Macabre : Dark History

On this episode of MACABRE Exhumed, we've dug up an episode of the spooky kind. This episode is all about our beloved first responders who are trained to face chaos, tragedy, and death—but some experiences fall far outside the boundaries of logic and reason. In this episode, we explore chilling accounts of the paranormal from first responders and healthcare workers .Spotify exclusive feed subscribers get ad free content, early access and exclusive bonus episodes .Paid supporters on Patreon, Join us for Macabre Movie Nights and Game Nights :⁠⁠⁠⁠ Macabre Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠Send in your stories for a future listener episode!Email us at [email protected] our private Facebook Group at :⁠⁠⁠⁠ MacabrePodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠Get Macabre Exclusive Merch ⁠⁠ www.gothiccthreads.com

Jerzy Tabeau was only a teenager when he was imprisoned in Auschwitz. He was not a soldier, not a spy—just a young man swallowed by the machinery of extermination. What he witnessed inside the camp would haunt him for the rest of his life: starvation, brutality, medical experiments, and the systematic murder of thousands.But Jerzy did something almost impossible.In 1943, he escaped Auschwitz.This episode follows Jerzy’s harrowing flight through occupied Poland, his narrow survival outside the camp, and the written report he helped deliver to the world—one of the earliest, most detailed eyewitness accounts of Auschwitz’s horrors. A warning that was almost too horrific to believe… and largely ignored.This is a story about terror, courage, and the unbearable weight of truth.Content warning: This episode contains descriptions of concentration camp violence, starvation, and death.Spotify subscribers get ad free content, early access and exclusive bonus episodes .Paid supporters on Patreon, Join us for Macabre Movie Nights and Game Nights :⁠⁠⁠⁠ Macabre Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠Send in your stories for a future listener episode!Email us at [email protected] our private Facebook Group at :⁠⁠⁠⁠ MacabrePodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠Get Macabre Exclusive Merch ⁠⁠ www.gothiccthreads.comSources:Polish Major’s Report (Jerzy Tabeau) – Auschwitz eyewitness accounthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Major%27s_ReportJerzy Tabeau biography & role in early Auschwitz reportshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerzy_TabeauAuschwitz-Birkenau Memorial & Museum – Prisoner escapes and resistancehttps://www.auschwitz.org/en/history/prisoners/escapes/Auschwitz escape reports and underground resistancehttps://www.auschwitz.org/en/history/resistance/Holocaust Research Project – Auschwitz escape testimonieshttp://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/holoprelude/auschwitzescape.htmlJewish Virtual Library – Auschwitz escape attemptshttps://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/auschwitz-escapes

This Christmas, Macabre: Dark History steps away from jingling bells and into the shadows of World War II to tell one of the most haunting—and hopeful—stories of the Holocaust.Before he was the world’s most famous mime, Marcel Marceau was a teenage Jewish boy using silence as a weapon against death. While Nazi forces closed in, Marceau helped smuggle Jewish children to safety, entertaining them into calm, masking fear, and quite literally saving lives without ever speaking a word.This is a Christmas story not about miracles from above—but about quiet bravery, resistance, and humanity whispered through the power of silence.Spotify subscribers get ad free content, early access and exclusive bonus episodes .Paid supporters on Patreon, Join us for Macabre Movie Nights and Game Nights :⁠⁠⁠⁠ Macabre Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠Send in your stories for a future listener episode!Email us at [email protected] our private Facebook Group at :⁠⁠⁠⁠ MacabrePodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠Get Macabre Exclusive Merch ⁠⁠ www.gothiccthreads.com

