The Heartland Institute’s Tim Benson is joined by Ian Buruma, Paul W. Williams Professor of Human Rights and Journalism at Bard College, to discuss his new book, The Collaborators: Three Stories of Deception and Survival in World War II. They chat about the backstory behind the three subjects of the book—Felix Kersten, Yoshiko Kawashima, and Friedrich Weinreb—and why all three have been vilified and mythologized. They also discuss the three subjects’ varying levels of culpability for the crimes committed by the people and regimes they served.
Show Notes:
The Guardian: Matthew Reisz – “The Collaborators by Ian Buruma review – intriguing study of the frenemy within”
New York Times: Lesley M.M. Blume – “Amoral Traitors? War Heroes? Survivors? Depends Whom You Ask.”
The Times: Ben McIntyre – “The Collaborators by Ian Buruma review — three stories of deception and survival in the Second World War”
Times Literary Supplement: Josh Ireland – “Unholy compromises”
Wall Street Journal: Diane Cole – “‘The Collaborators’ Review: They Dealt With the Devil”
Washington Post: Scott Martelle – “For three liars during WWII, deception proves to be both good and evil”
Tim Benson
Tim Benson joined The Heartland Institute in September 2015 as a policy analyst in the Government Relations Department.
