From Kazakhstan to Kilkeel: The Story of the Sekules Family

To mark Good Relations Week and its theme of ‘OpportUNITY’, Csilla Toldy and Esther Bloch (Sekules) tell the powerful story of the Sekules family, who came to settle in Northern Ireland in 1947.

The family was Jewish and had to flee their native Vienna when Germany invaded Austria. They ended up living for many years in Soviet detention camps in Kazakhstan before coming to Northern Ireland. In 1950, Edith and her husband Kurt established a successful knitting factory in Kilkeel, which at times employed over 100 women.

Csilla, whose book Enemy Alien was based on the early life of Walter Sekules (Edith and Kurt’s son, and Esther, the youngest daughter of the family, come together to tell the family’s extraordinary story.

This project is supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund.