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This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking. Yep, while you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you're not in some kind of moving vehicle, there's something else you could be doing right now. Getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance.
It's easy and you can save money by doing it from your phone. Drivers who save by switching to Progressive save nearly $750 on average. And auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts. Discounts for having multiple vehicles on your policy, being a homeowner and more.
So just like your favorite podcast, Progressive will be with you 24, 7, 365 days a year. So you're protected no matter what. Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive.
This is an ad by BetterHelp. What?
What are your self-care non-negotiables? The things you know make you feel better, even when it's impossible to make time for them. Like that workout you try to squeeze in between kids' activities, work, and everything else you have going on, and before you know it, it gets pushed to tomorrow.
Sound familiar? But it's the moments when you feel like you have no time for yourself when those non-negotiables are more important than ever. Those are the things that keep you strong, healthy, motivated, and prepared to take on everything life demands of you. So why not make therapy one of them?
BetterHelp Online Therapy makes it easy to get started with affordable phone, video, or live chat sessions you can do from anywhere, and the option to message your therapist between sessions if anything comes up. Never skip therapy day with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash darkhistory today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash darkhistory.
Hi friends, I hope you're having a wonderful day today. If you're watching this over on YouTube, welcome to the little holiday set. Woohoo! If you're not watching, sorry about it. My name is Bailey Sarian and I would like to welcome you to the Library of Dark History. Holiday edition. Yeah! This is a safe space for all the curious cats out there who think, hey, is history as really boring as it seemed in school? No.
This is where we can learn together about all the dark, mysterious, dramatic stories we never learned in school. It's the holidays. Yippee-ki-yay-yay. I love the holidays. There's so much going on. There's lots of, like, holiday movies. Oh, my God. Holiday movies are my favorite. I love a good Hallmark rom-com. Sign me up. We have Joan here. Joan is dressed up for the occasion. So, holidays, yay!
Yay. But with that being said, there's Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa. Don't forget Kwanzaa. And sometimes people just don't even celebrate holidays and that's okay too.
you know? Now anyways, um, as we've all have learned together, it's kind of seems like everything has a dark unknown history to it. That's the show, hi. And the holidays are honestly no exception. So today we're going to do it a little differently and instead of focusing on one story, I'm going to share little bits of dark history of the holidays. Yeah! It's gonna be so fun. You ready Joan? Okay great. You go girl. So let me open up my dark history book to the chapter of
Caroling. Yeah, Carol, your neighbor. Yeah, what's she up to? We're gonna find out. Oh, here it is. Oh, caroling, singing, holidays, traditions. We love that. Okay, so the holidays are all about different traditions, and there's one tradition that I kind of love, and that's caroling. Yes, I love it because my voice is just so beautiful, and everyone needs to hear it.
See? I know. I just blessed you. You're welcome. And although I could just serenade you all episode, instead, let's get into the dark history of the holiday tradition that includes alcohol, breaking the law, and riots. Yeah, caroling. Fun, huh? Let's go back to that. Caroling started all the way in the early 90s.
it all the way back in Europe in the 1400s. Oh yeah. Back then, Christmas was nothing like it is today. It wasn't celebrating just the one day, but celebrating lots of little holidays throughout the whole month of December. Now within all these little holidays, there was one big celebration, which was actually a festival known as Saturnalia. This festival is where the tradition of gift giving originated.
Back then it was mostly gag gifts. Yeah. In addition to playing like nasty tricks on each other, Saturnalia included a huge feast where people would like dance, sing, drink. But the highlight of Saturnalia were role reversals.
Yeah, now this is real fun, let me tell you. The rich and poor, the master and the servant, they would trade places. Yeah, like wife swap, but in real life, but also with like status and class.
Fun! It was a time to blow off steam for a lot of people. And imagine having to wait for that one time of year where you could truly feel like a human being, you know? It's actually kind of sick. It's pretty twisted. One of the big traditions during this was something that they called "wasseling."
The way it worked was that everyone would get a special cup and this cup was called a wassail. Then they would go from door to door in the rich neighborhoods. And when they got to the houses, they would sing a little song. As a reward for the song, the rich people would fill their cups with booze.
And sometimes they would also give like gifts or even food. Honestly, it sounds more like trick or treating, but way better because alcohol's involved. Now, nobody saw this as begging and it was just like a happy holiday exchange. So many believe that this was basically the birth of Christmas caroling. And you might think, well, is that it? That's not very dark, Bailey. You promised me riots. Well, calm your tits. We're just getting started.
