From left to right: Anne van Mourik, Tatjana Tönsmeyer and Peter Romijn.
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Published on 9 September 2025
In this episode, Anne van Mourik speaks with historian Tatjana Tönsmeyer (University of Wuppertal) and Peter Romijn (NIOD and UvA) about Tönsmeyer’s groundbreaking book Unter deutscher Besatzung: Europa 1939–1945 (Under German occupation: Europe 1939-1945).
The book offers a Europe-wide account of life under Nazi occupation told from the perspective of the occupied, exploring fear, deprivation, and everyday strategies of survival. How did a climate of fear affect daily life in occupied Europe? Why is it not useful to talk in terms of ‘collaboration’ and ‘resistance’? And what can the book teach us about how to understand and respond to situations of occupation today?
03/09/1939 Poland. German soldier and civilians. Collection NIOD.
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