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S1E3 RESISTING RESTITUTION
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
View all episodes
By Mike JosephIn 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