Think Christmas has always been wholesome and holy? Think again.In A Very Pagan Christmas, we rip the halo off the holiday and dive headfirst into its messier origins — from the boozy chaos of Saturnalia, to bonfires, goat symbolism, and the general “let’s survive winter” vibes of Yule. We even take a detour into the nightmare fuel that is Perchtenlauf — because nothing says seasonal cheer like demon masks and public terror.We unpack how Christianity quietly rebranded all of this into Christmas, why the joy-killing Puritans literally banned the holiday, and how the Victorian era dragged it back from the dead, added mistletoe, and told us all to behave.It’s festive. It’s forbidden. It’s historically unhinged — and it’ll make you question everything you were taught about Christmas.EXCLUSIVE FEED Spotify subscribers get ad free content, early access and exclusive bonus episodes .Paid supporters on Patreon, Join us for Macabre Movie Nights and Game Nights :⁠⁠ Macabre Patreon⁠⁠Send in your stories for a future listener episode!Email us at [email protected] our private Facebook Group at :⁠⁠ MacabrePodcast⁠⁠Get Macabre Exclusive Merch @ www.gothiccthreads.comSOURCES: 🎄 Pagan & Pre-Christian TraditionsSaturnaliahttps://www.britannica.com/topic/Saturnalia-Roman-festivalhttps://www.history.com/topics/ancient-rome/saturnaliahttps://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/calendar/saturnalia.htmlYulehttps://www.britannica.com/topic/Yulehttps://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/why-winter-solstice-was-feared-by-ancient-cultureshttps://www.history.com/topics/christmas/history-of-christmasPerchtenlaufhttps://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/perchtenlaufhttps://www.britannica.com/topic/Perchtahttps://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/perchtenlauf-alpine-winter-festival-180979394/https://www.history.com/topics/christmas/history-of-christmashttps://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/holydays/christmas.shtmlhttps://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/christmas-history-pagan-originshttps://www.history.com/news/when-christmas-was-bannedhttps://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/when-christmas-was-banned-boston-180973403/https://www.massmoments.org/moment-details/christmas-is-banned-in-boston.htmlhttps://www.bl.uk/victorian-britain/articles/christmas-in-victorian-britainhttps://www.history.com/topics/christmas/history-of-christmas-treeshttps://www.britannica.com/topic/Christmas/Victorian-revivalhttps://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/christmas_01.shtml

In this chaotic Drunken History episode, Halley and Blaire stumble through the electrifying feud between Thomas Edison, the greedy showman who stole ideas as easily as he shocked animals for PR and Nikola Tesla—the eccentric genius with wild experiments and an unsettling devotion to pigeons . Together, we drunkenly unravel their inventions, their pettiness, and how their rivalry changed the course of history forever.Spotify subscribers get ad free content, early access and exclusive bonus episodes .Paid supporters on Patreon, Join us for Macabre Movie Nights and Game Nights :⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Macabre Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Send in your stories for a future listener episode!Email us at [email protected] our private Facebook Group at :⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ MacabrePodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Get Macabre Exclusive Merch ⁠⁠ www.gothiccthreads.com⚡ Edison vs. Nikola Tesla — Source ListEmpires of Light: Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and the Race to Electrify the World – Jill Jonneshttps://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/59877/empires-of-light-by-jill-jonnes/Tesla: Inventor of the Electrical Age – W. Bernard Carlsonhttps://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691164543/teslaEdison: A Life of Invention – Paul Israelhttps://www.wiley.com/en-us/Edison%3A+A+Life+of+Invention-p-9780471362706The Executioner’s Current – Mark Essighttps://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/121694/the-executioners-current-by-mark-essig/Tesla: Man Out of Time – Margaret Cheneyhttps://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Tesla/Margaret-Cheney/9780743215367Prodigal Genius: The Life of Nikola Tesla – John J. O’Neillhttps://archive.org/details/prodigalgeniusli00oneiWar of the Currents (Overview)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_currentsEdison vs. Tesla – U.S. Department of Energyhttps://www.energy.gov/articles/edison-vs-teslaHow Edison, Tesla, and Westinghouse Battled to Electrify America – History.comhttps://www.history.com/articles/what-was-the-war-of-the-currentsThomas Edison & Nikola Tesla Feud – Biography.comhttps://www.biography.com/inventors/thomas-edison-nikola-tesla-feudEdison Papers Project – Rutgers Universityhttps://edison.rutgers.edu/