What is History Shadows?

History Shadows is more than a history podcast. It is a documentary journey into the hidden and overlooked corners of the past — stories of war, exile, and survival that shaped the twentieth century. Each episode blends meticulous archival research with vivid storytelling, offering listeners an immersive experience inside the moral and human dilemmas of history.

About the Host – Dr. Simonas Strelcovas

Dr. Simonas Strelcovas is a historian (PhD) and author specializing in the history of refugees, war, and resistance. For more than two decades, he has traced the lives of people caught on history’s edge, from occupied Europe to Asia. His Japanese-language monograph 第二次大戦下リトアニアの難民と杉原千畝―「命のヴィザ」の真相 (Tokyo, 2020) explores the story of WWII refugees in Lithuania and the true background of Chiune Sugihara’s “visas for life.”

His academic path and archival work have taken him beyond Lithuania to research stays in Japan, Poland, Ukraine, South Korea, and Kazakhstan. This international perspective shapes History Shadows, where scholarly rigor meets the art of storytelling. The result is a podcast that is accurate yet accessible — uncovering how resilience, tragedy, and moral choice echo across generations.