’s not able to hobnob and rub elbows with the who’s who of society, those with melanin are making some room for him because he’s hanging out with a ton of freed black people. He’s seen often at JJ Smith’s barber shop. 

And okay, first off, let me sidebar this. It was exciting, fascinating, and Theresa, you should damn well know better because to know that JJ Smith was a barber shop and it was a hub for political discussion made all the sense in the world. But also it’s like my dumb ass thought they just sprouted everyone just sprouted hair in 1960. 

Theresa: You kind of go, oh, you’re barber shop. 

Angie: I love it when that hits stuff like that hits you in the face because stuff like that hits me in the face. Did you just look at me and you’re like, yeah, and I mean, 

Theresa: like, and for me, like, hey, barber shops also were dentist. And I’d be like, of course they were. It was old tiny. Now, did I make the political hub barber shop? 

Angie: Like, no, did I make this a community center like it is today? Of course not. No, you don’t go down the corner to the barber shop in 1812. 

Theresa: I don’t go to my dentist’s office to discuss politics. And so the logic train missed that stop. I love this for you. But here we are. Now, so he is like hanging out and really enjoying and embedding himself in the society and actually walking the walk, talking the talk. Now, 1843, there is a law that is coming out that would prohibit a interracial marriage. Our man stands up against it. 1843. And he’s like, absolutely no. 

Yeah, maybe you want. This ends up getting repealed. The law that he’s like gets repealed after a very successful abolitionist campaign. 

So he kind of helps lays the groundwork there. Okay. Okay. Now, 1845, there is a lecture that’s going on in New Bedford, Lyceum. Now, he refuses to give this lecture here because the crowd segregated. 

Angie: Okay. This is good for him. 

Theresa: I mean, like, you’re like, oh my gosh. Okay. So he just like, he’s like, he’s, he’s standing on business every step. He goes on to say that in the sight of God and in all just institutions, the white man can claim no precedence or exclusive privilege from his color. Good. Bom, bom, bom. Now, this is like a lot of this you’re like, okay, yeah, of course we know this now, but this is revolutionary in the time. Now, a couple years later, 1849, there’s a man named Benjamin Roberts and he comes to Sumner and he’s trying to ask for some legal help. Roberts is a black leader in the community and he’s got this daughter and she’s struggling with segregation in public schools. Now, Sumner’s co-cancel is a dude named Robert Morris. So there’s like Benjamin Robert, Robert, like, Roberts are just reading this paragraph. 

Morris is the first black lawyer that’s admitted in the Massachusetts bar. And they’re, they’re working under the concept that separate but equal isn’t. Can’t be, would never be. 

How could it be if you’re separate? Right. And their arguments would get repeated more than 100 years later in Brown versus the Board of Education. 

Okay. Now, if there are Roberts case, the one that he’s arguing, they ruled against her. They lose, you know, kind of keep the status quo going for a bit. And while Sumner loses this case, there’s a silver lining because school segregation would get outlawed just six years later in Massachusetts. I have to do the caveat there because it was Massachusetts where it was outlawed and that would be in 1855. And then abolitionists would say. 

Angie: Okay. One, school segregation was outlawed in Massachusetts in 1855. Yeah. And it took another 100 years. 

Theresa: For the nation to get that. For 

Angie: the rest of the country to catch up. Yeah, yeah. Holy crap. Okay. 

Theresa: I know, but I’m like, whoa, this dude was like groundbreaking. Yeah. Okay. Go him. Now, they would end up citing Sumner’s work as the foundations that really won outlawing segregation schools. Okay. So he might have lost the battle, but he won the war. That’s all you can ask for. So I’m going to back up a tiny bit before the school is, are desegregated. 

It’s 1851. He gets elected to the Senate. Now his campaign is fraught with all kinds of political fighting. There’s so much fighting that he’s offering to withdraw from the race several times. 

Angie: Okay. Just, just please calm down. Yeah. 

Theresa: And like, I wish I’d had three more weeks to study just this because I’m just like, but why, but why? And like, I just, this is where I wanted to dig, right? Now, when he wins, he said to be more saddened than elated. Okay. Yeah. And like, I just, I want to dig into that a bit more. 

Angie: I think probably because he recognizes that his win is polarizing. Yeah, probably. So like my very existence is they’re not ready for me. Yeah. Yeah. 

Theresa: Now, if I, if I haven’t hammered this point home, our boy has a sterling reputation for one thing, being anti slavery. Like, I wasn’t clear. If you haven’t gotten that from here, I need to practice my English because I clearly am not articulating. He gives his very first speech in the Senate and it’s titled Freedom National. This is an abolitionist critique of the Fugitive Slave Act. And he speaks to the black determination to resist at all costs. He refuses to call it a law referring to it only as a bill. 

Okay. Because he’s like, this is bullshit. Good for him. Now, he is such a badass that he would use the declaration of independence and the spirit in which it was written to make his case. 

