The House at Number 48: 6. Spa Town

Summary

The History Podcast | “The House at Number 48: 6. Spa Town”

BBC Radio 4 | Released: October 24, 2025

Episode Overview

In this powerful episode, host Charlie Northcott follows Antony Easton’s ten-year journey to uncover his family’s concealed Holocaust-era history. Prompted by the discovery of hidden documents after his father’s death—including a mysterious birth certificate—Antony investigates the fate of his relatives during Nazi persecution, the staggering loss of their fortune, and the cruel reality behind “spa towns” like Theresienstadt. Through eyewitness accounts, family interviews, and visits to historical sites, the episode examines both the personal and historical impact of Nazi crimes, and Antony's growing determination to seek justice for his family’s stolen inheritance.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Escape and Internment in England

• In July 1939, Rudolf Eisner, his wife Hildegard, and their children fled Nazi Germany for England (01:15).
• The family was poor, isolated and easily identified as German, arriving just before WWII began (01:35).
• Six months later, Rudolf was arrested and interned by British authorities on the Isle of Man as a potential enemy of the state (02:26).

2. Ordeal of the Eisner Family

• Rudolf was sent to a detention camp with both Nazi and Jewish internees living side by side, separated from his family (03:19).
  • Antony imagines his grandfather focusing on “staying well and warm,” describing internment as grim and disorienting.
• Hildegard, left with two children in a foreign country, likely endured fear and uncertainty about potential arrest and her children’s safety (03:50).

3. The Erased Family Tree

• Antony describes a sprawling family tree handwritten in 1938: only his grandfather and father survived; more than 80 relatives perished (04:16).
  • “The other 80 people odd didn’t.” – Antony Easton [04:16]

4. Theresienstadt – The Nazi “Spa Town” Deception

• Cousins Ernst and Henriette tried to escape by purchasing passage to Theresienstadt—presented by Nazis as a “spa resort” for Jews (05:54).
  • “They dressed the best clothing...hats and so on. So that’s why Jewish people there, they paid to be sent here as to the spa resort.” – Peter Reich [06:05]
• The so-called resort was used for Nazi propaganda, fooling Jews and outsiders alike. Films showed staged scenes of comfort, even as the real conditions were dire (07:10).
• Theresienstadt imprisoned over 60,000 Jews in conditions meant for 7,000 soldiers. People slept in overcrowded barracks; privacy and sanitation were nonexistent (08:42–09:49).
  • “One day you’re in your house in Berlin and the next day you’re here… and you’ve got no privacy.” – Antony Easton [09:54]

5. The Grim Reality: Disease, Death, and Deceit

• Lice were the Nazis’ main weapon: they spread typhus, tuberculosis, and dysentery, killing tens of thousands (10:40).
  • “Do you know what was the biggest Nazi’s weapon inside of concentration camp? Lice.” – Peter Reich [10:40]
• Antony recounts relatives’ deaths:
  • His great-grandmother’s brother, Richard Tarlis, died aged 82 with broken legs—likely the result of beatings [11:31].
    • “He was 82… both his legs were broken…” – Antony Easton [11:59]
  • Ernst and Henriette: Henriette died during a typhoid epidemic; Ernst was sent to Auschwitz and murdered in the gas chambers along with other family members and the children who had performed in a camp opera (12:02).

6. Emotional Reckoning and Coping

• Antony reflects on how little he knew a decade ago, and how learning about his family’s fate brings sadness—but also closeness and meaning (13:31).
  • “We have coping strategies to help us deal with that sadness. And, you know, telling people stories is part of that coping mechanism. I feel a lot closer to them.” – Antony Easton [13:31]

7. Justice and the Fight for Restitution

• The episode closes with Antony’s renewed determination to seek justice and restitution for his family’s stolen assets in Germany.
  • “I feel we’ve been very shortchanged by the Germans. I’ve never found any reason not to try and extract as much financial compensation from them as possible.” – Antony Easton [14:19]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “They didn’t speak English particularly well, so I would think they were very easily identifiable as German.” – Antony Easton [01:35]
• “German Jews and the Nazis were living in the same buildings… I would have thought he was concentrating on staying well and warm. And warm is probably easier than well…” – Antony Easton [03:19]
• “So they were using that line to basically make people come here more easily.” – Antony Easton [07:57]
• “You can manipulate people into believing anything on a piece of film. Especially now.” – Antony Easton [08:23]
• “So yeah, look at me 10 years ago, I had no idea about these people. …Telling people stories is part of that coping mechanism.” – Antony Easton [13:31]

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Timeline of Key Segments

• 01:15–02:41: Rudolf Eisner’s escape to England and arrest
• 03:19–03:50: Living conditions in the Isle of Man detention camp; Hildegard’s plight
• 04:16–04:46: The destroyed Eisner family tree
• 05:54–07:04: Theresienstadt’s propaganda and the “spa town” deception
• 08:42–09:49: Actual conditions within Theresienstadt
• 10:40–11:05: Lice-borne disease as a weapon
• 11:31–12:02: Personal stories of death and suffering in the camp
• 13:31–14:05: Antony’s reflections on loss and remembrance
• 14:19–14:38: The quest for justice and financial restitution

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Summary & Tone

The episode strikes a tone of quiet sorrow, empathy, and steely resolve. Through firsthand accounts, historical context, and personal reflections, Antony Easton serves as both investigator and mourner. The narrative avoids dramatization and instead builds power through detailed, sometimes shocking, facts and the understated dignity of survivors and descendants alike.

