Episode 2193: Arthur Magida on what Americans can learn from a young forger who outfoxed the Nazis
And still they come. Every week, it seems, there’s a new book celebrating resistance to Nazism. The latest is Two Wheels to Freedom, Arthur J. Magida’s true story of Cioma Schonhaus, a 20 year-old Jewish art student in Nazi Berlin who successfully forged papers for hundreds of Jews. Yes, of course, Magida’s new book is, in part, about the triumph of human agency in fighting the evils of Nazism. But as Magida - who has written two other acclaimed books about resistance to Nazi Germany - explains, the story of Cioma Schonhaus can also be read as a parable of contemporary America. If Trump does indeed win the November election and begin deporting millions of people, Magida argues, then we might all have a moral obligation to mimic Cioma Schonhaus and become heroic resisters ourselves.
Arthur J. Magida has been nominated for a Pulitzer and won multiple awards. His last two books—Code Name Madeleine (“absolutely gripping,” “tightly plotted”) and The Nazi Séance (“an astonishing story, brilliantly told,” “haunting, vivid”)—are optioned for films. He’s been a contributing correspondent to PBS’s Religion & Ethics Newsweekly, senior editor of the Baltimore Jewish Times, and editorial director for Jewish Lights Publishing. He lives in Baltimore, Maryland.
Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.
Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe
Two Freedoms and Two Americas: Barry Goldwater and Martin Luther King's Incompatible Versions of Liberty
The Uberification of Academia: Why Adjunct Professors are Living in their Cars
How to Lose Loudly: What the Left can Learn from the NRA
More Than Chinatown: Bruce Lee and the Invention of Asian American Identity
The AI Pioneer Who Chose Purpose Over Profit: Jim Fruchterman on Why Big Tech Can't Be Trusted with Our Future
World Enemy Number One: Nazi Germany's Obsession with 'Judeo-Bolshevism'
The True Cost of Roadkill: Cars Have Caused 60 to 80 Million Deaths in the Last 100 Years
Is that $320,000 College Degree Really Worth It? The President of Brandeis on why Colleges Must Adapt or Become Irrelevant
The Dark Passions Driving American Politics: Why Liberals Must Acknowledge Anger, Fear, and the Lust for Domination
The AI Assistant That Knows Your Life Before You Do: The End of the Beginning or the Beginning of the End?
TRUMP IS NOT POPULAR: How a Sub 40% Approval Offers Hope for the Dems
The Idiocracy Trap: Why Smart Machines are making Humans Dumb & Dumber
Halfway to Hungary: Jonathan Rauch on the Authoritarian Playbook that Trump Borrowed from a Small, Landlocked Central European State