Karen Gershon--German

Kaethe Loewenthal, later changing her name to Karen Gershon was born in 1923 in Bielefeld, Germany. When Hitler came into power her parents sent her to England for safety. There she became a chronicler of the Kindertransport (Children’s Transportation) program recording the story of young Germans who were escaping the Nazi between 1938 and 1939. During this time she began writing poetry. Both of Gershon’s parents died in the Holocaust and consequently much of her poetry expresses the guilt of being a survivor. Three of her most important works are We came as Children, the story of the Kindertransport, Postscript, a collection of stories of Jews living outside their homeland, Germany Since the Second War and her autobiographical novel, The Bread of Exile. Gershon lived her final years in Israel. She died in 1993.