The Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre

Film screening: Letters from Brno
2025-10-30 17:30 - 19:00 (Europe/Helsinki) | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
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 pastNicholas 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.

Heroines of the Holocaust
2025-11-02 21:00 - 22:00
The Ghetto Fighters’ House invites you to a special online book launch of Heroines of the Holocaust: Reframing Resistance and Courage in Genocide.

Join co-editors Professor Lori Weintrob and Professor Judy Baumel-Schwartz as they introduce this groundbreaking volume, which brings together international scholars to explore new perspectives on women’s rescue and resistance during the Holocaust, and the Armenian and Rwandan genocides.

Two contributing authors, both descendants of Holocaust survivors, will also share insights from their chapters:

Dr Daniela Ozacky Stern delves into the often-overlooked stories of Jewish women partisans during the Holocaust, focusing on the personal narrative of Chaya Shapira Lazar. Through her grandmother’s journey from the Vilna Ghetto to the partisan forests, Dr Ozacky Stern illuminates the complex challenges faced by female resistance fighters navigating between traditional gender roles and revolutionary combat duties.

Dr Steven Meed, son of Vladka Meed (née Feyge Peltel), reflects on his mother’s extraordinary courage as an 18-year-old member of the Bund’s youth organisation in Warsaw during the German invasion of 1939. Recognised for her fearlessness, resourcefulness, and perfect command of Polish, Vladka was entrusted with increasingly dangerous missions on the Aryan side. After liberation, she dedicated her life to speaking and writing—first in Yiddish—about her wartime experiences, ensuring the memory of those who perished and survived would endure with dignity and respect.

This event is presented in partnership with the Wagner College Holocaust Center, the Arnold and Leona Finkler Institute of Holocaust Research at Bar-Ilan University, Remember the Women Institute, the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, Classrooms Without Borders, and the Rabin Chair Forum.

Online Roundtable: Visual Languages And Mediums Of Holocaust Literature
2025-11-04 19:00 - 20:00
Join us for an engaging online roundtable exploring the visual languages of Holocaust literature. This discussion will examine how literary texts engage with visual elements—and how photography, film, art, and other visual representations of the Holocaust have influenced and been influenced by literature. The speakers will consider a diverse range of works, including graphic novels, to reflect on how visual media shapes our understanding of Holocaust memory and representation.

Speakers:

Daniel H. Magilow: Professor of German, University of Tennessee

Lynn Wolff: Associate Professor of German, Michigan State University

Brad Prager: Professor of German and Film Studies, University of Missouri

Chair:

McKenna Marko: Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Holocaust Literature, University of Leeds

This event forms part of the ongoing series featuring original research from the forthcoming Cambridge History of Holocaust Literature, presented by the project Rethinking Holocaust Literature: Contexts, Canons, and Circulations.

Learn more: Rethinking Holocaust Literature: Public Engagement Programme

87th Commemoration of the November Pogrom
2025-11-09 14:00 - 16:00 | Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, 1 Duncombe Rd, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa
The Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, the Goethe-Institut, and the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung invite you to their annual commemoration of the 1938 November Pogrom (Kristallnacht).

The commemoration will include formal remarks, a candle lighting ceremony, a performance by violinist Sharon De Kock, a screening of the film Das Tagebuch Der Anne Frank (The Diary of Anne Frank) (2016), followed by a keynote address from director Hans Steinbichler.

Hans Steinbichler was born in Solothurn, Switzerland, and grew up near Lake Chiemsee. He lives in Munich with his family.

Steinbichler’s graduation film Hierankl (HFF Munich) marked his debut and earned numerous awards, including the Förderpreis Deutscher Film (2003), the Bavarian Film Prize, and the Grimme Gold Award for script and directing.

His second feature, Winterreise (2006), opened the Munich Film Festival and was nominated for the German Film Prize for Best Film, with Josef Bierbichler receiving the Best Actor Lola.

In 2008, Steinbichler directed The Second Woman, starring Matthias Brandt and Monika Bleibtreu, the official German contribution to the Toronto Film Festival. The film earned him another Grimme Prize for directing and was released in French cinemas.

In 2010, he directed Blue of the Sky, featuring Juliane Köhler and Hannelore Elsner, which won the Bavarian Film Prize (2011) for Best Picture. He subsequently directed several acclaimed episodes of Polizeiruf 110 with Matthias Brandt, garnering multiple awards including the German Television Award.

From 2013 to 2015, Steinbichler served as Professor of Directing at the Cologne International Film School.

In 2016, his feature Das Tagebuch der Anne Frank (The Diary of Anne Frank) premiered at the Berlinale, followed by a nationwide release. The film earned Steinbichler the German Director Award Metropolis, while lead actress Lea van Acken received the Bavarian Film Prize. That same year, he was appointed a full member of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts.

His next feature, An Unheard Woman (2016), starring Rosalie Thomass, won the One Future Prize at the Munich Film Festival, the German Television Award (2018), and the Grimme Prize (2018).

In 2017, Steinbichler directed the ZDF historical mini-series Walpurgisnacht, filmed in Prague and the Czech Republic, followed by Hannes (2021), based on the novel by Rita Falk.

In 2020/2021, he co-directed the third season of Das Boot for Sky, filmed in Prague and Malta, released in spring 2022.

Most recently, Steinbichler completed A Whole Life (2023), an adaptation of the acclaimed novel set in the Alps. The film has been a major box-office success and received multiple nominations for German and Austrian film awards.
