Nelly Sachs
(1891–1970)

Nelly Sachs began composing poetry in her late teens while growing up in the city of Berlin. As a young girl, Sachs sent a letter to Scandinavian author Selma Lagerlöf, in admiration of her writing. This letter launched a correspondence between the pair that would eventually change Sachs' life forever. By the 1920s, a local newspaper began to publish her work after Sachs submitted her poetry at the encouragement of her friend.

Ironically, it was history that would not only change the course of Sachs' life but also the focus of her writing. Hitler's rise to power in 1938 placed Sachs, who was Jewish, in a darker Germany. Upon learning that Sachs would be sent to a concentration camp in 1940, it was Lagerlöf who again took action. Following Lagerlöf's insistence, the Swedish government issued visas to transport Sachs and her mother to Sweden, where Sachs made a living by translating Swedish works into German.

After the Holocaust, Sachs committed her writing to the victims of the event, haunted by memories of dead friends and relatives. Her poignant poetry, captured in both And No One Knows Where to Go (1957) and Flight and Metamorphosis (1959), serves as a memorial for the sorrows endured by the Jewish people. In 1966, she was presented with the Nobel Prize for literature, which was an honor to Sachs and to the subjects of her writing.

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