Anja Lundholm
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28 April 1918
Anja Lundholm | |
|---|---|
| Born | Helga Erdtmann 28 April 1918 Düsseldorf , North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany |
| Died | 4 August 2007 (aged 89) Frankfurt am Main, Hesse, Germany |
| Occupation | novelist |
| Nationality | German |
| Genre | Prose |
| Notable works |
|
Anja Lundholm (born as Helga Erdtmann, 28 April 1918, Düsseldorf – 4 August 2007, Frankfurt), popularly known by her pen names Ann Berkeley and Alf Lindström, was a German novelist and holocaust survivor.[1]
Lundholm was the daughter of Erich Erdtmann, a German pharmacist from Krefeld and a member of the Schutzstaffel, and Elisabeth Blumenthal, who came from a wealthy Jewish family of bankers in Darmstadt.[1] In the years 1936–1939 she studied in Berlin.[1]
In 1941, she fled to Italy with the help of forged papers and established relations with members of the resistance movement in Rome.[1] Arrested, in March 1944, she was sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp. She managed to escape from the death march and ended up in the British army in Lüneburg with the help of the Red Cross.[1] After the war, she worked as a translator and journalist for the British press.[1]
Lundholm authored several books, including the memoirs Das Höllentor ("The Gates of Hell", 1988) that narrates her imprisonment in Ravensbrück concentration camp from spring 1944 until escape in early May 1945.[2]
Awards and honors
- 1970: Kulturpreis of the Federal Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany
- 1986: Förderpreis of the Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung
- 1991: Special Prize for the Erich Maria Remarque Peace Prize[3]
- 1993: Johanna Kirchner Medaille[4]
- 1997: Hans Sahl Preis for Das Höllentor[5]
- 1998: BDS Literature Prize
- 1998: Goethe Plaque of the City of Frankfurt
- 1998: Wilhelm-Leuschner Medal
- 2003: Niederrheinischer Literaturpreis[6]
