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Saturday

Opinion: A Holocaust remembrance — and lessons we have yet to learn

Two young German-Jewish refugees at the porthole of the liner St. Louis finally arrive at Antwerp, after being refused entry to Cuba and Miami prior to the start of World War II. Gerry Cranham/Getty Images hide caption

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Gerry Cranham/Getty Images

Opinion

Simon Says

Opinion: A Holocaust remembrance — and lessons we have yet to learn

NPR's Scott Simon wonders why teaching children about the Holocaust is not mandatory in most states and the lessons they are missing.

Opinion: A Holocaust remembrance — and lessons we have yet to learn

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Even after a century, tanks still play a major role in war

An American soldier walks ahead of an MKIV British-made tank, circa 1918. Hulton Archive/Getty Images hide caption

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Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Even after a century, tanks still play a major role in war

Germany and the United States have pledged to send tanks to Ukraine for their war efforts. What role could they play in the coming months?

Even after a century, tanks still play a major role in war

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Friday

Forensic musicologists race to rescue works lost after the Holocaust

Walter Arlen in Chicago, pictured circa 1942. Walter Arlen hide caption

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Walter Arlen

Music

Forensic musicologists race to rescue works lost after the Holocaust

The Exilarte Center in Vienna is the world's leading research institution devoted to preserving the work of composers such as Walter Arlen and others, who were exiled or killed during the Holocaust.

Forensic musicologists race to rescue works lost after the Holocaust

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Her ancestors survived the Holocaust. She returns to Germany to reclaim her identity

Memory Wars logo. Memory Wars hide caption

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Memory Wars

Her ancestors survived the Holocaust. She returns to Germany to reclaim her identity

In an excerpt from the podcast Memory Wars, a descendant of Holocaust survivors takes back her heritage by moving to her ancestral homeland in Germany.

Her ancestors survived the Holocaust. She returns to Germany to reclaim her identity

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Thursday

When Things Fall Apart
KenCanning/Getty Images

Throughline

When Things Fall Apart

Climate change, political unrest, random violence - Western society can often feel like what the filmmaker Werner Herzog calls, "a thin layer of ice on top of an ocean of chaos and darkness." In the United States, polls indicate that many people believe that law and order is the only thing protecting us from the savagery of our neighbors, that the fundamental nature of humanity is competition and struggle. This idea is often called "veneer theory." But is this idea rooted in historical reality? Is this actually what happens when societies face disasters? Are we always on the cusp of brutality?

When Things Fall Apart

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Wednesday

Survey shows a lack of Holocaust awareness in the country that was home to Anne Frank

King Willem-Alexander puts a stone in an act of remembrance when unveiling a new monument in the heart of Amsterdam's historic Jewish Quarter on Sept. 19, 2021, honoring the 102,000 Dutch victims of the Holocaust. Peter Dejong/AP hide caption

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Peter Dejong/AP

Survey shows a lack of Holocaust awareness in the country that was home to Anne Frank

The survey commissioned by a U.S.-based group found that the number of Dutch respondents who believe the Holocaust is a myth was higher than in any of the other five nations previously surveyed.

How three unlikely groups worked together to achieve interracial solidarity

The original Rainbow Coalition NPR/DailyHerald hide caption

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NPR/DailyHerald

Code Switch

How three unlikely groups worked together to achieve interracial solidarity

In this episode we turn to late 1960s Chicago, when three unlikely groups came together to form a coalition based on interracial solidarity. It's hard to imagine this kind of collaboration today, but we dove into how a group of Black radicals, Confederate flag-waving white Southerners, and street-gang-turned-activist Puerto Ricans found common ground.

How three unlikely groups worked together to achieve interracial solidarity

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Monday

Fossil CSI: Cracking the case of an ancient reptile graveyard

An artist's reconstruction of adult and newly born ichthyosaur, Shonisaurus popularis, which lived during the Triassic Period. Gabriel Ugueto / Smithsonian hide caption

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Gabriel Ugueto / Smithsonian

Short Wave

Fossil CSI: Cracking the case of an ancient reptile graveyard

This mystery begins in 1952, in the Nevada desert, when a self-taught geologist came across the skeleton of a massive creature that looked like a cross between a whale and a crocodile. It turned out to be just the beginning.

