14 Facts About Nelly Sachs

Nelly Sachs's experiences resulting from the rise of the Nazis in World War II Europe transformed her into a poignant spokesperson for the grief and yearnings of her fellow Jews.

Nelly Sachs was awarded the 1966 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Leonie Sachs was born in Berlin-Schoneberg, Germany, in 1891 to a Jewish family.

Nelly Sachs's parents were the wealthy natural rubber and gutta-percha manufacturers Georg William Sachs and his wife Margarete, nee Karger.

Nelly Sachs was educated at home because of frail health.

Nelly Sachs showed early signs of talent as a dancer, but her protective parents did not encourage her to pursue a profession.

Nelly Sachs grew up as a very sheltered, introverted young woman and never married.

Nelly Sachs pursued an extensive correspondence with her friends Selma Lagerlof and Hilde Domin.

Nelly Sachs continued to write while hospitalized, and eventually recovered sufficiently to live on her own, though her mental health remained fragile.

When Nelly Sachs met Celan she was embroiled in a long dispute with Finnish-Jewish composer Moses Pergament over his adaptation of her play.

Nelly Sachs's poetry is intensely lyrical and reflects some influence by German Romanticism, especially in her early work.

Much of it concerns an unhappy love affair Nelly Sachs suffered in her teens with a non-Jewish man who would eventually be killed in a concentration camp.

Nelly Sachs was interred in the Norra begravningsplatsen in Stockholm.

Nelly Sachs's possessions were donated to the National Library of Sweden.