1/3🎄🏥🎅 How German POWs turned into Santas, gifting wooden toys to patients in Aberdeen Children’s Hospital:

1/2 ✨ We are all very excited soon be welcoming Serhii Plokhii to Aberdeen! ➡️ Pls join us on 1 July for his public lecture on 'CHERNOBYL ROULETTE: The Russo-Ukrainian War and the Nuclear Threats'. Pls register at: www.eventbrite.com/e/chernobyl-...

Die falsche Frage: „War meine Oma in der NSDAP?“ Die richtige: „Wie stützte sie die Diktatur?“ Ein starkes Interview darüber, warum der Blick zurück zwingend ist: Adolf Hitler war es nicht in die Wiege gelegt, Diktator und Massenmörder zu werden. Wie hat sich eine Gesellschaft einst radikalisiert?

1/2 What would the resistance fighters who founded Trouw make of Trouw interviewing theRussian ambassador,& starting the interview w. an observation about his“small friendly eyes” before allowing him to lay out disinformation&propaganda, & justify the bombing of 🇺🇦cities. www.trouw.nl/binnenland/d...

Pls join me in Marburg on 16 June, if you can. Looking forward to discussing how to foil extremism with Ursula Birsl. Very grateful to the Lord Mayor of Marburg Thomas Spiess for speaking at the event too. www.marburg.de/portal/meldu...

Well, that our Putin book would Feature in the @wsj.com, brilliantly contextualized by Barton Swaim and used to confront US presidents for their credulity towards Russia - that is not something that Niels or I expected! But we couldn’t be more happier with this piece: www.wsj.com/opinion/why-...

1/2 “We are asking the wrong questions of our ancestors.” - My interview with T-Online www.t-online.de/nachrichten/...

1/ 'Kolberg’ is a testament to Goebbels’ very modern conception of total war, according to which cognitive warfare was at least of equal importance to battles fought with traditional weapons. - The film's story is told supremely well by @kevinprenger.bsky.social's 'Hitler's Last Chance'

And to the journalists attending: make no mistake. You are not observing this performance from the outside. Your presence forms part of it. Your presence is living proof that far-right ideologies have become normalised and accepted.

1/2 Were fascists leftwing?

🎙Ongelooflijke Podcast 300🎙 Bescherm de democratie! @beatricedegraaf.bsky.social en Stefan Paas over waarom Nederland in de jaren '30 geen nazi-Duitsland werd en Hongarije Orbán wegstemde. Wat beschermt een democratie tegen verleiding van politieke verlossers? 🔗 www.eo.nl/podcast/de-o...

💃 Something a writer only can dream of: a brilliant & timely review of our book - Putin’s tsarist dream - by the inimitable simonkuper.bsky.social in the @financialtimes.com

Antidemokratische Kräfte können alleine keine Demokratien zerstören: »Konservative Parteien spielen eine sehr wichtige Rolle dabei.« Der Ernstfall ist da: Die AfD könnte am 6.9. den ersten Ministerpräsidenten stellen. Deutschland braucht einen Masterplan gegen die AfD: geschichtsrat.de

🎉 Vanaf vandaag in de boekhandel: Poetins tsaristische droom. In ons boek laten Niels Drost en ik zien hoe Poetin radicaliseerde, in zijn eigen woorden en aan de hand van de duizenden toespraken die hij door de jaren heen heeft gegeven: vandaag bij @evajinek.bsky.social

Wisst ihr noch die ganzen Phrasen von „Die AfD ist doch nicht die NSDAP“ und „Höcke ist nicht Hitler“? Die SPD schrieb nach der Machtübergabe an Hitler im Vorwärts am 8.2.1933: „Berlin ist nicht Rom. Hitler ist nicht Mussolini. Berlin wird niemals die Hauptstadt eines Faschistenreiches werden.“

Sie sind wieder da! - Frightening article by Robin Te Slaa about how Alfred Rosenberg, Sorel & ‘The Protocols of the Elder of Zion’ are coming back to life in the FvD: the biggest 🇳🇱party by membership & the🇩🇪 AfD's partner in 'Europe of Sovereign Nations' www.historischnieuwsblad.nl/fvd-heeft-ni...

1/3 A new study by @valentinlang.bsky.social & Stephan A Schneider suggests that 🇩🇪 regions that received a high number of refugees in the wake of WWII are less likely to be deceived by the siren songs of far-right parties in today’s elections than regions that received few migrants in the late 1940s

Interview in Der Tagesspiegel, with Moritz Hohnert und Hannes Soltau, on the historical context of tyrannicide: www.tagesspiegel.de/gesellschaft...

Three views of ius in bello - Pete Hegseth, St. Augustine of Hippo, & Abraham Lincoln:

Meet @tevoelker.bsky.social, one of our Visiting Scholars from @wzb.bsky.social. Join her TODAY for a seminar on “Democratic Resilience: How Parties, Civil Society, and the Media Resist Far-Right Politics.” 🗓️ Feb 25 @ 2:00 - 3:15pm 🔗 ces.fas.harvard.edu/events/2026/...

1/3🇩🇪How far-right activists have desecrated the German flag.🇩🇪 My interview on the perils of falling for the narratives & stunts of the far-right and of Putin’s information warriors. www.hellwegeranzeiger.de/froendenberg...

1/2 Very happy finally to hold a hard copy of Robin te Slaa's revised history of fascism in my hands. Honoured to have my endorsement included on the book. This book really deserves as wide an international audience as possible, particularly at the current moment in which we live.

MANY CONGRATULATIONS to my friend Paweł Kotla for winning a Global Music Award for leading the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine in the ‘Concert of Freedom and Solidarity’. On 22 April, Paweł and I will discuss in Volkach how music can be used to counter extremists and autocrats.

From 'Canada's History', the official magazine of Canada's National History Society. @canadashistory.bsky.social 👇 "Explore Political Extremism Through History Online" - my online Aberdeen course. Start date: Jan 25, 2027 For further information on the course, see: on.abdn.ac.uk/courses/unde...