And he’s believing that the Fugitive Slave Act denied life, liberty and due process to this entire group of people. Not wrong. Right? He believed that the black community were citizens and entitled to the exact same rights as anybody else, everybody else. 

Angie: Right. Now Frederick. I mean it says it pretty clear right there. Like in the words, yes. 

Theresa: Yeah. But see then, there’s different ways to read the Constitution. There’s the way in which our founding fathers literally wrote it and then there’s the spirit in which it was written and there’s people who are going to argue both sides until you get your blue in the face. Yep. 

Angie: You know, it will be that way for the rest of forever. Yep. 

Theresa: Now, because like this is one of, like, okay, there’s some names that I’m going to drop. Frederick Douglass writes to our man Sumner and in the letter that he writes, he says, quote, all of the friends of freedom in every state and every color may claim you just now as their representative. As one of your stable, nope, as one of your stable constituents, my dear sir, I desire to thank you and your noble speech for freedom and for your country, heaven preserve and strengthen you. I would be thrilled to receive that just by baking somebody cookies, let alone like you stood up for your convictions, which interstit from mine. 

This is fantastic. You know what I mean? Like he again, so many cool things before we get to like the probably the only big footnote. Most people know as a senator goes on to secure presidential pardons for two men that are accused of helping runaway slaves. Okay. Like just every step of the way he is continuing to hammer home his point. 

Okay. He ends up snagging freedom for the wife and kids of a fugitive slave named Seth Boggs as well. Like just every like there was so much so so much about this man and I knew just cliff notes right now. Here’s where we dive into the. This was all the lead up. 

Here’s where we get to the main crux of the situation. It is May 19th, 1856. And our dude Charles Sumner, the senator of Massachusetts. He’s an anti slavery Republican. He addresses the Senate on this very explosive issue at the time about whether Kansas should be admitted to the union as a slave state or a free state. 

Okay. And he delivers the speech titled crime against Kansas and in it, Sumner identified two Democratic senators as the principal culprits in this crime. There’s a dude named Stephen Douglas, Illinois, and there’s a man named Andrew Butler of South Carolina and he care. He cared. You look that just exactly that. 

So succinct. He characterized Douglas to his face to his face on the Senate floor as a noisome squat and nameless animal, not a proper model for an American senator. Okay, so this this was some name calling and Butler not present for the attack. And so probably because he’s not there, Sumner goes a bit harder, charging Butler with quote, taking a mistress who though ugly to others is always lovely to him, though polluted in the side of the world was chased in his sight. I mean the harlot slavery. That’s so good. Yeah. Now, that’s a burn. Hit him. Go, go, go. You might be surprised that those are fighting words. 

Angie: No. Oh, am I supposed to be shocked? I’m sorry. Yeah, I mean, these are things, right? 

Theresa: So now I don’t care. Okay, so Sumner could have said the same thing about me. Some, some whatever it is for slavery, like whatever you want to put there, you know, won’t go after that mistress gluten, whatever you got to do, like whatever, whatever issue, you know. And I’d get my panties in a twist. 

Angie: Yes, it was a good burn. 

Theresa: It was a great burn. Now, I mean, obviously I’m firmly with him on slavery. 

Angie: So, you know, oh my gosh, I wonder if he would have been Francis Manny Fish. 

Theresa: Um, I don’t know. I feel like he wouldn’t be Francis Manny Fish, probably because she was a bit over the top and everything and he was a bit monomaniacal. Yeah. Now, yeah, I think it’s their burns are good. Okay. 

Yes. Cassius Clay and him probably, I think Charles Sumner and Cassius Clay had a very Malcolm X Martin Luther King, Jr. way of doing things. So there’s a bit of an ideological divide. 

Angie: Yeah, but I think they were on the same page. Yeah. Of goals, right? Correct. 

Theresa: Yeah. They were marching to the same drum, just at a different tempo. 

Angie: I was going to say in different bands. 

Theresa: Yeah, very different bands. Um, now, three days later, he delivers a speech and then three days later, Representative Preston Brooks, he’s not personally attacked, but he’s a fellow South Carolinian. He has the option to challenge Sumner to something like a duel, like a gentleman, any gentleman with a fragile ego would do. Instead, he chose a light cane that he would use to discipline unruly dogs. 

Angie: Okay. Okay. I don’t like any of this. 

Theresa: No, I don’t either. But here we go. Now, this is shortly after the Senate adjoins for the day, Brooks enters the old chamber where he finds Sumner busy attaching postal francs to copies of his speech. Do you know what a postal franc is? No, is it like a stamp? It is like a stamp. It is like a stamp for senators. It is like a free mail marking. Okay. But it’s like a postal franc. Now I want a postal Fred and a postal Timothy. 

Angie: Okay. Love this for me. 

Theresa: So, Brooks sees opportunity. He moves in with his metal-talked cane and starts slamming it on the unsuspecting Sumner’s head. Who is literally just doing his job? Literally just licking stamps or postal francs. 

