Mascha Kaléko (1907–1975)

Mascha Kaléko ist in Galizien geboren. Ihre jüdischen Eltern übersiedelten nach Deutschland. In Berlin veröffentlichte sie mit 22 Jahren ihren ersten Lyrikband mit Großstadtgedichten. Im Dritten Reich wurden ihre Texte verboten. Sie emigrierte mit ihrem zweiten Mann und ihrem Sohn nach USA und dann - ihrem Mann zuliebe - nach Israel. Sie starb während einer Europa-Reise in Zürich, nachdem sie bereits ihren einzigen Sohn und ihren Mann verloren hatte. Mascha Kalékos Werk wird der "Neuen Sachlichkeit" zugerechnet (wie z.B. Kästner oder Ringelnatz), sie steht aber auch in der Tradition von Heinrich Heine.

Mascha Kaléko was born Golda Malka Aufen in Chrzanów (Schidlow), Poland in what is now Austria, the daughter of an unmarried Jewish Russian-Austrian couple. The family fled persecution of the Jews in Galicia and moved to Germany. Although her father was imprisoned as an "enemy alien" druing World War I, she attended high school in Frankfurt and went on to take classes in psychology and philosophy at Lessing College and Humboldt University in Berlin. In 1928, she married Saul Aron Kaléko, a Hebrew philologist. Mascha Kaléko wrote poems that were regularly published in newspapers and were well-received by critics. She became well-known in German literary circles. She produced a popular collection of witty, satirical verses entitled Das Lyrische Stenpgrammhelft in 1933. Two years later her volume Das kleine Lesebuch für Grosse (The Little Reader for Grownups) appeared. Her third book, Verse fuer Zeitgenossen, was not published in Germany until 1958 because of her anti-Nazi sentiments. She later expanded her scope to include children's books. After her first marriage ended in divorce, she remarried to Cemjo Vinaver, a musician and composer. In 1939, she and her family fled the Nazi regime and emigrated to the USA, settling in New York City. After 25 years there, Mascha Kaléko and her husband went to live in Israel. Numerous collections of her unpublished poems were printed after her death.