Sami abu Salem is a Gaza journalist who, like most Gazan Palestinians, has been pursued with his extended family up and down the Strip by Israel's war machine since October, 2023. Sami has reported regularly to broadcaster and film-maker Mike Joseph, and so to the Balfour Project. Earlier this week he sent this voice commentary as news of a ceasefire began to circulate. There was no let-up, however, in the war. In Deir al Balah, in central Gaza, where Sami and his mother, wife and children cowered under Israel’s hovering quadcopters, 13 more Palestinians were killed near his makeshift dwelling as he spoke. Mike Joseph introduces for us Sami’s moving voice report.
Sami abu Salem, fleeing south down Gaza with his family, pursued by the Israeli war machine---bombs, drones, rockets, snipers---finds himself in Rafah. He reports here to Mike Joseph, who is chronicling Sami's plight for the Balfour Project
Credits
Reporter Sami Abu Salem
Presenter Mike Joseph
Pictures Sami Abu Salem
Images
Mike Joseph
Sami Abu Salem
Music
Keys Theme & Variations on a Bach Prelude in B minor - Micha Wink
PRODUCTION
Mike Joseph Producer
Zac Ware Sound Editor
Pamela Koehne-Drube Audience and Web Advisor
This double episode closes the first season of Keys.
With the Hamas invasion and massacre of October 7 2023 leading to the 2023 Israel-Gaza War, this episode brings its historical understanding to the cruel events that are unfolding as we work. We reveal that the horror that fills the news every day has its roots deep in the history of Israel-Palestine.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres reminded the world that “the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum”. This special episode shows how the deeds and decisions of the past are projected on to the screen of today. If we know our history, can that help us to escape it?
PLACE NAMES
When the place names in Keys get confusing, these notes will help.
Mike’s grandparents came from Galicia, a part of eastern Europe on no modern map. Today some of Galicia is southeast Poland, another part is western Ukraine. Galicia no longer exists.
In the last century, many of Galicia’s Jews, Ukrainians and Poles also ceased to exist, violently, as their province was repeatedly ruptured by the front lines of two World Wars, genocide and ethnic cleansing.
Before 1918, Galicia was the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s most eastern province. Its capital was Lemberg (German) = Lwów (Polish) = Lviv (Ukrainian).
Three names, but one city.
Further south, Mike’s grandfather grew up in Stanislau (German); left Stanislaviv (Ukrainian) in 1918 for a better life in Germany; deported back to Stanisławów (Polish) in 1938, which became Stanislaviv (Ukrainian) in 1939; killed in Stanislau (German) in 1941.
Before Mike first visited that city in 1999, the Soviet Union renamed it Ivano-Frankovsk (Russian). Today the place where he found his grandfather’s surviving colleagues and allies is called Ivano-Frankivsk (Ukrainian).
Five names, but one city.
Fatima Abu Salem grew up in the thriving Palestinian village of Burayr, at crossroads leading to Gaza, Hebron and Beersheba. Today a few ruins of Burayr are surrounded by the fields of Kibbutz Bro’r Hayyil.
Two names, but one place.
Place names matter. How we name places reveals our own histories, identities and yearnings.
CREDITS for this episode
Testimony
Testimony and commentary by Mike Joseph, Asha Phillips
Interpreters and Translators
Dina Brandt
Alex Dunai
Markus Hartmann
Burkhardt Kolbmuller
Svitlana Kovalyk
Itamar Shapira
Nadia Slobodyan
Hannah Kleinfeld
Atef Alshaer
Images
Mike Joseph
Sami Abu Salem
Music
Keys Theme & Variations on a Bach Prelude in B minor - Micha Wink
Sources
Eulogy for Ro’i Rothberg by Moshe Dayan, Avnei Derekh, Tel Aviv 1976, p191; q. in Zertal, Idith, Israel’s Holocaust and the Politics of Nationhood, Cambridge University Press 2005, p180
Universal International News, 6 August 1956, Suez Crisis
Theodor Meron, A life of learning, American Council of Learned Societies Occasional Paper No 65, Pittsburgh, 9 May 2008. Memorandum by Legal Adviser, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Theodor Meron) to Political Secretary to the Israeli Prime Minister, 18 Sep 1967
Israeli Kahan Commission Report is main source for the Israel-Falange history. Its Appendix can be accessed at: http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4887715-Kahan-Commission-Appendix-Complete-English.html
Ben Gurion, speaking to the Israeli Cabinet, May 24, April 26, May 7, 1953, Israel State Archives; quoted in Tom Segev, A State at Any Cost, 2018, p512
PRODUCTION
Mike Joseph Producer
Zac Ware Sound Editor
Pamela Koehne-Drube Audience and Web Advisor
PRESENTERS
Mike Joseph
Asha Phillips
SPEAKERS AND CAST in programme order
Sami Abu Salem, interviewed by Mike Joseph
James Stewart voicing Moshe Dayan, Theodor Meron, BBC World Service Newsreader, Baruch Ben Meir
Rabbi Dr Gerhard Graf voiced by Mark Levene
Lilli Gold voiced by Christine Willison
Hoda Khoury, interviewed by Mike Joseph
Primo Levi voiced by Andrea Brondino
António Guterres, UN Secretary-General
Gilad Erdan, Israeli Ambassador to UN
How do people become refugees? What’s it like? Mike Joseph’s aunt became a refugee on her 10th birthday. This is the story of comfortable family life transformed in an instant, narrated by the family’s only survivors. Yet even refugees are not the most unfortunate. Some are trapped, unable to escape, awaiting their fate.