So as the church came into more and more power, all of the traditions of the winter festival started to fade away. And that included caroling. So when the pilgrims came from Europe, they decided to take their anti-Christmas feelings with them. But one day the governor at Plymouth Rock discovered that some people had taken Christmas Day off to celebrate.
How dare they? And so the governor got so pissed that he demanded that everyone go back to work. Again, money over everything.
Yeah, this would be the way it was for the next few decades. I mean, shit, people still work now on the holidays. The pilgrims eventually completely outlawed Christmas. They even took it off their calendars. There's even a court record from 1672 of a woman getting busted for celebrating Christmas. Yeah. Apparently she was going from house to house caroling and along the way was partying with everyone she met.
She was charged with grief and disturbance of peaceful minds. Can you imagine being locked up for having like a good Christmassy time?
So no surprise, people didn't really like the Christmas band. And these villagers felt like the rich owned them and it was time to do something about it. So they decided to go door to door protesting with their wassailing cups, singing songs, expecting alcohol and gifts from the houses. And they weren't singing the same happy songs about friendship and the holidays and everyone being cheerful. Oh no, of course not.
You see the song lyrics started to get a little more aggressive and suddenly their singing transformed into flat out threats. Now what happens when people are drinking and they're upset? Well, that's right. They probably get rowdy. So this turns into a small riot of people walking the streets, firing rifles into the air, yelling, playing loud music and breaking into people's home if they refuse to give them gifts.
that actually sounds like a party. In the end, it was really hard for the church to fully suppress Christmas and stop the traditions. Now by the Victorian era in the early 1800s, Christmas had become like super popular again. And along with Christmas came the rebirth of caroling, but industrialization changed everything and toy making exploded.
Gift giving sort of became the big thing for Christmas, booting caroling out. She was old news, that carol. Unfortunately, the carolers didn't bring caroling back as big as it used to be, but they did bring Christmas back to America in like a super big way. So next time you're getting cozy around your Christmas tree, you need to be thankful to a bunch of drunk people who just wanted to go around the neighborhood and sing.
Because without them, you would probably still be doing that. Honestly, it sounds more fun than getting gifts. Like, I don't want another coloring book. I get it. They're easy to give and stuff, but I really don't need another coloring book. I could take some alcohol. You know what? Beggars can't be choosers.
This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking. Yep, while you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you're not in some kind of moving vehicle, there's something else you could be doing right now. Getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance.
It's easy and you can save money by doing it from your phone. Drivers who save by switching to Progressive save nearly $750 on average. And auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts. Discounts for having multiple vehicles on your policy, being a homeowner and more.
So just like your favorite podcast, Progressive will be with you 24, 7, 365 days a year. So you're protected no matter what. Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive.
Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. National average 12-month savings of $744 by new customer surveyed who saved with Progressive between June 2022 and May 2023. Potential savings will vary. Discounts not available in all states and situations. This is an ad by BetterHelp. What are your self-care non-negotiables? The things you know make you feel better even when it's impossible to make time for them.
Like that workout you try to squeeze in between kids' activities, work, and everything else you have going on, and before you know it, it gets pushed to tomorrow. Sound familiar? But it's the moments when you feel like you have no time for yourself when those non-negotiables are more important than ever. Those are the things that keep you strong, healthy, motivated, and prepared to take on everything life demands of you. So why not make therapy one of them?
BetterHelp Online Therapy makes it easy to get started with affordable phone, video, or live chat sessions you can do from anywhere, and the option to message your therapist between sessions if anything comes up. Never skip therapy day with BetterHelp.
Visit BetterHelp.com slash Dark History today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash Dark History. Welcome back. As you can see, if you're watching this on YouTube, Joan, she's really into the holidays. She got dressed up. She did a little outfit change. Joan, you are working it, girl. Yeah. Who are you?
oh you're charles dickens? oh you look just like him, you look so good. so if you were listening closely, you kind of felt an element of trick-or-treating to the last story. going house to house, demanding some goodies, well at least some booze.
Well, this next story is also kind of inspired by that spooky sentiment, but I'm aware this is a holiday episode, not Halloween. So just go with me because you see back in the Victorian era, there was a tradition at Christmas time that doesn't really exist anymore. A good old fashioned Christmas ghost story. And today we're going to bring that tradition right back.
