Escaping Farhud: The Joseph Samuels Story

Sometimes the best way to convey the weight of history is to read the words of just one person who lived it.

In this special episode of History Impossible, we'll be looking at the life of Joseph Samuels, whose incredible journey and profound resilience throughout his 90 plus years on this planet deserved examination. From the dusty streets of Baghdad, where he escaped the first and worst massacre of Iraqi Jewish history as a boy, to his dangerous flight to the new Jewish home of Israel, to his search for meaning in his life and his discovery of love and success that took him from Jerusalem to Montreal and finally to Los Angeles. And despite all the horror that haunted his childhood as he escaped the Farhud, he never once took life for granted and was always grateful for his good fortune.

As Samuels himself wrote in his memoir, "Make your life your own chain of miracles."

History Impossible has been made possible by the following generous supporters on Patreon and PayPal:

• Benjamin Bernier
• Elias Borota
• Matthew Dakus
• Nathan Diehl
• Kyle Dillon
• Gavin Edwards
• Kevin Gony
• Nathan Grote
• Peter Hauck
• Devin Hreha
• Mike Kalnins
• Benjamin Lee
• Trevor Lindborg
• Jose Martinez
• Mike Mayleben
• Judy McCoid
• Monica
• Kostas Moros
• Ryan Mortenson
• Ben Mullen
• Molly Pan
• Jean Peters
• Edmund Plamowski
• Brian Pritzl
• PJ Rader
• Gleb Radutsky
• Eugene Rosso
• Jon Andre Saether
• Alison Salo
• Sam
• Emily Schmidt
• Cameron Smith
• Jared Cole Temple
• Steve Uhler
• Blake Wescott
• Ricky Worthey
• F. You

The Muslim Nazis IV: Farhud

The Muslim Nazis III: 1929

The Muslim Nazis II: The Mufti

"Palestine is my country and the country of my ancestors—I will sacrifice myself for the sake of its sons."

—Hajj Amin al-Husseini

In the second episode of History Impossible's first series, we'll be diving head first into the early life of our story's central character, Hajj Amin al-Husseini, the future Grand Mufti of Jerusalem in Palestine.

We'll see how he developed his identity as a Palestinian nationalist from a very early age and the activities this passion led him to pursue. We'll look at what he did at the outbreak of the First World War and how his allegiances began to form. We'll look at his rapid ascent to power in the British Mandate following the war, and how he began to clash with these colonial masters. We'll even see the groundwork being laid by a man who would come to be known—fairly or otherwise—as a man behind whom riots and destruction tended to follow.

This is the early life story of Hajj Amin al-Husseini, the Petyr Baelish of Palestine.

The Muslim Nazis I: Early Adventures with Imperial German Islamophilia

An Impossible Announcement: History Impossible in 2021

This is a quick announcement I'd like to make regarding History Impossible's immediate future, which is mostly tied up in this inaugural long-term series--a season really--which needs a bit of explaining and reassuring (specifically to folks who prefer one-off stories). In addition, I couldn't resist making a quick comment about history being essentially made on January 6th, 2021 in Washington D.C., regardless of how you interpreted the events. 

2021's future, however uncertain for a lot of people and even for the United States, is looking bright for History Impossible, so I'll be with you all the way, hopefully entertaining and enlightening you as we move into the future with this crazy and no-doubt controversial story involving Islam, the Nazis, Israel and Palestine, and Yugoslavia.

Best wishes,

Alexander von Sternberg

Please note: the first episode of this series is live on Patreon as we speak. If you want early access to the newest episodes of this series moving forward, consider supporting the show on Patreon at the $10 level or above!

An Impossible Interview IV: Aaron Sibarium, The Washington Free Beacon

The Impossible Interviews series is back with a different, but still special conversation I had with the amazingly talented and insightful Aaron Sibarium. Aaron is an associate editor over at the Washington Free Beacon, as well as a writer for various publications including National Review, Quillette, and American Purpose, the last of which published one of Aaron's essays on October 26th, 2020, the exact same day as Pandemic: Rendering a Hue and Cry was released on History Impossible's feed. The name of Aaron's essay: "The Weimarization of the American Republic." And it was completely and totally brilliant.