In this epic journey, Mike sets out to uncover his Holocaust inheritance, but is led relentlessly to discovering his Nakba inheritance. It turns out that the two different catastrophes are more connected than he thought possible. In 2023, can both stories be heard and understood?
With unique personal testimony, recordings, letters and memories by those who survived and those who did not, this challenging audio series is devised, dramatised and narrated by broadcaster Mike Joseph.
PLACE NAMES
When the place names in Keys get confusing, these notes will help.
Mike’s grandparents came from Galicia, a part of eastern Europe on no modern map. Today some of Galicia is southeast Poland, another part is western Ukraine. Galicia no longer exists.
In the last century, many of Galicia’s Jews, Ukrainians and Poles also ceased to exist, violently, as their province was repeatedly ruptured by the front lines of two World Wars, genocide and ethnic cleansing.
Before 1918, Galicia was the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s most eastern province. Its capital was Lemberg (German) = Lwów (Polish) = Lviv (Ukrainian).
Three names, but one city.
Further south, Mike’s grandfather grew up in Stanislau (German); left Stanislaviv (Ukrainian) in 1918 for a better life in Germany; deported back to Stanisławów (Polish) in 1938, which became Stanislaviv (Ukrainian) in 1939; killed in Stanislau (German) in 1941.
Before Mike first visited that city in 1999, the Soviet Union renamed it Ivano-Frankovsk (Russian). Today the place where he found his grandfather’s surviving colleagues and allies is called Ivano-Frankivsk (Ukrainian).
Five names, but one city.
Fatima Abu Salem grew up in the thriving Palestinian village of Burayr, at crossroads leading to Gaza, Hebron and Beersheba. Today a few ruins of Burayr are surrounded by the fields of Kibbutz Bro’r Hayyil.
Two names, but one place.
Place names matter. How we name places reveals our own histories, identities and yearnings.
CREDITS for this episode
Testimony
Testimony and commentary by Mike Joseph, Asha Phillips
Interpreters and Translators
Dina Brandt
Alex Dunai
Markus Hartmann
Burkhardt Kolbmuller
Svitlana Kovalyk
Itamar Shapira
Nadia Slobodyan
Hannah Kleinfeld
Atef Alshaer
Images
Mike Joseph
Sami Abu Salem
Music
Keys Theme & Variations on a Bach Prelude in B minor - Micha Wink
PRODUCTION
Mike Joseph Producer
Zac Ware Sound Editor
Pamela Koehne-Drube Audience and Web Advisor
PRESENTERS
Mike Joseph
Asha Phillips
SPEAKERS AND CAST in programme order
Lilli Gold interviewed by USC Shoah Foundation, © 1998 USC Shoah Foundation. From the archive of USC Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education http://sfi.usc.edu/
Peter Kirsten as Leipzig policeman
Rosa Gold interviewed by Mike Joseph
George May as Israel Gold
In 1938 Britain and the USA call an international conference to rescue Jewish refugees from Hitler. The world refuses to open its doors, a humanitarian disaster that clears the way for Hitler’s Final Solution. But astonishingly, Zionists attending the conference see this as an achievement. How could that be?
Episode 8 of KEYS: A Troubled Inheritance released on 25 October 2023, and now available on all platforms.
In this epic journey, Mike sets out to uncover his Holocaust inheritance, but is led relentlessly to discovering his Nakba inheritance. It turns out that the two different catastrophes are more connected than he thought possible. In 2023, can both stories be heard and understood?
With unique personal testimony, recordings, letters and memories by those who survived and those who did not, this challenging audio series is devised, dramatised and narrated by broadcaster Mike Joseph.
PLACE NAMES
When the place names in Keys get confusing, these notes will help.
Mike’s grandparents came from Galicia, a part of eastern Europe on no modern map. Today some of Galicia is southeast Poland, another part is western Ukraine. Galicia no longer exists.
In the last century, many of Galicia’s Jews, Ukrainians and Poles also ceased to exist, violently, as their province was repeatedly ruptured by the front lines of two World Wars, genocide and ethnic cleansing.
Before 1918, Galicia was the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s most eastern province. Its capital was Lemberg (German) = Lwów (Polish) = Lviv (Ukrainian).
Three names, but one city.
Further south, Mike’s grandfather grew up in Stanislau (German); left Stanislaviv (Ukrainian) in 1918 for a better life in Germany; deported back to Stanisławów (Polish) in 1938, which became Stanislaviv (Ukrainian) in 1939; killed in Stanislau (German) in 1941.
