Ilse Losa facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Ilse Losa
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| Born |
Ilse Lieblich
March 20, 1913 Melle, Germany
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| Died | January 6, 2006 (aged 92) Porto
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| Nationality | Portuguese |
| Occupation | Artist |
| Known for | Novelist, children's book writer and translator |
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Notable work
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O Mundo em que vivi |
Ilse Losa (1913—2006) was a famous Portuguese writer and translator. She was born in Germany and had a Jewish background.
Contents
Early Life in Germany
Ilse Lieblich Losa was born on March 20, 1913. Her hometown was Buer, a village in Melle, Germany. Her parents, Artur and Hedwig Lieblich, were both German Jews.
When she was very young, Ilse was raised by her grandparents. Later, she lived with her parents and two younger brothers, Ernest and Fritz. She went to high school in Osnabrück and Hildesheim. After that, she studied at the Hanover Business Institute.
In the late 1920s, her father passed away. This made things financially difficult for her family. To help out, Ilse went to England in 1930. She worked there for a year as an au pair, helping with children. This experience gave her ideas for her future writing about kids.
Moving to Portugal
When Ilse returned to Germany, she found that her family was facing more and more unfair treatment. This was because they were Jewish. The secret police, called the Gestapo, questioned her for hours. They even threatened to send her to a special camp.
Because of these dangers, Ilse and her mother decided to leave Germany. They traveled by boat and arrived in Portugal in 1934. They settled in the city of Porto, where her brother Fritz was already living.
In 1935, Ilse became a Portuguese citizen. She married an architect named Arménio Taveira Losa. In the same year, she joined a group called the Associação Feminina Portuguesa para a Paz. This group was for women who wanted peace and were against war. Her mother passed away in 1936.
Her Writing Career
Ilse Losa had two daughters, Alexandra, born in 1938, and Margarida, born in 1943.
In 1949, she published her first book, O Mundo em que vivi (The World I Lived In). This book shared stories from her childhood and teenage years, up until she left Germany. The terrible events of the Holocaust were a big part of this book. The Holocaust was a time when many Jewish people were persecuted and killed. Ilse Losa was one of the only writers in Portugal to write about this difficult topic. Her books helped people understand what happened before, during, and after the Holocaust. She wrote about the victims, the people who caused harm, those who watched, and those who resisted.
Even though Ilse Losa wrote many books for children, she also wrote for newspapers and magazines. Some of these included Jornal de Notícias and Público. She also helped translate books. She translated Portuguese books into German. And she translated German authors like Bertolt Brecht and Erich Kästner into Portuguese. She even translated The Diary of Anne Frank, a famous book about a young girl hiding during the Holocaust.
Ilse Losa passed away on January 6, 2006, in Porto, Portugal.
Awards and Special Recognitions
Ilse Losa received many awards for her amazing writing:
- She won the Gulbenkian Grand Prize for Literature for Children and Youth two times. She won in 1981 for her book Na Quinta das Cerejeiras (At the Cherry Farm). She won again in 1983 for all her children's books.
- In 1998, she received the Grand Prize from the Portuguese Writers Association. This was for a collection of her articles called À Flor do Tempo.
- On June 9, 1995, Ilse Losa was given a high honor in Portugal. She was made a Commander of the Order of Prince Henry (Portuguese: Ordem do Infante Dom Henrique).
- In 2013, a Portuguese postage stamp was made to honor her.
See also
- In Spanish: Ilse Losa para niños
