Gerda Hoffer

Gerda Hoffer (born February 3, 1921 in Vienna ; died March 20, 2012 in Jerusalem ) was an Israeli writer .

Life

Gerda Pollatschek grew up in Vienna and was the daughter of the writer Stefan Pollatschek . In 1937 she was charged with communist activities and imprisoned for three months. After Austria was annexed to Nazi Germany, Gerda Hoffer fled to London with her parents . In 1942 she married the lawyer Friedrich Hoffer. In 1968 she published the detective novel Guilty, My Lord under the pseudonym Illy Stefan . In 1973 she visited Austria again for the first time.

After the death of her husband, Gerda Hoffer moved to Israel. She lived in Jerusalem since 1978. She became famous for her book A House in Jerusalem , in which she tells the story of a family who emigrated to Israel. In 2009 she and the memorial servant Matthias Schulz published transcribed letters from her aunt Gertrude Zeisler , who had written them in the Kielce ghetto . The book with the letters is available as teaching material for Austrian students. In 2012 she published the book Two Paths One Goal - Two Woman Fates Between Vienna and Jerusalem in the publishing house of the Theodor Kramer Society , of which she was a long-time member, together with Judith Hübner .

Gerda Hoffer died on March 20, 2012 in Jerusalem.

Works (selection)

• under the pseudonym Illy Stefan: Guilty, My Lord . Hong Kong 1968.
• I did not survive Jerusalem . 1981.
• Time of the heroines. Life pictures of extraordinary Jewish women . Munich 1999, ISBN 3-423-30701-3 .
• The utitz legacy . 1988
  • Inherited from my fathers: 400 years of European Judaism as reflected in a family history . Verlag Wissenschaft und Politik, Cologne 1990, ISBN 3-8046-8744-X .
• with Judith Hübner: Two paths, one goal - two women's fates between Vienna and Jerusalem. Edited by Evelyn Adunka and Konstantin Kaiser . Theodor Kramer Society, Vienna 2011, ISBN 978-3-901602-42-9 .

literature

• Siglinde Bolbecher , Konstantin Kaiser: Lexicon of Austrian exile literature . Vienna 2000, ISBN 3-216-30548-1 .
• Konstantin Kaiser: Gerda Hoffer 1921–2012. Obituary. In: Zwischenwelt. Journal of the Theodor Kramer Society . H. 1–2, 2012 ISSN  1606-4321 p. 39 (with photo)
• Alisa Douer : New territory. Israeli artists of Austrian origin. Picus, Vienna 1997, ISBN 3-85452-407-2 , pp. 168f. (Book accompanying the exhibition of the same name).

Web links

• Literature by and about Gerda Hoffer in the catalog of the German National Library