Monday 11 March 2019

Unbordered - A Guest blog by Andrew Evans


By Andrew Evans,

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: