Join us for the South African premiere of Letters from Brno.

The screening will be accompanied by formal remarks by Deputy Ambassador of the Embassy of the Czech Republic in South Africa, Mr. Petr Čáp, and by writer and producer Karen Kruger.

In December, 1976, during a college break, Karen learned that her mother, Erika Stefanie Turkl (Neumann) was Jewish. This discovery marked the beginning of Karen’s insatiable curiosity about her mother’s family history and the start of a 45+ year journey to uncover her mother’s past
Nicholas Winton was the British stockbroker who was responsible for arranging the Kinder transports of 669 Czechoslovakian Jewish children in 1939. Erika and Daisy Turkl were 2 of the 669 “Winton’s children”. In 2009, during a reenactment of the Winton Kindertransport from Prague to London, Karen and her son, Max were able to meet 100 year old Nicholas Winton and personally thank him for saving Erika’s and Daisy’s lives.

Jeffery Gary, a documentary filmmaker, learned of Karen’s project and offered to interview/film her to record her recent research trip “while it was still fresh in her mind.” During the first 2 sessions of filming, Jeffery realized that the story of Karen’s mother’s family had all the components of a documentary film and he suggested that she consider telling the story on film first instead of writing a book.
While filming the documentary, Karen imagined how this story could be part of a curricula for Holocaust education.