Zenia Larsson

Zenia Larsson
Born(1922-04-02)2 April 1922
Łódź, Poland
Died4 September 2007(2007-09-04) (aged 85)
Stockholm, Sweden
OccupationWriter, sculptor
LanguageSwedish

Zenia Szajna Larsson, née Marcinkowska (1922–2007) was a Polish-Swedish[1] writer and sculptor of Jewish descent. Larsson was a Holocaust survivor who was among the first in Sweden to describe their war experience.

Early life

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]

Career

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 Fran En Ny Verk Lighet (1972).[5]

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

References

  1. ^ "Zenia Larsson". Nationalencyklopedin. Retrieved 2023-01-07.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Larsson, Lisbeth (2018-03-08). "Zenia Szajna Larsson". Svenskt kvinnobiografiskt lexikon. Retrieved 2023-01-07.
  3. ^ a b c Kwiatkowski, Aleksander. "Zenia Larsson. Znana i nieznana" (in Polish). Retrieved 2023-01-07.
  4. ^ a b c Morgentaler, Goldie (2018-01-26). "A Tale of Two Writers: Chava Rosenfarb and Zenia Larsson". Tablet Magazine. Retrieved 2023-01-07.
  5. ^ a b c d "Larsson, Zenia Szajna". Nordic Women's Literature. Retrieved 2023-01-07.