Angie: Hold on. Did you Google what a postal franc looked like? 

Theresa: I didn’t Google what it looked like a Google drill was. But now that you say that, I think of Frank from Always and Sunny in Philadelphia. And I think of somebody licking the top of Danny DeVito’s head. 

Angie: Yep, which is why I need to know. 

Theresa: If you are a postal worker and you know that they are licking Danny DeVito’s head, please write it. We need to know. 

Angie: Huh. It’s basically, it’s just a stamp. Is it a stamp? Really? Yeah. 

Theresa: Paper stamp or just like an ink stamp? 

Angie: I think in the image it sort of sort comes out as both. Okay. They have an army franc, but it was definitely a paper stamp. And then like modern mailers today, which is the ink stamp. Okay, okay. But I was more curious like what the, like if it was an apparatus, that sort of thing. 

Theresa: Like an embosser kind of deal. 

Angie: That’s sort of what I was thinking. 

Theresa: Anyway, sorry, carry on. Yeah, no, you’re fine. This was a delightful side-torque now because it’s going to get dark. So Brooks is smashing down again and again. Sumner, he tries to rise up and then lurch blindly from the chamber. He’s trying to defend himself. Now in the article that Manika Singh-Hal writes, she, they describe, I say she, but it’s they describe Sumner. 

I didn’t, I didn’t look pronouns up. That Sumner really gets kind of pinned and worries at. He’s sitting at his chair at his desk. The desk is said to be hinged to the floor. That wording weirded me out because I don’t understand what the hell is happening there. 

I’ve never hinged anything to the ground, but to the floor. Either way. Okay. Now Sumner is struck. 

Eventually he tears the desk off of the floor only to fall down unconscious and covered in blood. Dang. Okay. Now, meanwhile, you have a bro named representative Lawrence M. Kite. He’s a successional colleague from South Carolina. He’s holding others back. 

Angie: Oh, okay. Yeah. The bullies are friends. 

Theresa: Uh-huh. Now, Brooks would later write about the caning in a letter to his brother. He said, quote, I struck him with my cane and gave him about 30 first rate stripes like a gotta punch cane. Every liquid where I intended about the first five or six licks he offered to make a fight, but I applied him so rapidly that he didn’t touch me. 

Towards the last he bellowed like a calf. Wow. I hate this guy. Yeah. 

So he’s honorable. Um, and you know, like reading this, this is why I, I’m for those of you, maybe you’re new to this podcast. I love fighting. I love fighting, but I’m a martial artist. And so I hate watching boxing or MMA fights. I hate watching men like him fight. I hate watching fights for fun, for entertainment purposes that are drawn out where you’re just playing with your prey. Okay. End it or don’t. Love this for you. Right. Like don’t play with your food. Put them on the floor and walk off. 

Theresa: Go home. 

Angie: Or eat them. Do your thing. You know, but, but don’t play. Okay. Yeah. 

Theresa: So when I hear that, you know, he just like trapped a man at his desk and Molly Wopt him. It really pisses me off. There. Now, bleeding profusely, Sumner’s carried away. Brooks calmly walks out of the chamber without being detained without being detained by any of these stunned onlookers. He’s got some, there has several bruises and two gashes in a skull that are going to require stitches. Brooks has a minor cut from getting himself with his own damn cane and this goes to me shows how out of control Brooks was. Yeah. How do you do that? Like he’s not fighting back and you, you took a lick from yourself. 

Angie: Like you’re hitting so hard. I’m imagining you’re hitting so hard and so fast. It just goes down, hits him and it bounces out of the hand and it takes you in the leg. 

Theresa: That goes to show me that you had so much blood lust you took damage. Yeah. Which is bullshit. Agreed. So the only reason apparently in hindsight looking at, you know, the sources, the only reason Sumner stopped or got stopped from getting Molly Wopt is because a representative from the north finally restrains Brooks. The cane itself shatters during the attack. 

Angie: Good Lord. Yeah. Now, Brooks. Maybe that’s when he took the lick is when it shattered like shrapnel. I mean, unclear. 

Theresa: We don’t get the play by play the frame footage. You know, we can break it down and just see where, you know, the blood got in his eye and he couldn’t see and figured his face was Sumner’s anyhow. Yeah. There’s a golden head on this cane. Brooks decides to keep it. 

Momento. And he’s got a page who offers to gather all the broken bits off the floor like the relics of the cross. Brooks says, not good. I can just get a new stick. 

Angie: It’s fine. We don’t need it. Yeah. 

Theresa: Now, crazy enough, both of these men, Sumner and Brooks, become heroes in their respective regions overnight. In the South, Brooks is the epitome of manliness. He’s honorable. He is just the picture of toxic masculinity. Meanwhile, in the North, we just see Sumner’s virtue extolled. This meant nothing to stand on business and was made a martyr for it. 