Fossil CSI: Cracking the case of an ancient reptile graveyard

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Sunday

Most Americans say overturning Roe was politically motivated, NPR/Ipsos poll finds

Abortion-rights protesters shout into the Senate chamber in the Indiana Capitol on July 25, 2022, about a month after Roe was overturned, in Indianapolis. Jon Cherry/Getty Images hide caption

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Jon Cherry/Getty Images

National

Most Americans say overturning Roe was politically motivated, NPR/Ipsos poll finds

An NPR/Ipsos poll finds that most Americans say Supreme Court justices are guided more by their politics than the law, and that lawmakers aren't deciding abortion policy based on public sentiment.

New graphic novel explores the life of 'Queenie,' Harlem Renaissance mob boss

Elizabeth Colomba and Aurélie Lévy's new graphic novel Queenie: Godmother of Harlem revives the forgotten story of Harlem mob boss Stephanie Saint Clair AKA Queenie in the form of a mafia thriller. Elizabeth Colomba, Aurélie Lévy/Abrams Comicarts - Megascope hide caption

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Elizabeth Colomba, Aurélie Lévy/Abrams Comicarts - Megascope

Author Interviews

New graphic novel explores the life of 'Queenie,' Harlem Renaissance mob boss

Queenie: Godmother of Harlem tells the overlooked story of Stephanie Saint Clair, or "Queenie," a Black female mob boss and fashion icon who lived during the height of the Harlem Renaissance.

Saturday

A firefighter's 1943 photos of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising have been found

This handout negative dated on April 20, 1943, and taken by Polish firefighter Zbigniew Leszek Grzywaczewski shows Jewish people being evacuated from the Warsaw Ghetto. Z. L. Grzywaczewski/Maciej Grzywaczewski/POLIN Museum via AP hide caption

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Z. L. Grzywaczewski/Maciej Grzywaczewski/POLIN Museum via AP

A firefighter's 1943 photos of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising have been found

The photos were taken inside the Warsaw Ghetto by a 23-year-old Polish firefighter as the Nazis were brutally crushing the Jewish uprising of 1943. The photos were discovered in a family collection.

Opinion: The lessons we can learn from 'idiberug'

This detailed view shows inscriptions on a sandstone rock that's believed to be the world's oldest runestone, inscribed almost 2,000 years ago, making it several centuries older than the earliest known ones. Javad Parsa/NTB/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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Javad Parsa/NTB/AFP via Getty Images

Opinion

Simon Says

Opinion: The lessons we can learn from 'idiberug'

NPR's Scott Simon wonders about 8 characters on an old runestone found in Norway. It goes on display today, so others may look and ponder. It is a curse? A love poem? A receipt for Viking take out?

Opinion: The lessons we can learn from 'idiberug'

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While many ring in the Year of the Rabbit, Vietnam celebrates the cat

Cat stickers hang on display last week in Hanoi, Vietnam. The Lunar New Year begins on Sunday and marks the Year of the Cat in Vietnam and the Year of the Rabbit in China, South Korea and other East and Southeast Asian countries. Linh Pham/Getty Images hide caption

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Linh Pham/Getty Images

Culture

While many ring in the Year of the Rabbit, Vietnam celebrates the cat

This Lunar New Year, the Vietnamese will observe a different animal in the zodiac, the cat. The reasons are murky: could be linguistics or the landscape — or maybe cats are just plain friendlier.

Why we have a debt ceiling, and why this trip to the brink may be different

For those on Capitol Hill who would threaten a default as a means to compel concessions on policy, the destructive power of default is what makes it makes attractive as a tactic. J. Scott Applewhite/AP hide caption

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J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Analysis

Politics

Why we have a debt ceiling, and why this trip to the brink may be different

We have been here before. But this time the House's new Republican majority is largely driven by a faction that says it will hold the debt limit vote as a hostage to win policy changes.

Friday

At the first March for Life post-Roe, anti-abortion activists say fight isn't over

Protesters at the March for Life on Jan. 20, 2023, in Washington D.C. Eman Mohammed for NPR hide caption

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Eman Mohammed for NPR

National

At the first March for Life post-Roe, anti-abortion activists say fight isn't over

Seven months after overturning the constitutional right to an abortion, anti-abortion rights activists are celebrating their victories and planning their next steps at their annual march in D.C

At the first March for Life post-Roe, anti-abortion activists say fight isn't over

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