Elisabeth Augustin (13 June 1903 – 14 December 2001) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

writer. The daughter of Eduard Joseph Glaser, a Roman Catholic, and Ella Cohn, a Jew, she was born Elisabeth Theresia Glaser in

Friedenau Friedenau () is a locality (''Ortsteil'') within the borough (''Bezirk'') of Tempelhof-Schöneberg in Berlin, Germany. Relatively small by area, its population density is the highest in the city. Geography Friedenau is part of the southwestern s ...

, a suburb of

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, and grew up in

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

and Berlin. By the age of 20, she was writing poetry and short stories that were published in local newspapers. In 1933, she completed her first novel ''Der Ausgestoßene'' (The outcast); it was accepted for publication but was not released due to the political environment in Germany at the time. Later that year, she left for the Netherlands. Her husband, Paul Felix Augustin, had grown up there and she already spoke

. Her own Dutch translation of her first novel was published as ''De uitgestootene'' in 1935. She had published three more novels in Dutch by 1938. In 1938, her parents left Germany to join her in the Netherlands. However, after her father died in 1942, her mother was deported to the

Sobibór extermination camp Sobibor (, Polish: ) was an extermination camp built and operated by Nazi Germany as part of Operation Reinhard. It was located in the forest near the village of Żłobek Duży in the General Government region of German-occupied Poland. As a ...

where she was murdered in the gas chambers. Her later writing is strongly influenced by

Judaism Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in the ...

and

the Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

, even though Augustin herself did not follow Jewish customs or the Jewish religion. She published the novel ''Labyrint'' (Dutch) in 1955. A German version ''Auswege'' appeared in 1988; it was to be her last novel, although she continued to produce poetry, short stories and radio plays. In 1992, she was awarded the

Jacobson award Jacobson may refer to: * Jacobson (surname), including a list of people with the name * Jacobson, Minnesota, a place in the United States * Jacobson's, an American regional department store chain See also * Jacobsen (disambiguation) * Jakobso ...

for her work. She died in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

in 2001.

References

1903 births 2001 deaths Writers from Berlin German people of Jewish descent 20th-century Dutch novelists 20th-century German novelists Dutch women novelists 20th-century German women writers 20th-century Dutch women writers People from Tempelhof-Schöneberg German emigrants to the Netherlands {{Germany-writer-stub