Now, I know what you're thinking. Ghosts? Bailey? Really? It's Christmas, not Halloween-y. But hang on, because the weirdest thing about this isn't that it's a spooky ghost story. The weirdest thing is that the next story actually, indeed, happened. It was reported multiple times by the New York Times. So take the ghost part here with a bit of suspicion, but I promise I wouldn't tell a story about something if it wasn't true.
Welcome to the haunting of 136 Clinton Avenue. Yeah, okay, listen, this is fun, spooky. We like spooky stories. Okay, so setting the scene. It's Brooklyn, 1878, cobblestone houses, the start of the Gilded Age. Oh, incredible, I know. I wish I was there.
Christmas is a relatively new thing for people here because if you remember from the caroling story, it had been illegal for a while, but after the civil war ended, it started to become more acceptable to celebrate Christmas. It was like a good excuse to get together with the whole family. Um, you know,
Yay. Stores sold many of the same decorations we have today, like mistletoe, stockings, ornaments, you name it. And entire houses would be lined up, covered in decorations, both inside and out.
Fun. So one day a man named Edward F. Smith was putting up Christmas decorations with his family at his house at 136 Clinton Avenue. So he's putting up these decorations and then the doorbell suddenly rang or it rang.
Ding dong, ding dong, you know. Now this wasn't necessarily unusual since Edward and his family had been renting the house for two years and everybody in the neighborhood knew them. Plus it's Christmas time, you know? So maybe Edward expected some good old holiday cheer when he opened that the door that day. But to his surprise, there was nobody there.
weird, you know? And so he went back to putting up decorations with his family. But then there came another ding dong. Once again, Edward went to the door, but again, nobody was there. At this point, Edward was starting to get annoyed. The ringing continued throughout the night, and eventually there was a violent bang, bang, bang at the back door. But every time Edward checked it out, nothing. Boooo!
And this kept happening every night, multiple times per night. Edward slowly became obsessed with finding out what the hell was going on. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking.
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discounts for having multiple vehicles on your policy, being a homeowner, and more. So just like your favorite podcast, Progressive will be with you 24, 7, 365 days a year, so you're protected no matter what. Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive.
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Now Edward, he didn't believe in no ghosts and goblins or anything like that, but his wife certainly did. From the beginning, she was convinced that that house was haunted and she wanted to leave as fast as she could. But Edward was not ready to give up that house. That's his house. So Edward starts sprinkling ash and flour along the path to the door, expecting to find footprints left behind after the doorbell rang. Moments pass and then ding dong.
Mm-hmm. There better be a goddamn person at the door. Excited, Edward ran to open it and plot twist. What is it? It's not a surprise. There was nobody there.
Nobody there. And even creepier, there were no footprints at all. And the doorbell kept ringing completely at random for hours. Edward was running out of options here. His family couldn't find the source of the mystery ding dong and he was losing sleep. And his wife, she just kept insisting that it was a ghost because that's what we do best. We're like, "Baby, it's a ghost. It's a fucking ghost." She wouldn't let it go. You know, it was fucking a ghost.
Anyways, he wasn't convinced. So eventually he calls up the cops and he's like, hey, you need to look into this. Somebody's ringing my doorbell and it's pissing me off. Now, believe it or not, in the 1800s, it was actually a pretty normal thing for people to contact the police with their concerns over what they thought was a haunted house. Everything was a ghost. Everything was a haunting. But every time they looked into it, well, everything was usually bullshit. You know, there was an answer to everything.
But what couldn't be argued was that something was indeed happening. So the police chief and an investigator went into Edward's house to check it out. For the first hour they were there, it was complete and total silence. But then...
ding dong. I mean, maybe the doorbell was just broken. Did they check that? I don't know. Anyways, ding dong. Okay. And the cops heard the doorbell. So they ran to the door themselves. They opened it up. Nothing, nothing was out there. Okay. And like Edward, they tried positioning themselves at both doors to immediately open them. Like as soon as a ding dong happened or bang, bang, bang, they would open it right away, you know? So they waited, it would happen.
Nobody was there. Nobody. Maybe someone broke the ding-dong. Oh wait, what about the bang-bang-bang though? Okay, well, I'll give you that. Pipes. Pipes. Cold pipes. I just solved the mystery. Joan, no ghost.