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Listeners seeking a deep, humane exploration of Holocaust memory, family survival, and the ongoing search for justice will find this episode both heartbreaking and inspiring.

Transcript

[Narrator (Charlie Northcott)]

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[Narrator (Charlie Northcott)]

1939, industrialist Rudolf Eisner, his wife Hildegard and their two young children arrive in the small port city of Harwich in England. Their vast fortune in Germany has been stolen, but they have managed to escape the Nazis.

[Anthony Easton]

They arrived in England in July 1939 as a German. Not a great time to arrive in England. I mean, they didn't speak English particularly well, so I would think they were very easily identifiable as German. And I guess they were kind of pretty wretched really. And you know, we found these letters where they really had nothing.

[Narrator (Charlie Northcott)]

This is Anthony Easton. For the past 10 years, he's been piecing together the mystery of what happened to his relatives from Germany.

[Anthony Easton or Interviewer]

His family arrived in the UK just.

[Narrator (Charlie Northcott)]

Months before the outbreak of World War II. It was a war fought with bullets, torpedoes and incendiary bombs. Weapons built in the same factories that Anthony's grandfather Rudolph had once owned in Germany. He was a Jewish refugee, but his business made him something else too.

[Anthony Easton]

Within six months, he was interned on the Isle of Man.

[Narrator (Charlie Northcott)]

So he was arrested?

[Anthony Easton]

Yeah, arrested as a potential enemy of the state.

[Narrator (Charlie Northcott)]

From Radio 4 and the History podcast, this is the house at number 48. I'm Charlie Northcott. Episode 6 Spa Town after his arrest by the British authorities, Rudolf Eisner was taken to an all male detention camp on the windswept isle of man. 10 foot lines of razor wire separated streets, boxing the prisoners inside apartments facing the sea. It was a prison for enemies of all kinds.

[Anthony Easton]

It's hard to know what's going through Rudolph's head in the Isle of Man. German Jews and the Nazis were living in the same buildings. I would have thought he was concentrating on staying well and warm. And warm is probably easier than well, I would imagine in that situation.

[Narrator (Charlie Northcott)]

For Rudolph's wife Hildegard, in a strange country with two children, his arrest must have been an incredibly distressing time. This is her granddaughter Nicola.

[Nicola (Hildegard's granddaughter)]

Would she have known that that was likely, that he would be detained as soon as he arrived and she could possibly be detained as well. And then what would happen to the children? I mean it must have been terrifying.

[Narrator (Charlie Northcott)]

Life in the UK was looking bleak for the Eisner's, but for their relatives still trapped in Germany, the situation was far worse.

[Anthony Easton]

There's a family tree that someone wrote out in 1938 and it's in a very scratchy German hand. At the top of two people. At the bottom are probably 100 people. Going down to my grandfather and my dad. And they are the only people from the bottom row of the family tree that survived the war. The other 80 people odd didn't.

[Narrator (Charlie Northcott)]

A row of 80 names, a dynasty that disappeared. In making this series, we've dug into the records to find out what happened to some of them. People like Ernst and Henriette, the first cousins of Rudolf Eisner. They lived just around the corner from Anthony's family in central Berlin. Ernst was a lawyer and despite being banned from practicing under oppressive race laws, he and his wife seem to have stuck it out in the city, bunkering down as the Nazis smashed Jewish shops and tore up life as they knew it all around them. Then in November 1942, the couple decided to leave Germany together, catching a train to the border. They'd bought a ticket to a place that was being widely advertised as a refuge for Jews outside of Germany, a small Czech town called Terezin. We went there with Anthony to meet Peter Reich who showed us around.

[Peter Reich]

Terezin was presented as a spa resort for Jewish people.

[Anthony Easton or Interviewer]

So they thought they were coming to the spa.

[Peter Reich]

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. So they dressed the best clothing.

[Narrator (Charlie Northcott)]

Rage.

[Peter Reich]

Hats and so on. So that's why Jewish people there, they paid to be sent here as to the spa resort.

[Anthony Easton or Interviewer]

So people paid to come to a concentration camp?

[Narrator (Charlie Northcott)]

Forget the concentration camps in Hollywood movies. Theresienstadt was different. This singing from a black and white film recorded inside the camp shows nervous looking children lined up in a row performing an opera. Later in the film, men step forward and say one after the other how much they love living inside the camp.

[Anthony Easton]

I am all right in Theresienstadt. I don't miss anything.

