Zenia Larsson

She was born on 2 April 1922 in Łódź,^[2] as Zenia Marcinkowska.^[3] She grew up in a working-class neighbourhood^[2] and became friends with Chava Rosenfarb, with whom she later exchanged letters for many years.^[4] In the years 1940–1944 she was confined in the Łódź Ghetto.^[2] During this time, Zenia's father committed suicide so that his wife and daughter could get his food rations; it was Rosenfarb who discovered the body.^[4] After the liquidation of the ghetto, Zenia was deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp, and then moved to Bergen-Belsen, where she was liberated in April 1945.^[2] With the help of the Red Cross, she emigrated to Sweden in August of the same year.^[5]

In Sweden, she first started studying at Konstfack, then moved on to the Royal Institute of Art,^[5] where she studied sculpture with Eric Grate.^[2] Working with such materials as wood, terracotta, plaster and marble, Larsson chiefly worked on character studies and portraits, including a portrait of Astrid Lindgren.^[2] Her works in public spaces include the Vandraren sculpture in Falun.^[2]

In 1960, Larsson made her debut as a writer with the autobiographical novel Skuggorna vid träbron,^[2] in which she described the experience of World War II from the point of view of her alter ego, a girl named Paula Levin.^[2][5] It was a first instalment in a war trilogy, which also includes Lang är gryningen (1961) and Livet till mötes (1962).^[2][3] Thus, Larsson became one of the first Holocaust survivors in Sweden to describe their war experiences.^[2][4]

Larsson's literary output includes a number of novels, short stories, essays and radio plays.^[2] She also published her letters to Chava Rosenfarb in a collection entitled Brev från en ny verklighet [Letters from a new reality] (1972).^[6]

Zenia Larsson died on 4 September 2007^[2] in Stockholm.^[3]