No ghost. This freaked the cops out though, okay? So they went back to the station and then the next night they came back out with a bunch of other cops. I don't know what their logic was. I imagine that they're like, hey, this house is like super haunted. You guys like, you gotta come out and check this shit out. You know? They just wanted like to prove to their friends. So two cops set themselves up right behind the front door with another cop across the street watching the same door. So they were in the position but didn't hear anything until...
Ding dong. Bang bang bang. The doorbell rang and the back door rattled at the same exact time.
The cops immediately opened the door again, only to find nothing. The officer across the street, he also saw nothing. So the cops watching the back door, they also saw nothing. The men went to the living room to discuss like what had just happened. And the captain and detective were still talking and a brick suddenly flew through the dining room window, shattering the glass. Drama, drama, drama.
Immediately the cops ran to the side of the house, but the only person there were the officers stationed outside and they swear they hadn't seen anyone or anything. Now this is kind of a funny site note, but when the New York times reported on this story, they said there was this rumor around town that the ghost really hated police. Yeah. It was like, he was pissed quote. This was the most serious demonstration. The invisible agency had yet made. And
and can be accounted for on the theory that the ghost wished to show its contempt for the Brooklyn police." Cool.
Party on, ghost. Anyway, the police started tearing the house apart, searching for anything that might solve this goddamn mystery. They tore apart the walls, the curtains, they even ripped all the Christmas decorations apart, but still, they found nothing. So at this point, Edward decided he knew the source of the problem. Ghosts aren't real. Clearly, the person behind this was Satan.
Duh. Makes sense. So he calls up a priest to perform an exorcism, and on Christmas Eve, after three straight weeks of haunting, the ding-dongs and bang-bang-bangs stopped for good. The Smith family were now able to enjoy Christmas together.
Yay. The good news for Edward and his wife was that the ghost or Satan never came ringing again. Now, every few years, this infamous house goes up for sale and every real estate website featuring the property at 136 Clinton Avenue mentions the same old thing, a nice old Victorian home, charming, lots of natural light,
Oh, and BTW, maybe there's a bit of a haunting here. It's been happening since the 1800s, but no big deal. Have you seen the fireplace? It's gorge. And now we're- This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking.
Yep, while you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you're not in some kind of moving vehicle, there's something else you could be doing right now. Getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance. It's easy and you can save money by doing it from your phone. Drivers who save by switching to Progressive save nearly $750 on average. And auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts.
discounts for having multiple vehicles on your policy, being a homeowner, and more. So just like your favorite podcast, Progressive will be with you 24, 7, 365 days a year, so you're protected no matter what. Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive.
This is an ad by BetterHelp.com.
What are your self-care non-negotiables? The things you know make you feel better, even when it's impossible to make time for them. Like that workout you try to squeeze in between kids' activities, work, and everything else you have going on, and before you know it, it gets pushed to tomorrow.
Sound familiar? But it's the moments when you feel like you have no time for yourself when those non-negotiables are more important than ever. Those are the things that keep you strong, healthy, motivated, and prepared to take on everything life demands of you. So why not make therapy one of them?
BetterHelp Online Therapy makes it easy to get started with affordable phone, video, or live chat sessions you can do from anywhere. And the option to message your therapist between sessions if anything comes up. Never skip therapy day with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com slash Dark History today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash Dark History. And we're back. And guess what, Joan?
Costume change? Are you Rudolph, Joan? That's so cute. You're so innovative. Did you make this outfit yourself? You got a hot glue gun. Girl, win. Cute. She's so cute. Look at her trying to steal the show. Who does she think she is? I'm telling this show or something. It's my show, Joan.
I could easily murder your ass, okay? You're replaceable. I am not. Okay, so now we're going to leave the 1800s behind. Goodbye, 1800s. And now we're going to fast forward to World War I, where an event called the Christmas Truce of 1914 happened.
And this truce pissed off a whole lot of military leaders. So World War I started in 1914. Over 30 countries were involved and it took place all over Europe. Everyone kind of thought that because it was the biggest war anyone had ever seen, it would be over by December and like everyone would get to go home for Christmas. But the war actually continued for four years and it was just a total bloodbath. Okay.
Okay. One of the things world's war one was known for, uh, is the trench warfare. This is where the armies would dig deep ass ditches and basically live out of them for months at a time while shooting at each other for months on end. Yeah. As you can imagine life inside the trenches, it was not the best. Okay. When you wanted to sleep, your pillow was a pile of mud.