[Narrator (Charlie Northcott)]

Theresienstadt was used as a propaganda camp by the Nazis, designed To persuade Germans and the International Red Cross that their so called Jewish resettlement program was not sending families to their deaths, it was sending them to a holiday resort. The videos from the time show rows of flower beds, children playing on the grass, a functional hospital and a football match watched by a crowd of spectators. Almost a dozen of Anthony's relatives from the Eisner family arrived into Theresienstadt and would likely have heard stories about this spa town that was a safe place for Jews.

[Anthony Easton or Interviewer]

So they were using that line to basically make people come here more easily.

[Peter Reich]

They were not so afraid. So the paradox was the confrontation with reality. If you are prepared that you are going to the spa and now you are in the middle of hell of.

[Narrator (Charlie Northcott)]

Ghetto.

[Anthony Easton]

It genuinely makes your gut turn. I mean it's a really disgusting thing. You can manipulate people into believing anything on a piece of film. Especially now.

[Narrator (Charlie Northcott)]

Once they were inside the camp, the Eisner's would have confronted a very different reality to the propaganda. Theresienstadt is a 19th century fort with 30 meter stone walls and a moat. It was built to house 7,000 soldiers. But the Nazis transformed it into an impenetrable prison for more than 60,000 Jews and political prisoners. They lived in four story stone barracks with hundreds of people sleeping in one room.

[Anthony Easton or Interviewer]

So this is like a reconstruction of what it was like inside the rooms. It's like a.

[Peter Reich]

You just are original. It's original really.

[Anthony Easton or Interviewer]

These are original items. Wow. So we're in a room that has got bunk beds, three beds high. You can see kind of jackets hanging off the nails attached to the beds and brown suitcases piled up on top of them, little cooking pots and pans, shoes underneath some of the beds. There's a bucket in the corner.

[Narrator (Charlie Northcott)]

This was life inside.

[Anthony Easton]

One day you're in your house in Berlin and the next day you're here and you're in a bedroom with 150 people and you've got no privacy. And you know there are people screaming in the yard downstairs.

[Narrator (Charlie Northcott)]

This is where some of Germany's most celebrated Jewish poets, musicians and artists were incarcerated. They traded scraps of food for pieces of charcoal and sketched haunting images of the ghetto. A three year old boy celebrating his birthday. Old people as thin as skeletons huddled together under blankets. There were no gas chambers in Theresienstadt. Here they had a different way of killing people.

[Peter Reich]

Do you know what was the biggest Nazi's weapon inside of concentration camp? Lice.

[Anthony Easton or Interviewer]

Lice, as in the lice in your head?

[Peter Reich]

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Because lice transmit Illnesses, typhus, tb, dysenteria. Such illnesses were transmitted through the lice. Lice were really used as a weapon.

[Narrator (Charlie Northcott)]

An estimated 34,000 people died here, many from lice borne illnesses. Survivors described insufferable itching, lack of sleep, a stench of diarrhea and death all around them. But others, including Anthony's relatives, had violent deaths too. We found a copy of one of their death certificates from the camp.

[Anthony Easton]

So this man here, this is Richard Tarlis, he was my great grandmother's brother.

[Narrator (Charlie Northcott)]

Okay.

[Anthony Easton]

And there it is, Teresa's tadgado. Yes, he died here.

[Anthony Easton or Interviewer]

So he had fractured femurs, plural. So both his legs were broken. Sounds like he's been beaten up or something. He's got two broken legs, he's not normal and he's suffering hemorrhaging. That's bleeding. So yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean he's old as well.

[Anthony Easton]

He was 82.

[Narrator (Charlie Northcott)]

82 year old Richard was the first to go. Then, one by one, more members of the Eisner family watched their loved ones die in Theresienstadt. The couple from Berlin, Ernst and Henrietta, were in their 60s and had been married for decades. In May 1944, that lifetime together ended. Henrietta died during a typhoid epidemic in the camp. After two months alone, Ernst boarded a train on 9 October alongside 4,000 fellow inmates. They were told they were relocating to a better camp. The destination was Auschwitz, specifically gas chamber number five. Anthony's relatives were gassed alongside many of the children you heard singing at the start of this episode. The kids in the Theresienstadt opera. Ernst was one of 87,000 people sent to the death camps from Theresienstadt will likely never know what happened to the other names on Anthony's family tree.

[Anthony Easton]

So you look at me 10 years ago, I had no idea about these people. You know, obviously it's overwhelmingly sad. So, you know, we have coping strategies to help us deal with that sadness. And, you know, telling people stories is part of that coping mechanism. I feel a lot closer to them. I feel a lot closer to all the people that we've looked at. And you know, this is in the last few years that I've come into an emotional contact with these people.

[Narrator (Charlie Northcott)]

Next time on the house. At number 48, Anthony begins to investigate who's benefited from his family's stolen fortune and he's going to fight to get it back.

[Anthony Easton]

I feel we've been very shortchanged by the Germans. I've never found any reason not to try and extract as much financial compensation from them as possible.

[Narrator (Charlie Northcott)]

You can listen to the whole series right now. First on BBC Sounds.

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