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