Before Mike first visited that city in 1999, the Soviet Union renamed it Ivano-Frankovsk (Russian). Today the place where he found his grandfather’s surviving colleagues and allies is called Ivano-Frankivsk (Ukrainian).
Five names, but one city.
Fatima Abu Salem grew up in the thriving Palestinian village of Burayr, at crossroads leading to Gaza, Hebron and Beersheba. Today a few ruins of Burayr are surrounded by the fields of Kibbutz Bro’r Hayyil.
Two names, but one place.
Place names matter. How we name places reveals our own histories, identities and yearnings.
CREDITS for this episode
Testimony
Testimony and commentary by Mike Joseph, Asha Phillips
Interpreters and Translators
Dina Brandt
Alex Dunai
Markus Hartmann
Burkhardt Kolbmuller
Svitlana Kovalyk
Itamar Shapira
Nadia Slobodyan
Hannah Kleinfeld
Atef Alshaer
Images
Mike Joseph
Sami Abu Salem
Music
Keys Theme & Variations on a Bach Prelude in B minor - Micha Wink
PRODUCTION
Mike Joseph Producer
Zac Ware Sound Editor
Pamela Koehne-Drube Audience and Web Advisor
PRESENTERS
Mike Joseph
Asha Phillips
SPEAKERS AND CAST in programme order
James Stewart as Joseph Goebbels and voice of Der Stürmer
George May as Israel Gold
Lilli Gold interviewed by USC Shoah Foundation, © 1998 USC Shoah Foundation. From the archive of USC Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education http://sfi.usc.edu/
Andrea Brondino as Monsignor Giuseppe di Meglio
Richard Tebboth as David Ben Gurion
Rosa Gold interviewed by Mike Joseph
Alice Gold as young Lilli Gold
Mick Napier as Henryk Ehrlich
Peter Kirsten as Leipzig policeman
In Episode 7, when Nazi Germany excludes Jews from citizenship, Israel Gold, Mike Joseph’s grandfather, is forced to consider emigrating to Palestine. He learns Hebrew and Arabic, because his kind of Zionism seeks a bi-national state of all its inhabitants. But in 1937, the British Government reveals a different plan: a Jewish state, with its native Palestinian population removed by force. How will Zionism react, and what will Israel Gold do?
In this epic journey, Mike sets out to uncover his Holocaust inheritance, but is led relentlessly to discovering his Nakba inheritance. It turns out that the two different catastrophes are more connected than he thought possible. In 2023, can both stories be heard and understood?
With unique personal testimony, recordings, letters and memories by those who survived and those who did not, this challenging audio series is devised, dramatised and narrated by broadcaster Mike Joseph.
PLACE NAMES
When the place names in Keys get confusing, these notes will help.
Mike’s grandparents came from Galicia, a part of eastern Europe on no modern map. Today some of Galicia is southeast Poland, another part is western Ukraine. Galicia no longer exists.
In the last century, many of Galicia’s Jews, Ukrainians and Poles also ceased to exist, violently, as their province was repeatedly ruptured by the front lines of two World Wars, genocide and ethnic cleansing.
Before 1918, Galicia was the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s most eastern province. Its capital was Lemberg (German) = Lwów (Polish) = Lviv (Ukrainian).
Three names, but one city.
Further south, Mike’s grandfather grew up in Stanislau (German); left Stanislaviv (Ukrainian) in 1918 for a better life in Germany; deported back to Stanisławów (Polish) in 1938, which became Stanislaviv (Ukrainian) in 1939; killed in Stanislau (German) in 1941.
Before Mike first visited that city in 1999, the Soviet Union renamed it Ivano-Frankovsk (Russian). Today the place where he found his grandfather’s surviving colleagues and allies is called Ivano-Frankivsk (Ukrainian).
Five names, but one city.
Fatima Abu Salem grew up in the thriving Palestinian village of Burayr, at crossroads leading to Gaza, Hebron and Beersheba. Today a few ruins of Burayr are surrounded by the fields of kibbutz Bro’r Hayyil.
Two names, but one place.
Place names matter. How we name places reveals our own histories, identities and yearnings.