Food was awful and there usually wasn't enough of it. Water would pool up in there. Nobody was ever to stay dry or get proper sleep. And let's not even talk about where you went to the bathroom because it's probably where your pillow was at, you know? If you got injured, you were going to get one of three things, an infection, an amputation, or dead. Just like pick your poison. Which one do you want? And if you were super lucky, you got all of the above.
Fun. So as December of 1914 rolls around, people realized this wasn't going to be over by Christmas. They realized they were going to spend the holiday in the shitty trenches, far from home and without a single candy cane. Enter to the scene the fucking Pope, okay, on December 7th. So he is out here suggesting a temporary pause in the war just to celebrate Christmas. Yeah, he's like, fuck world peace.
Christmas. That's the Pope. He's like, "Fuck yeah, Christmas." But the military leaders of the countries thought this Christmas pause was a bad idea, okay? They were like, "Kumbaya, Pope." But no, no, we're not doing that. Like, pass the rifle doesn't really make any sense.
Well, the soldiers in the trenches had their own ideas and they decided they were going to have their own unofficial Christmas truce. They needed a damn freaking break. So on Christmas Eve, the German and British troops started singing Christmas carols from across the battlefield to one another from their trenches. It's kind of funny because like they're about to kill each other, but like they're still celebrating Christmas.
Like, what is this world? Why can't we just be friends? I don't know. The soldiers couldn't actually see where the singing was coming from. All they could see were dead bodies, smoky skies, and razor wire lining the entire battlefield. But they were like, but wait a minute, do you hear that singing? Oh, and soon, like, the battlefield was filled with sounds of soldiers singing Silent Night. I think this is supposed to be, like, a kind of sweet story, but it's like, are you fucking kidding me? It's such a, like...
What would you call this? What would you call this? Like a, I don't know. Let's circle back with a word. Now, historians believed the Germans started the truce because Germans, I guess, love Christmas. Let me know down below if that's true, Germans. And the British would see German soldiers rising from their trenches to put up Christmas trees as they were singing.
It was also said that these German soldiers had a whole band going on. Yeah, so now a band comes out, there was a guitar, an accordion, someone showed up with a freaking tuba. Like, where do you get a tuba in the middle of a war? I don't know, but yay. And at least one German soldier would take his accordion all the way to the middle of the battlefield and... Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
I nailed it and you know it. There's actually like a super famous photo of a guy playing it while German soldiers are decorating a Christmas tree. Again, trying to be like super cute about it, very Hallmark card, but it's not when you really think about it because it's still war. Well, the next morning was Christmas day and all of the German soldiers emerged from the trenches and walked into the middle of the battlefield.
At first, all of the allied soldiers thought that this was like some kind of trap, but more German soldiers came out holding a sign that said, you know, shoot, we know, shoot. Suddenly all the soldiers started to come out of the trenches. Everyone was able to forget about the violent battle they had been fighting for the last five months. And instead they're like, yay, Christmas.
This is such an eye roll. As the day went on, all the soldiers started exchanging presents. Cigarettes, British candy, German beer, French wine. I mean, it's a fucking, this sounds like Thanksgiving, doesn't it? After the gift exchange, the soldiers started to play soccer, el football, in the middle of the battlefield. Someone brought a ball to World War I.
Probably the same guy who had the tuba, honestly. So the Germans and the British made some goalposts and had a friendly soccer game. Then they drank a cup of tea and they called the war off.
No, I'm just kidding. It was just like for one day they did this. But the Christmas spirit wasn't just at this one battlefield. Word spread and soon several other soccer games and truces sprang up across the Western front in Europe. Now, because we can't have nice things, not everyone was crazy about the truce that
Me, I'm on that team. I'm not crazy about it. It sounds like propaganda, honestly. The generals and world leaders were super pissed off about it. War was expensive. And as we know, it's always about the money, right? Plus, they were all worried that the soldiers were going to go soft by making friends with the enemy and that they wouldn't have the edge to keep fighting, right? There was one German soldier who said, quote,
Such a thing should not happen in wartime. Have you no German sense of honor left? Oh, and his name was Hitler. Adolf Hitler. Ever heard of him? I don't know. I guess he like, he was a big deal in World War II. I don't know.