I mean, he’s still lit, but he’s, you know, yeah, he shed blood for his thoughts. Yeah. Now, I could go off and say about how I hate all of this, this and that and the other, but I think like it’s, I had to back up a second and I had to think about this in context, right? Because I dislike the ad hominem attack. I dislike the, you know, the shameful beating, right? The dishonorable beating. But I had to think about this in context of like what happens now and how I kind of, you know, like watching the drama. 

When Jasmine Crockett went in on Marjorie Taylor-Green, because Marjorie Taylor-Green said something a bit off-color, and Jasmine Crockett served it up. I kind of went, yeah, I mean, it’s that. It’s that. In context, we have not evolved. We have not changed. We have just changed players. 

Angie: No, yeah, I’m going to agree 100% with you. 

Theresa: And so again, not a fan of the ad hominem attacks, but I will be like, I get a little self of it. Oh, yeah, yeah. Okay. I mean, if it’s a good enough burn, okay, but it has to be a scalding hot burn or, you know, don’t talk about it. 

You can try hard enough. Yeah. Now, Brooks had had this known position in the Senate. 

Let me look back up a little bit. For when the Senate, when people thought about him and his work in the Senate, they thought of him as quote, an anti-bellum, pro-slavery fingers often portray the abolitionist movement as part and parcel of a host of modern isms. And this part was nuts to me and it made all the sense in the world and we have not changed, including feminism, communitarianism, atheism, atheism and red republicanism that would ultimately not destroy not only destroy slavery, but all private property, government, society, religion and family. This is from the 1850s. 

Angie: Are you sure this wasn’t from last week? 

Theresa: Dude, I swear to you, like the really the only part of this paragraph that doesn’t play well in modern day is to talk about slavery. Yeah, edit one small word out and suddenly this thing could be just played in newspapers nationwide. 

Angie: And we wouldn’t even bad about it and I 

Theresa: know we still use all the words remotely the same like as a bell and doesn’t come up often. But I mean, it could if we wanted to bring it back. I mean, I know. So I mean, it’s nice to see so much familiarity. It made me comfortable. 

Angie: It didn’t make you feel so weird when it sounded like yesterday. 

Theresa: Yeah, I know what’s talking Shakespeare in this newspaper. Now, all of this said, Brooks goes on to say that he only Mollie Wop Sumner because Sumner insulted the state of South Carolina and his aged relative, which because I was kind of figuring out like, but why does Brooks give a shit? And apparently Butler is a distant relative to Brooks. So. 

Angie: So this is like, you hit a burr, sir. Yeah, pretty much. Yeah. Okay. I still know that hasn’t changed either. 

Theresa: Now, when Brooks came Sumner, he in his eyes made Sumner equal to those that he stood with because both were beaten the same. So they now understand the same pain. Oh, yeah. That’s why he chose to beat him and not challenge him to a duel. 

I hate that. And crazy enough by beating him like he would a dog, like he would a slave, it puts a social stigma on Sumner. So everybody that is of the social elite and is too busy looking down their nose over their silver tea cup, they don’t want to associate with somebody who was beaten so severely like that. So they ostracize. him. 

Angie: I’d be cool with it if I was him. Like you know you’re not with my time anyway. 

Theresa: Right and I have a feeling homeboy didn’t give a shit but here we are but either way like the thought processes, hot diggity like what’s the what. Now surprise surprise it’s the caning of Sumner that goes on to radicalize and polarize both the northern and southern views. This is going to be a solid call to action that would march us down towards the Civil War. Shocked. Bom bom bom. And so I don’t know considering that I said that next week expect more of the same. 

Theresa: Stop. I’m defeating. A theme. I love a theme. I know. 

Theresa: But that is the caning of Charles Sumner. You have a picture of him. You know that would have been great. Hold please. I will hold. Oh man our man had some hair. Oh yeah he did. Yeah like I haven’t seen that much volume since Moose a hair dryer and one of them since the 80s. 

Angie: There’s no other way to describe this man. He looks like Darcy’s friend in Pride and Prejudice. Yes. Mutton chops and all. That’s actually exactly how I imagined him sitting at his desk. Right. Picture number three. This guy right here. Yeah. Yeah. 

For all for all of you playing at home it’s black and white. He is dressed in exactly what you would imagine of the Civil War era. Mutton chops. Very stately looking fellow. Looks like his hair was probably freshly barred which checks for him. Bit curly. Definitely Mr. Darcy’s friend from Pride and Prejudice. 

Theresa: I can’t think of his name right now. It’s a borderline three head as opposed to a four head because he’s got so much volume. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 

Angie: Honestly I bet you his callux are amazing. 

Theresa: That’s probably why Keith’s hair that low so that you just don’t see all the swirlies. That’s what I’m thinking. Right. Love it. But yeah. I’m here for it. 

Angie: Yeah that’s fun. I mean he’s fun. His story was not fun. 