CREDITS for this episode
Testimony
Testimony and commentary by Mike Joseph, Asha Phillips
Interpreters and Translators
Dina Brandt
Alex Dunai
Markus Hartmann
Burkhardt Kolbmuller
Svitlana Kovalyk
Itamar Shapira
Nadia Slobodyan
Hannah Kleinfeld
Atef Alshaer
Images
Mike Joseph
Sami Abu Salem
Music
Keys Theme & Variations on a Bach Prelude in B minor - Micha Wink
Ba’a M’nucha, Nathan Alterman & Kurt Weill - Gail Stewart soprano, Mike Joseph piano
PRODUCTION
Mike Joseph Producer
Zac Ware Sound Editor
Pamela Koehne-Drube Audience and Web Advisor
PRESENTERS
Mike Joseph
Asha Phillips
SPEAKERS AND CAST in programme order
Lilli Gold interviewed by USC Shoah Foundation, © 1998 USC Shoah Foundation. From the archive of USC Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education http://sfi.usc.edu/
George May as Israel Gold
Rosa Gold interviewed by Mike Joseph
Richard Tebboth as David Ben Gurion
Nationalism comes under the spotlight in Episode Six: Israel Gold, Mike Joseph’s grandfather, adds a four-kilo dictionary to his soldier’s kit bag in November 1917. We discover why. Then, without knowing it, Israel Gold becomes Ukrainian, an identity which will through time reveal the strengths of multiculturalism and the perils of ethnic nationalism.
In this epic journey, Mike sets out to uncover his Holocaust inheritance, but is led relentlessly to discovering his Nakba inheritance. It turns out that the two different catastrophes are more connected than he thought possible. In 2023, can both stories be heard and understood?
With unique personal testimony, recordings, letters and memories by those who survived and those who did not, this challenging
audio series is devised, dramatised and narrated by broadcaster Mike Joseph.
PLACE NAMES
When the place names in Keys get confusing, these notes will help.
Mike’s grandparents came from Galicia, a part of eastern Europe on no modern map. Today some of Galicia is southeast Poland,
another part is western Ukraine. Galicia no longer exists.
In the last century, many of Galicia’s Jews, Ukrainians and Poles also ceased to exist, violently, as their province was repeatedly ruptured by the front lines of two World Wars, genocide and ethnic cleansing.
Before 1918, Galicia was the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s most eastern province.
Its capital was Lemberg (German) = Lwów (Polish) = Lviv (Ukrainian).
Three names, but one city.
Further south, Mike’s grandfather grew up in Stanislau (German); left Stanislaviv (Ukrainian) in 1918 for a better life in Germany; deported back to Stanisławów (Polish) in 1938, which became Stanislaviv (Ukrainian) in 1939; killed in Stanislau (German) in 1941.
Before Mike first visited that city in 1999, the Soviet Union renamed it Ivano-Frankovsk (Russian). Today the place where he found his grandfather’s surviving colleagues and allies is called Ivano-Frankivsk (Ukrainian).
Five names, but one city.
Fatima Abu Salem grew up in the thriving Palestinian village of Burayr, at crossroads leading to Gaza, Hebron and Beersheba. Today a few ruins of Burayr are surrounded by the fields of Kibbutz Bro’r Hayyil.
Two names, but one place.
Place names matter. How we name places reveals our own histories, identities and yearnings.
CREDITS for this episode
Testimony
Testimony and commentary by Mike Joseph, Asha Phillips
Interpreters and Translators
Dina Brandt
Alex Dunai
Markus Hartmann
Burkhardt Kolbmuller
Svitlana Kovalyk
Itamar Shapira
Nadia Slobodyan
Hannah Kleinfeld
Atef Alshaer
Images & music
Mike Joseph
Sami Abu Salem
Micha Wink
Lilli Gold, © 1998 USC Shoah Foundation. From the archive of USC Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education http://sfi.usc.edu/
PRODUCTION
Mike Joseph Producer
Zac Ware Sound Editor
Micha Wink Keys Theme & Variations on a Bach Prelude in B minor
Pamela Koehne-Drube Audience and Web Advisor
PRESENTERS
Mike Joseph
Asha Phillips
CAST in programme order
Terry Dimmick as car park attendant
George May as Israel Gold
Mike Joseph’s mother petitions the Queen for help to recover her Nazi-plundered house from a resistant Germany. The Queen’s response unlocks a wave of British government action, which escalates towards an international crisis. In this episode, a very personal family story becomes a highly political dispute.
In this epic journey, Mike sets out to uncover his Holocaust inheritance, but is led relentlessly to discovering his Nakba inheritance. It turns out that the two different catastrophes are more connected than he thought possible. In 2023, can both stories be heard and understood?
With unique personal testimony, recordings, letters and memories by those who survived and those who did not, this challenging audio series is devised, dramatised and narrated by broadcaster Mike Joseph.
PLACE NAMES
When the place names in Keys get confusing, these notes will help.
Mike’s grandparents came from Galicia, a part of eastern Europe on no modern map. Today some of Galicia is southeast Poland, another part is western Ukraine. Galicia no longer exists.In the last century, many of Galicia’s Jews, Ukrainians and Poles also ceased to exist, violently, as their province was repeatedly ruptured by the front lines of two World Wars, genocide and ethnic cleansing. Before 1918, Galicia was the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s most eastern province. Its capital was Lemberg (German) = Lwów (Polish) = Lviv (Ukrainian).
