Sharing stories

My friend Mike Joseph, a retired journalist (some may remember World in Action), has been researching genocide for many years now. I first got to know him in 2004 when I acted in a play he wrote about the historical links between the expulsion of the Armenians from Ottoman Turkey and Hitler's 'final solution of the Jewish problem'.
Mike's own mother was a Holocaust survivor who escaped from Leipzig and grew up in Cardiff, while the rest of her family were killed in Auschwitz. His uncle meanwhile made it to Palestine and a few years later took part in the Nakba.
A few years ago Mike made contact with a Palestinian journalist, Sami Abu Salem, living and working in Gaza. It turned out that Sami's mother had been expelled from one of the villages that Mike's uncle had taken part in clearing.
In September 2023 Mike and Sami recorded a conversation on Zoom in which they shared their stories and hopes for the future. Ten days later Hamas led an armed breakout from Gaza into southern Israel, with horrifying consequences. Sami's footage of the conversation was subsequently lost in the rubble of his house, but Mike has made a film using his footage together with the Zoom recording. The film is now licensed for general release, and the Welsh premiere took place at our community theatre, followed by a Q&A with Mike (conducted by Martin Shipton, the doyen of political reporting in Wales).
Mike's podcast series is at https://mikejoseph.wales/keys.

Extra: earlier in the day we celebrated the 30th anniversary of our move to West Wales with a lunch by the beach and an African music festival up in the hills. The girls and their friends had a great time.