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Schools, Schools and More Schools!
San Francisco University High School was our first audience of over 425 students! The Q&A was led by the Jewish
Affinity Group Koach. It was an amazing day!
New York City was the next stop: Ramaz11th and 12th graders were fascinated with the education cut of the film (16 minutes) and wanted more time to see the entire Letters From Brno. The Q&A was fantastic!
Next was Hebrew Academy of Nassau County (HANC) elementary school. The 5th and 6th graders asked so many incredible questions and were mesmerized by the letters, photos and documents! If only we had more time...
East Side Community High School was our last stop before the NYC premiere on April 28th. The 10th graders just finished a Holocaust unit in History and asked very inspiring questions. Their research paper topics ranged from Hitler Youth Groups to The Role of Bystanders during the Holocaust. They were a delightful audience!
Chicago was fantastic! We visited two schools: Bernard Zell Anshe Emet and Hyde Park Day School and showed the16 minute education cut of the film. The students and teachers asked excellent questions and we tested the new letter analysis lesson activity with the Hyde Park Day School. The students gave helpful feedback.
The Chicago Jewish Film Festival screening of "Letters From Brno" at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center was outstanding! Rahim moderated the Q&A and the audience was exceptional.
San Francisco University High School is next on April 20th and then we are off to New York City for school visits and a Yom Hashoah screening of "Letters From Brno" at the Marlene Myerson JCC on April 28th at 7:00 p.m.
Letters From Brno just won Best Documentary at the Brno Film Festival! We are so happy to also announce that the film is also an official selection in the L.A. Independent Women Film Awards Festival. Stay tuned for more updates on the film and check out our trailer on the home page.
In September, 2021, Karen reunited with her cousins Gail Linkenhelt and Mark Purdom. Gail and Mark are Daisy's two children and they wanted to learn about the Turkl/Placzek family history that Karen had researched. Gail and Mark brought several of their adult children and their partners to learn about what had happened to Daisy and Erika and their parents during WWII. They saw the photographs, letters, and documents involved with this project and were able to better understand to their mother's (grandmother's) secret past.
June 2021, Karen traveled to Charles Armstrong School in Belmont, California to present two Holocaust seminars to 8th grade students. The presentations focused on linking the students’ recent Holocaust literature unit with the story of Erika and Daisy Turkl’s survival as Kindertransports from Nazi occupied Prague to London, England.
The students were fascinated with the primary sources of evidence that Karen shared including photos, documents and letters written by Karen’s grandparents and Erika and Daisy Turkl. A brief trailer of “Letters From Brno” was also shown and the students were each given a preliminary movie poster that they asked Karen to sign.
It was a fantastic day of testing some potential Holocaust curricula with students and getting their feedback. They stayed after class to peruse the letters and documents and to ask many questions.
