Karen Kirsten for Sydney Jewish Writers Festival

Karen Kirsten is an Australian writer and Holocaust educator now based in Massachusetts. She's the author of 'Irena's Gift: An epic World War II memoir of sisters, secrets and survival', a memoir of huge scope – about world war 2, about the history of the treatment of Jewish people in Poland, about sisters, lies, secrets and how trauma works its way out in each generation. 

We spoke about heartbreaking stories of survival and the lengths that people will go to help, to hide, to keep people safe and alive. Karen shared the process through which she unearthed the details of stories that had been deliberately hidden from her and her mother. We also discussed complex family dynamics, the kindness of strangers, cultural identity (how it's lost and can be rebuild or revived) and also why it’s so important that stories like these are documented. The book has been praised by esteemed Australian writers like Booker Prize winner Thomas Keneally and Pulitzer Prize winner Geraldine Brooks.