Aaron and I had never spoken before I reached out on Twitter to arrange this interview. He had no idea who I was and until I started reading his work, I had no idea who he was. And yet we had largely come to the same conclusion regarding America's current moment in the historical context, completely independent of one another. It was too much to pass up talking to this guy so, as I just said, I reached out and the conversation we had is what follows here.

This is much more of a "current events" style episode, though it's all very firmly rooted in history, both recent and in the Weimar era. After getting into some of Aaron's background and the growing power of the successor ideology to left-liberalism (of which Aaron was at ground zero while attending Yale), we discuss how similar the current moment is to that of the Weimar period and more importantly, how it differs. And as an added bonus, we spent some time discussing another topic Aaron has covered, which is post-liberalism from a conservative perspective and how it's recently manifested itself, and frankly, just where the hell we go from here.

It's an incredibly fascinating conversation and I'm really thankful to Aaron for taking time out of his busy schedule to chat with me, so please enjoy! I also encourage everyone to check out Aaron's work and follow him on Twitter @AaronSibarium.

Infinitesimal Impossibilities 02: The Mad Madame of New Orleans

Pandemic: Rendering a Hue and Cry

This episode is dedicated to Franco Bolelli.

Since it's the year of our lord 2020, it was only inevitable that we'd talk about pandemics on History Impossible.

What follows is an exploration of not just a pandemic and not just the most physically destructive pandemic in all of human history. What follows is an exploration of what a pandemic actually does. And by "does," we're talking about what it does to the human body, the human mind, and the wider social psychology of societies themselves, and of course, the historical consequences that result.

The 1918 H1N1 Influenza A pandemic--better known as the "Spanish flu"--is known as a lot of things. A bizarre historical footnote that no one wanted to discuss. A force of nature more destructive than the Great War itself, rivaled only by the Second World War. And according to a small handful of medical historians, sociologists, and economists, quite possibly the reason for how things in that so-called "War to End All Wars" turned out and thus, everything that happened afterward.

These are all things that will be covered and more, as the impossible case is laid that the Spanish flu was not just the secret fuel that powered the monumental tragedies of the 20th century, but gives us insight into the very thing that could eventually act as the fuel for the tragedies for the 21st.

Special thanks to Vinny Andreotti, Sergey Cheremisinov, and Molly Pan & Eric Guillen for their incredible musical skills.

History Impossible has been made possible by the following generous supporters on Patreon and PayPal:

• Elias Borota
• Matthew Dakus
• Gavin Edwards
• Peter Hauck
• Devin Hreha
• Mike Kalnins
• Benjamin Lee
• Tyler Livingston 
• Jose Martinez
• Mike Mayleben
• Judy McCoid
• Kostas Moros
• Molly Pan
• Jake Petersen
• John Pisano
• Edmund Plamowski
• Brian Pritzl
• PJ Rader
• Alison Salo
• Sam
• Emily Schmidt
• Steve Uhler
• Ricky Worthey

BONUS! Ripples of Impossible History (on Fire): Confucius

As many of you are aware, I was recently featured among many other, far more talented history podcasters on Daniele Bolelli's History on Fire podcast in which we all discussed various figures and events in history that created massive ripples that no one could have predicted. My segment was focused on Confucius and how he basically shaped Chinese civilization forever, from the level of the family to the running of the government even under the Communists.

In a generous move, the fine people at Luminary Media decided to let all of us present our segments on our own podcast feeds, so if you would like to hear my segment on its own as a little bonus, here you go! It's short (well, miniscule) by History Impossible standards, but it's got all the hallmarks: a weirdo main character, far reaching effects and influence, and consequences no one could possibly have predicted. 

Many thanks to Daniele Bolelli for organizing this, to my amazingly talented fellow podcasters, and to the folks at Luminary for making this all possible.