Theresa: I there were like yes I hear what you’re saying. It was one of those like holy what the what the what you know. 

Angie: Yeah. But you know what I appreciate it and appreciate knowing he stood on his business long before anybody else thought about it or you know I mean there were others doing things and thinking about it but you know what I mean. Dude I do hear what you 

Theresa: mean like because it was one of those like I knew about it but I didn’t know about it. Yeah. 

Angie: Like I’ve heard it mentioned but not I don’t know. I don’t know. I think honestly I was thinking about another another famous woman and I thought to myself oh I can’t really do that story because she’s so famous it wouldn’t really like I was really sound very unhinged and then it occurred to me that most history that we’ve ever been told is like a paragraph. Yeah. Yeah. So like there is actually a lot more to each person. Yeah. 

Theresa: Well and there’s been several people was like oh you should cover and I can’t remember who they are right now but I know I’ve covered them eventually and it’s just like oh I can’t cover them. Everybody knows them. 

Angie: It’s like Virginia Hall was one of yours. Everybody knows who this is and I was like hey I didn’t know bitch how to fake legs and I’m like that’s like tables. 

Theresa: The thing you’re just like what you knew its name. 

Angie: Yeah. I mean it’s giving problems deal with it. Well that’s interesting because I am not a Palate Client today. January 27th is Holocaust Remembrance Day. 

Theresa: Oh you know when you sent me that text and I thought oh look at you looking at calendars and being so. 

Angie: I actually had this story on my list six months ago for this day. So please bear with me. There’s some names in here I’m hoping I’m going to pronounce right. My sources. Well let me just tell you. 

Teterzinspat the Czech Republic and their fake city spa town. So my yeah. Yeah. It’s a city in the Czech Republic called Teterzinspat. It is a Potemkin village or that’s your source are we jumping in. No I’m just telling you what it’s called. I only have a few sources. 

It’s their fake city spa town. Anyway Holocaust Encyclopedia is one source. The holocaustexplained.org is a really cool source I recommend if you’re curious and then Newsweek had an article oh my gosh I just realized I didn’t put the author or the date article came out by Christina Mesa of December 26 2017 called fake news in Nazi Germany. Hitler built a model town to hide that he was killing millions of Jews. 

So yeah. Well let me just start off with a quote from the Holocaust Encyclopedia. The Teterzinspat camp ghetto existed for three and a half years between November 24th 1941 and May 9th 1945. 

During its existence. Teterzinspat served three purposes as a transit camp for Czech Jews whom the Germans deported tickling centers concentration camps and forced labor camps in German occupied Poland. Belarus or like the Belarus Russian area and the Baltic states. It was a ghetto labor camp and I’d like to take a quick second to give the definition of the word ghetto like I feel like we know because we’re modern what a ghetto is. But the definition of the word ghetto is a segregated part of the city where a specific minority group racial ethnic or religious is concentrated often due to poverty social pressure or forced restriction leading to stereotypes of crime hardship and underdevelopment. Though it’s very origins vary from historical forced segregation like Jewish ghettos in World War two to modern urban areas facing systemic issues. Again not that we didn’t already know that but it felt kind of poignant to put it there. 

Thank you. The third purpose of this area is that the SS deported and then incarcerated their certain categories of German Austrian and Czech Jews based on their age disability as a result of past military service or domestic celebrity in the arts and other cultural life. To disguise the physical annihilation of the Jews deported from the greater German Reich the Nazi regime employed the general fiction primarily inside Germany that the deported Jews would be deployed at productive labor in East in East. Since it seemed implausible that elderly Jews could be used for forced labor the Nazis used this area to hide the nature of their deportation. 

So essentially it serves as a holding pin for Jews in the above mentioned groups. It was expected that the poor conditions would there would then hasten the deaths of many deportees until the SS and police could deport the survivors to the killing centers in the east. 

Theresa: So welcome to paragraph two. 

Angie: Yeah now that you have that in your head and let’s get into it. I would like to point out that the ghetto of Ternspot had a really compelling and nuanced history so if any of the aforementioned items didn’t already make that really clear there is a lot about this particular place and then by extension every other area where large groups of incarcerated individuals under the Reich were set I have questions about that I have yet to find the answers to. So just know there is a lot of nuance that goes into this area and not a lot of the answers that are easily accessible. 

Theresa: So I think that’s the underpinnings of every story we’ve done. 

Angie: Right I think you’re absolutely right. So the town of Ternspot or Terezin or Terezin was a town that was established around 1780 around a military fortress. Now according to the Holocaust explained the town was divided into two parts the smaller fortress and the large fortress and these forges were separated by the river Ohira if I pronounce that right if I didn’t someone can help me because I’m not sure I could pronounce it but up until the Nazi occupation the town’s population so from 1780 until the 1940s the town’s population sat at just under 4,000 people. 

