Covering Their Tracks
A story of the French railway’s complicity with Nazis during WWII, and one survivor’s fight for justice
Tablet Studios
Show overview
Covering Their Tracks has published 6 episodes, alongside 1 trailer or bonus episode during 2024. That works out to roughly 3 hours of audio in total. Releases follow a roughly quarterly cadence.
Episodes typically run twenty to thirty-five minutes — most land between 25 min and 29 min — and the run-time is fairly consistent across the catalogue. It is catalogued as a EN-language Society & Culture show.
The catalogue appears to be on hiatus or wound down — the most recent episode landed 1.6 years ago, with no new episodes in over a year. Published by Tablet Studios.
From the publisher
The extraordinary story of a young man’s escape from a moving train bound for the Auschwitz concentration camp during the Holocaust, and his fight to hold the French national rail company, the SNCF, accountable for their actions as they later bid for lucrative high-speed rail contracts in the United States.
Latest Episodes
Introducing Dreyfus: A Very Modern Affair
bonusDreyfus: A Very Modern Affair is an October 7th story, but one that begins not in 2023, but in October of 1894 with the arrest of French military officer Alfred Dreyfus, who also happened to be a Jew. The implications of his framing, arrest, incarceration and the fallout of his eventual exoneration reverberate today. Over this five-episode series, we examine how these events unfolded, and how they connect to the antisemitism that exists today. Visit https://www.tabletmag.com/dreyfuspodcast or search for Tablet Studios on your podcast app for the rest of the series.
Ep 5Covering Their Tracks: Leap Into Darkness
The team reels after Leo’s death, but is more motivated than ever. The French finally admit culpability at the highest levels, and the team discusses how far they have come, and how they’ve honored the work Leo began. Check out all of our podcasts at tabletmag.com/podcasts.
Ep 4Covering Their Tracks: First Allies
Now that multiple states and countries are involved with the SNCF’s past narrative and present political aspirations, lobbyists, politicians and diplomats become involved. As negotiations reach a fever-pitch, Leo’s time to share his story begins to run out. Check out all of our podcasts at tabletmag.com/podcasts.
Ep 3Covering Their Tracks: The Hearing
The debate over the SNCF’s complicity expands to modern day, when the rail company attempts to bid on high speed rail in Leo Bretholz’s backyard. We also meet Rosette Goldstein, whose father was transported by the SNCF to his eventual death. Through retelling their stories, lobbyists, lawyers, and politicians begin to act. Check out all of our podcasts at tabletmag.com/podcasts.
Ep 2Covering Their Tracks: Convoy #42
After running from Nazi occupation for three years, Leo Bretholz is forced onto a SNCF cattle car bound for Auschwitz. He manages a daring escape just miles from the German border, but his journey is long from over. Eventually, he settles in America, and begins to open up about his story. Check out all of our podcasts at tabletmag.com/podcasts.
Ep 1Covering Their Tracks
During the Holocaust, France’s National Railway (SNCF) transported Jews toward concentration camps. The SNCF went to great pains to obscure that narrative, but one survivor who leapt from a train headed toward Auschwitz never forgot, and begins to seek justice. Check out all of our podcasts at tabletmag.com/podcasts.