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.

Karen Gershon

Her book We came as Children: A Collective Autobiography uses a number of testimonies of kindertransport to construct a single account.[1]

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

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

Poetry

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  • 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

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  • 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

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  • 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

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  • 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

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  • 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).

References

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  1. ^ J. M. Ritchie, work cited, page 4
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