Karen Gershon

Karen Gershon

Karen Gershon, born Kaethe Loewenthal (29 August 1923 – 24 March 1993) was a German-born British writer and poet. She escaped to Britain in December 1938.

Her book We came as Children: A Collective Autobiography uses a number of testimonies of kindertransport to construct a single account.

One of her best-known poems, I was not there, describes her feelings of guilt at not being there when her parents were murdered by the Nazis.

Works

Memorial plaque at Harwich to the Kindertransport, includes "My Father" by Gershon

Poetry

• The Relentless Year New Poets 1959, Eyre & Spottiswoode 1960
• Selected Poems Gollancz 1966 (published in the United States by Harcourt Brace & World in 1967)
• Legacies and Encounters Gollancz 1972
• My Daughters, My Sisters Gollancz 1975
• Coming Back from Babylon Gollancz 1979
• Collected Poems Macmillan, Papermac 1990
• Grace Notes (with drawings by Stella Tripp), Happy Dragons Press, 2002

Non-Fiction

• We came as children (German: Wir kamen als Kinder) London, Gollancz 1966, republished Macmillan, Papermac 1989 (published in the US by Harcourt Brace & World in 1967 and in Germany by Alibaba Verlag in 1988)
• Postscript: A Collective Account of the Lives of Jews in West Germany Since the Second World War Gollancz 1969

Fiction

• Burn Helen Harvester Press 1980
• The Bread of Exile Gollancz 1985
• The Fifth Generation (German: Die Fünfte Generation) Gollancz 1987 (published in Germany Alibaba Verlag 1988)

Other

• A Tempered Wind (Autobiography, Vol.2, 1938–1943) Northwestern University Press 2009
• A Lesser Child (German: Das Unterkind) (Autobiography, Vol.1) Peter Owen 1993 (published in Germany Rowohlt 1992)
• Only Meant to Comfort (German: Mich nur zu trösten bestimmt) Karin Fischer, Edition Roter Stein 2000 (in Germany)

Sources

• Peter Lawson (2006): Anglo-Jewish Poetry from Isaac Rosenberg to Elaine Feinstein. Pub. Vallentine Mitchell.
• J. M. Ritchie, German-speaking Exiles in Great Britain, Rodopi, Amsterdam, 2001, ISBN 90-420-1537-3.
• Literary estate of Karen Gershon (see External Links).

External links

• Shmuel Huppert, Biography of Karen Gershon, Jewish Women's Archive
• Meinolf Schumacher, Bielefelder Literatur-Splitter (12): "Wilhelm Harms' House" (Karen Gershon)
• Website of Stella Tripp, daughter of Karen Gershon, executor of literary estate of Karen Gershon
• Website of Naomi Shmuel, daughter of Karen Gershon, site contains further information about Karen Gershon
• Poems by Karen Gershon, 16 poems read by the author (with text)