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