So I heard. Okay, so Christmas came to an end and everyone went back to their trenches. At the end of the truce, it was said that a Welsh captain fired three shots into the air, raising a flag that read, Merry Christmas. And on the other side of the battlefield, his German counterpart raised a flag that said,
thanks when i said thank you but like thanks both men rose above the trenches and saluted each other finally the german captain fired two shots into the man across the way and the christmas truce of 1914 was over no i'm just kidding that didn't happen he they fired two shots into the air and then later on they went and all killed each other
Okay, so I guess this is supposed to be a happy Christmas story, but I ain't buying it. But I'm sharing it with you just to let you know that it happened. So you can make that judgment call. But Joan, I don't know. It just seems a little sus.
This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking. Yep, while you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you're not in some kind of moving vehicle, there's something else you could be doing right now. Getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance.
It's easy and you can save money by doing it from your phone. Drivers who save by switching to Progressive save nearly $750 on average. And auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts. Discounts for having multiple vehicles on your policy, being a homeowner and more.
So just like your favorite podcast, Progressive will be with you 24, 7, 365 days a year. So you're protected no matter what. Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive.
This is an ad by BetterHelp.com.
What are your self-care non-negotiables? The things you know make you feel better, even when it's impossible to make time for them. Like that workout you try to squeeze in between kids' activities, work, and everything else you have going on, and before you know it, it gets pushed to tomorrow.
Sound familiar? But it's the moments when you feel like you have no time for yourself when those non-negotiables are more important than ever. Those are the things that keep you strong, healthy, motivated, and prepared to take on everything life demands of you. So why not make therapy one of them?
BetterHelp Online Therapy makes it easy to get started with affordable phone, video, or live chat sessions you can do from anywhere, and the option to message your therapist between sessions if anything comes up. Never skip therapy day with BetterHelp.
Visit BetterHelp.com slash Dark History today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash Dark History. All right, so we all know what happens after World War I. There was something called World War II, okay? Now, this is a topic that every history class dives deep into. And honestly, I mean, it's for good reason. It changed the world forever. We're not going to focus on a battle or any of the governments involved today.
There are like 4 million movies which have already done so. So instead, we're going to focus on the Jewish prisoners and how their celebrations of Hanukkah and the concentration camps would end up becoming a light of hope for many years to come.
So the year is 1944, and one of the German concentration camps was Bergen-Belsen, which it's estimated that 120,000 people were imprisoned there. And we're not going to get into the super gruesome details, but famine, mass murder, and torture were daily occurrence. There are many stories of people being resilient and bravely doing things to try to give back
give others hope so they could find the strength to survive these camps. One of these people was a 61-year-old man named Reb Shmelka.
He was a devoted rabbi who people knew as a super friendly man and offered encouragement to everyone inside the camps. Despite all of the horrors of the Holocaust, Reb Shmelka kept his faith and wanted to help others do the same. The holidays were nearing and the rabbi was concerned about being unable to celebrate Hanukkah. Hanukkah, in case you don't know, is the festival of light.
The tradition is to light a menorah and say a prayer to commemorate the rebuilding of the temple. Religious texts say that what was special about this event was that the Jewish people only had enough oil for their candles to burn for one night.
but the candles ended up lasting for eight nights instead. So Reb Shmelka wanted to celebrate this holiday with the people who lived in his section of the camp, but there was one big problem. The Reb needed some oil and a menorah. He asked the same question to everyone he could, like, can you get us a little oil? Like, do you know someone who works in the kitchen? But he was just having no luck at all.
And as Hanukkah was quickly approaching, the clock was ticking. So Reb Shmelka's idea here was super simple. He figured he would still create some kind of Hanukkah celebration without the lights, but he knew that having the lights would bring everyone a little bit of comfort and hope to help them push through. The day before Hanukkah, Reb Shmelka was working his normal job at the camp, which was removing dead bodies from the barracks.
but that day he received new orders to head to different barracks. While he was walking around a field, he tripped when his foot got caught in a little hole in the ground. When he looked closer into the hole, he noticed that there was something buried in the ground. Now he looked around to make sure there weren't any guards watching. And then he knelt, he like knelt down and wanted to check out what it was. And you guys, it was a small jar of oil.
It was the oil for Hanukkah! He reached into the hole again and there were also eight little cups and eight little strings of cotton. This is literally what he needed to make his menorah. In other words, Reb Shemelka had fallen upon his very own little Hanukkah miracle. Reb Shemelka was overjoyed. He couldn't believe what he found.
buried in a concentration camp of all places. So he carefully hid the menorah back in the hole and went about his day. He was determined to find the person who buried the menorah supplies. Like, who were they? Were they still alive? Had they been transferred to another camp? So he started to go around to the other barracks and ask people like, "Hey, I found some oil in a menorah. Do you know who did it? Who hid it?" Nobody knew.