That’s so small. Like we’re looking you know a little village right like okay but then on October 10th of 1941 Reinhard Hedrick who is the RSA chief which is the Reich Security Main Office chief think like Himmler and the SS this is the establishment that they sort of run everything out of. A long story short it’s no bueno but Hedrick identifies Terezin’s that as this desired Jewish settlement for German Austrian and Czech Jews better over the age of 65. 

As I mentioned earlier they could be First World War veterans or cultural or political figures within their community. So just to drive this home a little harder it’s serving as a holding site for Jews on their way to extermination camps in the east. My understanding is that once you arrived here it was pretty clear what your final destination was going to be but maybe not spelled out directly but it was definitely understood. 

So just like hold that in your mind because this can’t be just some really interesting things. Once again I’m going to bring up the Munich Agreement because I just can’t help myself but it just is 1938 an area of Czechoslovakia is basically given to Hitler in hopes to sort of placate him but then in March of 39 the Nazis invade anyway and they take the rest because that’s what bullies do. So part of Terezin’s that Schetto had already been a prison so when the Nazis move in the Gestapo they just go ahead and decide we’ll just continue to use this smaller fortress for that as well and that part is established on June 10 of 1940 and then and I am unclear what happened for the next year and a half but on November 24 of 1941 the first transport brings in 342 young Jewish men. Their goal is to like they’re at the barracks and their goal is to prepare the town for mass arrivals beginning right around November 30 and then a second transport arrives at a thousand men including a man called Jacob Eldenstein who was an original member of the Council of Elders and he arrives on December 4. 

Here’s where a little nuance gets in. The Council of Elders is this governing body of people of Jewish defense administrative order so even within the camp you have your elders. Right? I’m unclear if this existed in every camp but it’s sort of things like it did but it’s really it’s really it stands out for this camp so he arrives and at the time D-Bortese could only bring about 50 kilograms of luggage which they had to carry 2.4 kilometers from the railway station via foot. In case you’re an American playing at home 50 kilograms is just over 100 pounds. 

Theresa: Yeah and the suitcases were not ergonomic they didn’t have rolling wheels and the roads themselves weren’t dependable. 

Angie: Right and also I’m thinking you I’m not sure how many people actually brought that much with them but there you have it. So this journey this walk is a deadly journey for many of the elderly or ill prisoners right and oh did I mention this camp is built for Jews over the age of 65 of retirement age so elderly or ill great right. 

Okay so upon arrival they are then processed through the schluss where they’re registered and stripped of the remaining possessions so I’m assuming that anything over what you brought in that luggage goes away. The holocaustexplained.org says that quote following this an average of 35,000 people were incarcerated at any given time between 1941 and 1945. Remember that when I told you when the town was built and up until the occupation only 4,000 people had lived there. 

Theresa: So I’m sensing some strains in the infrastructure. 

Angie: Yeah I don’t know if I’m doing a great job of articulating just the squalors that these people were living in. During its time as this camp over 140,000 people would be imprisoned there. 33,000 would die from deprivation starvation and disease from within the ghetto before they even made it to the death camps. The ghetto itself obviously severely overcrowded housing 40 to 50,000 prisoners in converted barracks with triple-decker bunks and overflow areas. Food rations are minimal bread, watery soup and occasionally meat but this because it’s minimal and because it’s trying to feed so many people is leading to widespread malnutrition which is seems pretty par for the course. There is also poor sanitation and unreliable water supply. 

Surprise, surprise. Right so we’re looking at deplorable hygiene as well. Now they do have a hospital but medicine shortage and limited treatment is sort of the thing so I’m not real clear how effective having the hospital actually is. Initially they were getting food packages from the outside but that diminishes as the war progresses and prisoners would either work within the ghetto or perform hard labor outside. 

The latter would offer the potential to possibly smuggle additional foods in despite the physical toll of doing this hard labor outside of the ghetto but like I don’t know if you’re thinking that maybe you might get an extra ration of bread or you might be able to sneak some more cheese in from however you’re going to go about doing it might be worth the hard labor. Like that’s what a lot of people are convinced of right? Now despite all of these conditions and these these threats of knowing where they’re going to be sent to you afterwards, there’s this that develops this vibrant cultural life. You have Jewish artists from Czechoslovakia, Austria and Germany and they’re creating art and some are secretly documenting what the ghetto’s realities are. You have writers, professors, musicians and actors who deliver lectures, concerts and performances all within like their day-to-day life in this ghetto and it houses a library with 60,000 volumes. 

Wow. I don’t know what the where my next part of the note went but part of these volumes a huge chunk of them are in Hebrew and it allows their sort of religious or spiritual life to almost maintain itself for whatever reason like the the Nazis didn’t really hinder it here which I think is fascinating when you like just think about it right? 

Theresa: Right because they’re stopping everything out everywhere and this they allowed for whatever reason. 

Angie: Right for whatever reason and it feels just like oversight like this was just an accidental mercy. 

