Irena’s Gift: Karen Kirsten in conversation with Dr Simon Holloway

Award-winning author Karen Kirsten’s book is the captivating account of her quest to piece together her family’s hidden history.

Karen will be discussing her mother’s remarkable story of Holocaust survival after she was born in the Warsaw ghetto and smuggled out in a backpack, and the letter her mother received in Melbourne when she was thirty-two that shattered everything she thought she knew about herself and her family. A story of love and trauma, Karen’s experiences will resonate especially with those familiar with the silences that pervade the homes of Holocaust survivors.

Image | Courtesy of Imperial War Museum London