Three names, but one city.Further south, Mike’s grandfather grew up in Stanislau (German); left Stanislaviv (Ukrainian) in 1918 for a better life in Germany; deported back to Stanisławów (Polish) in 1938, which became Stanislaviv (Ukrainian) in 1939; killed in Stanislau (German) in 1941. Before Mike first visited that city in 1999, the Soviet Union renamed it Ivano-Frankovsk (Russian). Today the place where he found his grandfather’s surviving colleagues and allies is called Ivano-Frankivsk (Ukrainian).
Five names, but one city.
Fatima Abu Salem grew up in the thriving Palestinian village of Burayr, at crossroads leading to Gaza, Hebron and Beersheba. Today a few ruins of Burayr are surrounded by the fields of kibbutz Bro’r Hayyil.
Two names, but one place.
Place names matter. How we name places reveals our own histories, identities and yearnings.
CREDITS for this episode
Testimony
Testimony and commentary by Mike Joseph, Asha Phillips, James Stewart
Interpreters and Translators
Dina Brandt
Alex Dunai
Markus Hartmann
Burkhardt Kolbmuller
Svitlana Kovalyk
Itamar Shapira
Nadia Slobodyan
Hannah Kleinfeld
Atef Alshaer
Images & music
Mike Joseph
Sami Abu Salem
Micha Wink
Lilli Gold, © 1998 USC Shoah Foundation. From the archive of USC Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education http://sfi.usc.edu/
Brahms, German Requiem, The Holden Consort Orchestra and Choir http://ml.cs.colorado.edu/~ben/Brahms/
Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license
PRODUCTION
Mike Joseph Producer
Zac Ware Sound Editor
Micha Wink Keys Theme & Variations on a Bach Prelude in B minor
Pamela Koehne-Drube Audience and Web Advisor
PRESENTERS
Mike Joseph
Asha Phillips
CAST in programme order
Christine Willison as Lilli Gold
James Stewart as Robert Fellowes, voices of UK Foreign Office, Martin Gilbert, British Ambassador to Germany.
What do you say to an old Nazi? With this question, Mike Joseph’s daughter Asha opens an episode in which we hear what Mike does say when suddenly, in 1991 he encounters the Nazi who stole his mother’s house fifty years earlier.
The old Nazi shouts him down. Then Mike finds that he is not the only voice in newly-reunited Germany refusing to return property stolen by the Nazis.
In this epic journey, Mike sets out to uncover his Holocaust inheritance, but is led relentlessly to discovering his Nakba inheritance. It turns out that the two different catastrophes are more connected than he thought possible. In 2023, can both stories be heard and understood?
With unique personal testimony, recordings, letters and memories by those who survived and those who did not, this challenging audio series is devised, dramatised and narrated by broadcaster Mike Joseph.
CREDITS for this episode
Testimony
Testimony and commentary by Mike Joseph, Asha Phillips, James Stewart
Interpreters and Translators
Dina Brandt, Alex Dunai, Markus Hartmann, Burkhardt Kolbmuller, Svitlana Kovalyk, Itamar Shapira, Nadia Slobodyan, Hannah Kleinfeld, Atef Alshaer
Images & music
Lilli Gold, Mike Joseph, Holger Jackisch, Sami Abu Salem
Lilli Gold, © 1998 USC Shoah Foundation. From the archive of USC Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education http://sfi.usc.edu/
Dresden Bombing: Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1994-041-07, Dresden, zerstörtes Stadtzentrum.jpg Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1994-041-07 / Unknown author / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5483604
Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Germany license.
Foreign & Commonwealth Office main building.jpg, created: circa 2014 QS:P,+2014-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1480,Q5727902
Public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v2.0.
Klaus Kinkel: Tohma, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Helmut Kohl: © European Communities, 1996 / EC, Photo: Christian Lambiotte
Otto Lambsdorff: Bundesarchiv, B 145 Bild-F046792-0029 / Wegmann, Ludwig / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/deed.en, via Wikimedia Commons
Hinrich Lehmann-Grube: Axel Hindemith, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Brahms, German Requiem, The Holden Consort Orchestra and Choir http://ml.cs.colorado.edu/~ben/Brahms/
Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license
PRODUCTION
Mike Joseph - Producer, Zac Ware - Sound Editor, Micha Wink - Keys Theme & Variations on a Bach Prelude in B minor, Pamela Koehne-Drube - Audience and Web Advisor
PRESENTERS
Mike Joseph, Asha Phillips
CAST in programme order
Daniel Ratthei as Burkhardt Kolbmuller [German]
Werner Bauer as Ralph Dippmann [German]
James Stewart as Ralph Dippmann [English]
Christel Stoecker-Danby voicing confiscation and conveyance to Dippmann [German], James Stewart [English]
James Stewart as Holger Jackisch and voices of UK Foreign Office, Leipzig City Council and Federal German Government, Daily Telegraph
Klaus Riekemann as Hinrich Lehmann-Grube and Christian Jacke
Bruno Bubna-Kasteliz as Klaus Kinkel and Otto Lambsdorff
Christine Willison as Lilli Gold
In 1943, while Mike’s mother’s family were being killed, a Nazi journalist obtained Mike’s mother’s home, the Leipzig house from which the SS had expelled them a few years earlier.