The Reb couldn't find this mystery person. People started to think the trauma of the camps had finally made the rabbi's mind just go. Like he was sounding a little loco. But the next night, everyone discovered that Reb Shemelka wasn't insane because when they entered their barracks, he had set up the menorah and the lights complete with the oil.
Now, if this celebration had been discovered, it would have been an immediate death sentence for everyone involved. But despite this, everyone was able to have a moment of comfort as they watched the flame flickering in the dark.
Reb Shmelka recited the blessings and said some prayers. Some smiled, others cried, but what was important was that they felt very hopeful. For every night of Hanukkah, they were able to meet, light the menorah, recite the blessings and prayers, and feel this sense of hope again. In April 1945, just a few months after Reb's Hanukkah miracle, the war finally ended and the camps were liberated. Reb Shmelka was fortunate enough to have survived the camp.
Years later, he visited the United States where he met a survivor of the war named Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum. Now, Rabbi Yoel was one of the most famous rabbis in America and had helped rebuild the Jewish community after the war. So Rabbi Yoel mentioned that he had also been a prisoner at Burgon-Belsun around the same time. It was a big place and they never seemed to cross paths while they were both at the camp. The two
The two of them got to talking and Reb Yoel mentioned that he was lucky enough to be rescued just four days before Hanukkah. But right before he was rescued, he had buried Hanukkah supplies he had brought along to the camp, anticipating that he would still be in prison during Hanukkah. Reb Yoel said he was sad his menorah never got used and Reb, Reb Shmelka, was like, oh my God, shut the fuck up. Like, oh my God, wait till I tell you, I...
I am the one that found your hidden Hanukkah supplies and they didn't go to waste. He told him that he literally stumbled upon them and was able to use the menorah to lessen the darkness for hundreds of Jewish people. Isn't that crazy?
Small world, right? One thing I learned when researching this was that there are a bunch of other stories like the World War II story, like these makeshift secret Hanukkah celebrations helped a lot of different people throughout many different camps, and sometimes even in the same camp without even knowing it.
every second those candle lights flickered in the camps, these people were risking their lives. Hanukkah is a Hebrew word that literally means dedication. By lighting the menorah in that camp that day, Reb Shemelka and the others celebrating in secrecy were keeping the story of survival and defiance alive. Just a little, that's such a touching, nice story. That's just a nice little story.
I don't know, that other one sounded like propaganda to me, but I don't know. I don't know, but okay. And the ghost story, love. Oh, caroling. Anyways, oh my god, Joan, that went so fast, girl.
And that, my friends, is four interesting stories about the holidays. You know? Isn't that fun? That was a blast. You know, during the holiday season, it's easy to get wrapped up in all the present buyings, the presents, and the presents. But, you know, sometimes, you know, it's not about that. It's just little things in life, like propaganda and love and peace and ghosts, right?
And birds who wear costumes. You know? We like that.
Anyways, I hope you guys have a great day. You make good choices this week, every week, all the weeks. And, you know, be nice to each other. And now I'm going to use all the money from these ad breaks to buy the house at 136 Clinton Avenue. Well, everyone, thank you so much for learning something new with me today. Remember, don't be afraid to be a curious cat like myself. And, you know, ask questions. Get the whole story. You deserve it.
Now I'd love to hear your reactions to today's story, so make sure to use the hashtag Dark History over on social media so I can follow along. Don't forget to join me over on my YouTube where you can actually watch these episodes on Thursday after the podcast airs and also catch Murder, Mystery, and Makeup which drops on Mondays. Thank you so much. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your week. Happy holidays and make good choices. Bye! Say bye. Joan says bye. Bye!
Happy holidays. Or not. Whatever. Dark History is an Audioboom original. This podcast is executive produced by Bailey Sarian, Kib Jacobs, Junya McNeely from 3Arts, Ed Simpson, and Claire Turner from Wheelhouse DNA. Produced by Lexi Kiven. Research provided by Tisha Dunstan, Jed Bogout, Joey Scaluzzo, and Michael Oberst.
writers Jed Bookout, Michael Oberst, Joyce Gavuzzo, and Kim Yageed. Oh, and me too, Bailey Sarian. A big thank you to our historical consultants, Joe Enet, Rabbi Danny Strom, Lev Poplow, and Elizabeth Hyman. And also, I'm your host, Bailey freaking Sarian.