Angie: I almost think that and this was one of those moments to me that felt very much a part of the nuance because right this area had previously been home to about 4,000 residents and previously been part of Czechoslovakia. I wonder if the library here had just been part of their the original residents collection and when they get stopped and moved in they just didn’t like that wasn’t what that was on on their plates at the time maybe? 

Theresa: Yeah they just didn’t screen the books they just said yeah good enough here we go. 

Angie: Call it good now of the 15,000 children who pass through children sorry like children yeah okay most are secretly able to attend school and they paint and they write poetry to preserve some sort of normalcy amid all of this but tragically approximately 90% of those children were then taken to the extermination camps. To make this really hit home the Holocaust Museum has this quote from a young lady called Inga, I said this right to myself yesterday, Arbacher, she says quote conditions in the camp were harsh potatoes were as valuable as diamonds I was hungry scared and sick most of the time for my eighth birthday my parents gave me a tiny potato cake with a hint of sugar for my ninth birthday an outfit sewn from rags for my doll and for my tenth birthday a poem written by my mother I’m unclear for Barron survived but she obviously did long enough to be able to say that that is heartbreakingly beautiful. 

Theresa: I thought the exact same thing I mentioned this earlier because this place is housing artists, poets, philosophers, writers, musicians we get to see a glimpse of life for them through things like their paintings their poems their drawings their essays books pamphlets and the lectures they were giving the HolocaustExplained.org adds that quote culture provided a means of temporary escape as the over 20 to 2300 lectures which took place their show many focused on expressing themselves on pre-war topics transporting prisoners minds away from the harsh reality of their situation they go on to say that the actors also performed several plays such as Faust and musicians put on performances including a rendition of Giuseppe Verdi’s Messa Direcrium which I was like wow finding beauty in the ashes is is intense when you know what’s going on. 

The ashes are so close. Yeah but then it takes an interesting turn because as I stated before we have a lot of artists and a lot of elderly and under pressure after deporting some Danish Jews there the Germans allow an international Red Cross to visit in June of 1944. 

Theresa: This feels like an oversight for the dominant culture. 

Angie: You’ll see for the June 1944 Red Cross inspection the Nazis orchestrated an elaborate deception to conceal their genocidal activities beginning in February of that year the SS launched a quote beautification campaign. Streets were cleaned and renamed fake shops and schools were established and prominent prisoners received superior housing. Before the visit 7503 sick elderly and disabled people were deported to Auschwitz in May to present an idolized settlement. Around 200 specially selected inmates were placed in temporary comfortable housing and instructed not to speak directly with the delegates. The Red Cross delegation including prominent doctors and officials toured the Potemkin village where prisoners claimed to be happy. 

Delegate Maurice Russell reported no deportations were occurring. Rabbi Leo Bakik later described the effect as devastating. We felt forgotten and forsaken. And when I read the first time that the Red Cross delegation included prominent doctors and you didn’t take a look at these people like how close was the look you got to them? How did you miss the malnourishment? 

Theresa: I mean okay so I think there’s a couple of things that happen right? Like there’s various stages of malnourishment. Here’s where I’m going to sound like an expert because the there’s a podcast called this podcast it will kill you. They did a two-part series on starvation recently and they talked about the long-term effects, short-term all of that. 

There’s many stages. If you are not eating a single lick you have a different set of things than if you just aren’t getting green veggies. And I’m sure they took all the ones that looked iffy and treated them like food in the refrigerator. 

Well this is iffy, just toss it. Yeah, we know they did. Right and so I think we can’t be too harsh on the doctors here right? So could they have done more? Should they have done more? Maybe but this was master mind to do exactly what happened. Oh and they killed it. Excuse the phrase. 

Theresa: Yeah that’s a yeah there’s they knocked it out of the park we’ll say that. Mission accomplished. Yeah so the deception succeeded temporarily with like overall conditions briefly improving that summer but a propaganda film was shot like in August and September called D’Errfure G’nick Den G’n Statt. The Führer gives a city to the Jews. It was never distributed. 

I don’t know if that’s probably because maybe the propaganda film didn’t go over quite as well as the maker thought it was going to go or maybe it showed more than they planned unclear but it was never like released to the world. 

Theresa: I mean that’s the thing you can’t win for losing because if you have people that firmly believe in your power you’re giving something to the Jews how could you? I thought you ran on against them or if it’s like shows the badness then that gets out. You know what I mean? So you can’t win. No exactly. 

Angie: Yeah yeah but on September 28th the mass deportations they resume 18,401 people were sent to Auschwitz in 11 transports through October 28th so from September 28th to October 28th almost 20,000 people in less than a month were sent including Jewish council members and cultural figures. By November only 11,000 prisoners remained. 