In 1951, instead of returning the home to Mike’s mother, East Germany stole it again, and handed it back to the Nazi journalist.
Now it is 40 years later, 1991, and Mike arrives in newly reunited Germany to try finally to recover his mother’s house. But he encounters official obstruction and resistance.
And then he discovers the Nazi journalist is still alive, and still
holding his wartime plunder.
PLACE NAMES
When the place names in Keys get confusing, these notes will help.
Mike’s grandparents came from Galicia, a part of eastern Europe on no
modern map. Today some of Galicia is southeast Poland, another part is western Ukraine. Galicia no longer exists.
In the last century, many of Galicia’s Jews, Ukrainians and Poles also ceased
to exist, violently, as their province was repeatedly ruptured by the front
lines of two World Wars, genocide and ethnic cleansing.
Before 1918, Galicia was the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s most eastern province.
Its capital was Lemberg (German) = Lwów (Polish) = Lviv (Ukrainian).
Three names, but one city.
Further south, Mike’s grandfather grew up in Stanislau (German); left
Stanislaviv (Ukrainian) in 1918 for a better life in Germany; deported back to Stanisławów (Polish) in 1938, which became Stanislaviv (Ukrainian) in 1939; killed in Stanislau (German) in 1941.
Before Mike first visited that city in 1999, the Soviet Union renamed it
Ivano-Frankovsk (Russian). Today the place where he found his grandfather’s
surviving colleagues and allies is called Ivano-Frankivsk (Ukrainian).
Five names, but one city.
Fatima Abu Salem grew up in the thriving Palestinian village of Burayr, at crossroads leading to Gaza, Hebron and Beersheba. Today a few ruins of Burayr are surrounded by the fields of kibbutz Bro’r Hayyil.
Two names, but one place.
Place names matter. How we name places reveals our own histories,
identities and yearnings.
CREDITS for this episode
Testimony
Testimony and commentary by Mike Joseph, Asha Phillips.
Interpreters and Translators
Dina Brandt
Alex Dunai
Markus Hartmann
Burkhardt Kolbmuller
Svitlana Kovalyk
Itamar Shapira
Nadia Slobodyan
Hannah Kleinfeld
Atef Alshaer
Images
Lilli Gold
Mike Joseph
Holger Jackisch
Sami Abu Salem
PRODUCTION
Mike Joseph Producer
Zac Ware Sound Editor
Micha Wink Keys Theme & Variations on a Bach Prelude in B minor
Pamela Koehne-Drube Audience and Web Advisor
PRESENTERS
Mike Joseph
Asha Phillips
CAST in programme order
Wera Hobhouse as Marie Nummer
Christel Stoecker-Danby as Leipzig Housing Manager
Kerstin Barthelmes as Frau Jordan, Leipzig Property Claims Officer
James Stewart as Ralph Dippmann
Klaus Riekemann as Aron Adlerstein
Melissa Pawelski as Suzannah Kucharski
Clemens Hofer as Peter Kirsten
Christel Stoecker-Danby voicing confiscation and conveyance to Dippmann
James Stewart voicing conveyance to Dippmann
One day in 2006, in a noisy café in Ukraine, Mike thought he had just met a survivor of the Holocaust massacre that destroyed his mother’s family. He turned out also to be a veteran of Israel’s War of Independence, now bitterly rejecting Israel’s occupation of Palestine, telling his family there was no hope and they should leave.
This incident, captured in sound, sums up the contradictions Mike discovers in this epic journey. Working to uncover his Holocaust inheritance, he is led relentlessly to discovering his Nakba inheritance. It turns out the two different catastrophes are very connected. But can they both be heard and understood?
With unique personal testimony, recordings, letters and memories by those who survived and those who did not, this challenging audio series is devised, dramatised and narrated by broadcaster Mike Joseph.
PLACE NAMES
When the place names in Keys get confusing, these notes will help.
Mike’s grandparents came from Galicia, a part of eastern Europe on no
modern map. Today some of Galicia is southeast Poland, another part is western Ukraine. Galicia no longer exists.
In the last century, many of Galicia’s Jews, Ukrainians and Poles also ceased to exist, violently, as their province was repeatedly ruptured by the front lines of two World Wars, genocide and ethnic cleansing.
Before 1918, Galicia was the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s most eastern province. Its capital was Lemberg (German) = Lwów (Polish) = Lviv (Ukrainian).
Three names, but one city.
Further south, Mike’s grandfather grew up in Stanislau (German); left
Stanislaviv (Ukrainian) in 1918 for a better life in Germany; deported back to Stanisławów (Polish) in
1938, which became Stanislaviv (Ukrainian) in 1939; killed in Stanislau (German)
in 1941.
Before Mike first visited that city in 1999, the Soviet Union renamed it Ivano-Frankovsk (Russian). Today the place where he found his grandfather’s surviving colleagues and allies is called Ivano-Frankivsk (Ukrainian).
Five names, but one city.
