Karen Kirsten is a writer, refugee advo­cate and geno­cide edu­ca­tor who lec­tures on the top­ics of hatred and rec­on­cil­i­a­tion around the world. Her work has appeared in Salon​.com, The Week, The Jerusalem Post, WIEZ in Poland, Boston’s Nation­al Pub­lic Radio sta­tion, The Age and The Syd­ney Morn­ing Her­ald. Her Best Amer­i­can Essays-nom­i­nat­ed piece, ​“Search­ing for the Nazi Who Saved My Mother’s Life,” was select­ed as a Nar­ra­tive­ly Best Ever sto­ry. Raised in Aus­tralia by a moth­er who was a Holo­caust and grand­par­ents who silenced her ques­tions about con­cen­tra­tion camps, Karen lived amongst refugees who were hid­ing hor­ri­ble secrets while try­ing to rebuild their iden­ti­ties. After dis­cov­er­ing her grand­par­ents were not her bio­log­i­cal grand­par­ents, she trav­eled the globe to uncov­er her family’s hid­den past. She has lived in five coun­tries across three con­ti­nents and now calls Mass­a­chu­setts home.