History Shadows

Dr. Simonas Strelcovas

History Shadows is a history podcast by historian Dr. Simonas Strelcovas, who has spent over two decades tracing stories of war, resistance and survival across Europe and Asia. The first series, Visas for Life, runs from the Évian Conference of 1938, where the world closed its doors to refugees, to the fall of Lithuania in 1940: the small republic that kept its border open, the refugees, intelligence officers and soldiers who filled Vilnius in autumn 1939, and the Japanese consul Chiune Sugihara, whose transit visas opened a way out. Strelcovas is the author of a Japanese-language monograph on the refugees in Lithuania and Sugihara (Tokyo, 2020). Each episode is built from archival research and eyewitness accounts, and told as a story. In English, for listeners anywhere.

Episodes

  1. Trailer

    Introducing History Shadows

    Welcome to History Shadows — a podcast that uncovers forgotten stories from the twilight zones of the past. Picture Europe in the late 1930s: a continent on the brink, borders trembling, and an uneasy silence before the storm. In this gripping four-episode series, hosted by historian and author Dr. Simonas Strelcovas, we explore one of the remarkable and lesser-known rescues: the life-saving visas issued by two diplomats in Lithuania during the chaotic window from September 1939 to summer 1940. Tiny, neutral Lithuania unexpectedly became a vital transit zone for thousands of Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi and Soviet occupation. Trapped between giants — Nazi Germany to the west and the Soviet Union to the east — Lithuania's fragile independence was doomed by the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Yet in this narrow crack in history, Japanese consul Chiune Sugihara and Dutch honorary consul Jan Zwartendijk defied orders, issuing thousands of visas that offered a desperate path to freedom across the Soviet Union and beyond. This isn't the story of two men. It's about a country at history's crossroads, refugees navigating bureaucracy and danger, spies, shadow deals, and acts of extraordinary courage as the Red Army's shadow loomed. Drawing on archives and vivid storytelling, History Shadows brings to light the people and moments hidden in the past — where conscience collided with catastrophe. If you love deeply researched history told like a thriller, subscribe now. #WW2 #HolocaustRescue #ChiuneSugihara #JanZwartendijk #LithuaniaHistory #VisasForLife #HistoryPodcast Support the show

Trailer

About

History Shadows is a history podcast by historian Dr. Simonas Strelcovas, who has spent over two decades tracing stories of war, resistance and survival across Europe and Asia. The first series, Visas for Life, runs from the Évian Conference of 1938, where the world closed its doors to refugees, to the fall of Lithuania in 1940: the small republic that kept its border open, the refugees, intelligence officers and soldiers who filled Vilnius in autumn 1939, and the Japanese consul Chiune Sugihara, whose transit visas opened a way out. Strelcovas is the author of a Japanese-language monograph on the refugees in Lithuania and Sugihara (Tokyo, 2020). Each episode is built from archival research and eyewitness accounts, and told as a story. In English, for listeners anywhere.