Fatima Abu Salem grew up in the thriving Palestinian village of Burayr, at crossroads leading to Gaza, Hebron and Beersheba. Today a few ruins of Burayr are surrounded by the fields of kibbutz Bro’r Hayyil.
Two names, but one place.
Place names matter. How we name places reveals our own histories,
identities and yearnings.
CREDITS
Testimony
Testimony and commentary by Mike Joseph, Amnon Neumann, Fatima Abu Salem, Sami Abu Salem, Lilli Gold, Rose Gold, Henryk Luft, Moshe Kolesnik, Yehudah ben Baruch, Itamar Shapira, Asha Phillips.
Interpreters and Translators
Dina Brandt, Alex Dunai, Markus Hartmann, Burkhardt Kolbmuller, Svitlana Kovalyk, Itamar Shapira, Nadia Slobodyan
Video sources
Lilli Gold, © 1998 USC Shoah Foundation. From the archive of USC Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education http://sfi.usc.edu/
Israel and West Bank locations by agreement with Boom Cymru TV Cyf.
Batorego Cemetery, Ivano-Frankivsk; Henryk Luft; Yad Vashem viewing platform; handmade Israeli flag © Mike Joseph
Zochrot Truth Commission session with Amnon Neumann by agreement with Zochrot
Images
Lilli Gold
Mike Joseph
Sami Abu Salem
PRODUCTION
Mike Joseph Producer
Zac Ware Sound Editor
Jesse Lawrence Video Editor
Micha Wink Keys Theme & Variations on a Bach Prelude in B minor
Pamela Koehne-Drube Audience and Web Advisor
Michelle Alderson Graphic Designer
PRESENTERS
Mike Joseph & Asha Phillips
CAST in programme order
Peter Kirsten as Leipzig Policeman
Werner Bauer as Ralph Dippmann
George May as Israel Gold
Andrea Brondino as Henryk Luft
In the second episode of Keys, as the Second World War ends, people long for better times, and the United Nations does something about it, declaring genocide a crime against humanity, declaring slavery an abuse of human rights, declaring asylum and freedom of thought to be human rights, as well as the right to own property and not have it stolen. But two states immediately deny that right to refugees from their terror. Mike’s mother is one of many thousands, denied that right.
PLACE NAMES
When the place names in Keys get confusing, these notes will help.
Mike’s grandparents came from Galicia, a part of eastern Europe on no
modern map. Today some of Galicia is southeast Poland, another part is western Ukraine. Galicia no longer exists.
In the last century, many of Galicia’s Jews, Ukrainians and Poles also ceased to exist, violently, as their province was repeatedly ruptured by the front lines of two World Wars, genocide and ethnic cleansing.
Before 1918, Galicia was the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s most eastern province. Its capital was Lemberg (German) = Lwów (Polish) = Lviv (Ukrainian).
Three names, but one city.
Further south, Mike’s grandfather grew up in Stanislau (German); left
Stanislaviv (Ukrainian) in 1918 for a better life in Germany; deported back to Stanisławów (Polish) in 1938, which became Stanislaviv (Ukrainian) in 1939; killed in Stanislau (German) in 1941.
Before Mike first visited that city in 1999, the Soviet Union renamed it Ivano-Frankovsk (Russian). Today the place where he found his grandfather’s surviving colleagues and allies is called Ivano-Frankivsk (Ukrainian).
Five names, but one city.
Fatima Abu Salem grew up in the thriving Palestinian village of Burayr, at crossroads leading to Gaza, Hebron and Beersheba. Today a few ruins of Burayr are surrounded by the fields of kibbutz Bro’r Hayyil.
Two names, but one place.
Place names matter. How we name places reveals our own histories,
identities and yearnings.
CREDITS for this episode
Testimony
Testimony and commentary by Mike Joseph, Asha Phillips, Lilli Gold, Rose Gold.
Interpreters and Translators
Dina Brandt
Alex Dunai
Markus Hartmann
Burkhardt Kolbmuller
Svitlana Kovalyk
Itamar Shapira
Nadia Slobodyan
Audio sources
The Hundred Year House, BBC 1999
Images
Lilli Gold
Mike Joseph
Holger Jackisch
Sami Abu Salem
PRODUCTION
Mike Joseph - Producer
Zac Ware - Sound Editor
Micha Wink - Keys Theme & Variations on a Bach Prelude in B minor
Pamela Koehne-Drube - Audience and Web Advisor
PRESENTERS
Mike Joseph
Asha Phillips
CAST in programme order
Terry Dimmick as Car Park Attendant
Peter Kirsten as Leipzig Policeman
Young Asha Phillips as Dorothea Gold
Wera Hobhouse as Marie Nummer
Zac Ware as Fritz Grunsfeld
James Stewart as Ralph Dippmann [English]
Klaus Riekemann as Leipzig Property Administrator [German]
Richard Tebboth as Leipzig Property Administrator [English]
James Stewart as Wolfgang Vogel [German]
Patrick Thomas as Wolfgang Vogel [English]
By remembering his family lost in the Holocaust, Mike Joseph encounters the Palestinian Nakba. How do radically different histories connect?
