I never met my mother's father and that may be part of the appeal. He's... a story... a rumour. I knew he'd somehow survived the holocaust, made it to London, changed his name, served in the RAF and settled in England. But the details were few because of something he did in his 'controversial third act' that meant he never saw his daughter again.
As I awoke to the news that the UK
had voted to leave the European Union, I felt (as I guess many
librapolitan millennials did) that a part of my identity had been
taken away. Determined to avert this Brexistential crisis, I set out to
find out more about my enigmatic grandfather (there may also have been a
more selfish motivation of somehow using this ancestry to hold on to my
EU passport!).
It's a story that took me
from Lemberg to Lisbon to London. From escaping the Nazis to fighting
the Nazis. AND from stamp dealing to French prisons and Freemasonry. I
was able to draw worrying parallels of fascism then vs now.
I also examined my own feelings about being intrigued by and drawn to a
man who didn't always act kindly.
Inspired
by the likes of 'Serial' and 'This American Life' I began to tell his
story in a podcast, with stunning contributions from Royal Air Force
historian Kris Hendrix (of the RAF Museum in Hendon) and
international
lawyer Prof. Philippe Sands, best selling author of East West Street.
And, of course, my mother Lynda Evans!
Eventually I was left with one missing piece of the puzzle - one last
person to find! The quest continues and you can be a part of it...
..............................................................................................................................
Away from the world of podcasting, Andrew Evans is a writer-producer, writing and recording all the tracks featured on the Unbordered soundtrack https://unborderedpodcast.com/soundtrack/ - born and living in Barnet with his wife (and 2 cats).More info at www.andrewevansmusic.com
Andew is looking for Kickstarter Funding to complete his project, find out more here - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/unbordered/unfinished-the-conclusion-to-the-unbordered-podcas?ref=project_link
You can be a part of the next chapter of Unbordered by supporting the project on Kickstarter
No comments:
Post a Comment