These are mostly elderly women. That month the ashes of 17,000 deceased prisoners were dumped into the Eger River. The prisoners who had met with the Red Cross were deported to the camps like Auschwitz in attempts to remove any evidence of the lie. I’m unclear what the Tadenspat family camp is. My assumption is that is where families were allowed to stay together but for most of the duration of this camp the children were separated from the adults and shielded from the darker sides of it. 

So I’m not entirely sure what the family camp was as opposed to the rest of the camp. I didn’t look that up but it was completely liquidated and sent to Auschwitz as well. As the ally forces start to move in the Nazis start to panic and they empty the ghettos in the camp in Eastern Europe and they send the prisoners on death marches. Approximately 15,000 of those prisoners would arrive in the last week of 1945 and that doubled the camp’s population like within days. For whatever reason and I’m unclear why this is but the International Red Cross came over two more times and took over the running of the camp in April of 1945 but that really didn’t matter because or excuse me in May of 45 that didn’t matter because one week later the Soviets liberated the ghetto. That’s the story of the Potemkin village spa camp, fake town, fake city of Tadenspat in the Czech Republic. 

Theresa: A couple things. First off that title is a bit of a lie. I can’t make it true everything. Two, you don’t tell these stories typically and three, you didn’t tell me you needed a palette cleanser. 

Angie: I told you January 27th is Holocaust Remembrance Day. 

Theresa: Sure, sure but there was no okay and I tell you all kinds of stuff on the regular basis that have nothing to do with it with anything else. 

Angie: That’s true. I thought you were going to say and and you didn’t so I was like well all right then it’ll be a surprise and you promised me unhinged dopamine stories. I wasn’t sure if we were starting on the uh I’m gonna need a therapist afterwards this week. Oh well. 

Theresa: Yeah, all right here we go uh yeah uh I’m just bringing both kills for the next good chunk. 

Angie: But my next story is a fun one. 

Theresa: Okay now when I’m honest let me actually look at this. I really so I misspoke the next two weeks of mine are going to be bus kills. I could probably figure out like they’re gonna be bus kills. 

Angie: I’m bringing the web blanket. Here you go. I know my next like next week’s story is a romp. There’s a riot if you will. Okay now we’ve covered literal riots. This one is actually human so a a riot of a person. Okay. Yeah um my following story is not. 

Theresa: All right all right so you know um we’ll just play it by ear and we’ll try to do this and we communicate ahead of time on do we need something lighthearted to end on. What if what if we tried to like I don’t know what’s something you’re super grateful for. 

Angie: I love that. What is something I am super grateful for? I you know what okay this is gonna sound really really cheesy but it’s really true. My favorite sound in the whole wide world is the sound of my kids laughing and I am super grateful that even as teenagers they still make each other big belly laugh and I get hear it all the time. That’s that’s what I’m grateful for. That is delightful. There you go. 

Theresa: That is delightful. Let me see. Let me try to come up with something. Okay so we have this feral cat trapped in our bathroom. 

Angie: He’s still in the bathroom. 

Theresa: Okay so for those of you playing at home who don’t know this um the the Sunday before Thanksgiving we I have a small house I have a small 105 year old farm house. We have a cat that came with the house as far as I’m concerned. The house owns the cat. Feral cat hisses at you but wants food and mouses. 

Okay great you stay outside and do your bit I’ll do mine. Now um he got calories got away from him this winter he’s done great every year and then he just started getting more and more emaciated lost a bunch of hair on his back hindquarters and Bro didn’t have the strength to run from dogs my dogs in the backyard and so ended up trapping him kind of going now what all the kill or all the no kill shelters were full. This is me recapping because no you know this um and then going boogers so he’s been in our bathroom our only bathroom before Thanksgiving when we hosted people coming over. He’s still there he’s gaining weight he allows us to pet him um and that part is super neat because like I won’t re-release him until he’s got some meat on his bones because I don’t want to be that guy yeah yeah yeah I like I want to do right by him um and I can’t let him run through the house because he has three dogs and a geriatric cat who believes that he rules the roost and so I don’t want this young scrapper who’s just got his life back in him to take my my old man out. 

Fair. Fair so he’s doing well but he’s like purring and he chirps and talks and he’s starting to gain weight and I think he realizes that uh we’re good people and we’re trying to do right by him. 

Angie: We’re here to help I love it when they chirp that’s one of my favorite things. 

Theresa: I mean he’s he’s not quite as talkative as my old cat twist but very few things in this world are as talkative as my cat twist including young teenage girls. 

Angie: I love that. Yeah, a twist for me. 

Theresa: If you uh have liked this delightful romp even with all of our tangents and needing to pull each other up at the very end give each other verbal hugs and say we got this let’s let’s do this again next week. Let’s go. 

Yeah let’s do it. Rate, review, subscribe, share this with somebody delightfully unhinged who is looking for a big bummer of a week. They need to fry. You know they’ve got a little too big. Well, he got you. They’ve had too many cat videos in their life you need to knock them down a peg. Well, we got you this week and uh on that note good bye. Bye.