Documentary series KEYS: A Troubled Inheritance launches in Wednesday 6th September 2023
An epic journey to uncover a Holocaust inheritance leads relentlessly to discovering a Nakba inheritance: two catastrophes that are very different, but very
connected. Can they both be heard and understood? With personal testimony, letters and memories by those who survived and those who did not, this challenging audio series is dramatised and narrated by broadcaster Mike Joseph.
NAMES
When the place names in Keys get confusing, these notes will help.
Mike’s grandparents came from Galicia, a part of eastern Europe on no modern map. Today some of Galicia is southeast Poland, another part is western Ukraine. Galicia no longer exists.In the last century, many of Galicia’s Jews, Ukrainians and Poles also ceased to exist, violently, as their province was repeatedly ruptured by the front lines of two World Wars, genocide and ethnic cleansing.
Before 1918, Galicia was the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s most eastern province. Its capital was Lemberg (German) = Lwów (Polish) = Lviv (Ukrainian).
Three names, but one city.Further south, Mike’s grandfather grew up in Stanislau (German); left Stanislaviv (Ukrainian) in 1918 for a better life in Germany; deported back to Stanisławów (Polish) in 1938, which became Stanislaviv (Ukrainian) in 1939; killed in Stanislau (German) in 1941.Before Mike first visited that city in 1999, the Soviet Union renamed it Ivano-Frankovsk (Russian). Today the place where he found his grandfather’s surviving colleagues and allies is called Ivano-Frankivsk (Ukrainian).
Five names, but one city.Fatima Abu Salem grew up in the large Palestinian village of Burayr, at crossroads leading to Gaza, Hebron and Beersheba. Today a few ruins of Burayr are surrounded by the fields of kibbutz Bro’r Hayyil.
Two names, but one place.Place names matter. How we name places reveals our own histories, identities and yearnings.
Testimony
Testimony and commentary by Mike Joseph, Lilli Gold, Henryk Luft, Itamar Shapira, Amnon Neumann, Sami Abu Salem, Fatima Abu Salem, Asha Phillips.
PRODUCTION
Mike Joseph Producer
Jesse Lawrence Video Editor
Zac Ware Sound Editor
Micha Wink Keys Theme & Variations on a Bach Prelude in B minor
Michelle Alderson Graphic Designer
Pamela Koehne-Drube Audience and Web Advisor
By remembering his family lost in the Holocaust, Mike Joseph encounters the Palestinian Nakba. How do radically different histories connect?
Documentary series KEYS: A Troubled Inheritance launches in Wednesday 6th September 2023
An epic journey to uncover a Holocaust inheritance leads relentlessly to discovering a Nakba inheritance: two catastrophes that are very different, but very connected. Can they both be heard and understood? With personal testimony, letters and memories by those who survived and those who did not, this challenging audio series is dramatised and narrated by broadcaster Mike Joseph.
NAMES
When the place names in Keys get confusing, these notes will help.
Mike’s grandparents came from Galicia, a part of eastern Europe on no modern map. Today some of Galicia is southeast Poland, another part is western Ukraine. Galicia no longer exists.In the last century, many of Galicia’s Jews, Ukrainians and Poles also ceased to exist, violently, as their province was repeatedly ruptured by the front lines of two World Wars, genocide and ethnic cleansing.
Before 1918, Galicia was the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s most eastern province. Its capital was Lemberg (German) = Lwów (Polish) = Lviv (Ukrainian).
Three names, but one city.Further south, Mike’s grandfather grew up in Stanislau (German); left Stanislaviv (Ukrainian) in 1918 for a better life in Germany; deported back to Stanisławów (Polish) in 1938, which became Stanislaviv (Ukrainian) in 1939; killed in Stanislau (German) in 1941.Before Mike first visited that city in 1999, the Soviet Union renamed it Ivano-Frankovsk (Russian). Today the place where he found his grandfather’s surviving colleagues and allies is called Ivano-Frankivsk (Ukrainian).
Five names, but one city.Fatima Abu Salem grew up in the large Palestinian village of Burayr, at crossroads leading to Gaza, Hebron and Beersheba. Today a few ruins of Burayr are surrounded by the fields of kibbutz Bro’r Hayyil.
Two names, but one place.Place names matter. How we name places reveals our own histories, identities and yearnings.
Testimony
Testimony and commentary by Mike Joseph, Lilli Gold, Henryk Luft, Itamar Shapira, Amnon Neumann, Sami Abu Salem, Fatima Abu Salem, Asha Phillips.
PRODUCTION
Mike Joseph Producer
Jesse Lawrence Video Editor
Zac Ware Sound Editor
Micha Wink Keys Theme & Variations on a Bach Prelude in B minor
Michelle Alderson Graphic Designer
Pamela Koehne-Drube Audience and Web Advisor