Word comes from Europe this morning that Hans Keilson, the last living author from the Weimar Republic, has died at the age of 101. In addiion to his novels and novellas, Keilson was a renown psychoanalyst who worked with children who survived the Holocaust. It was only last year that Keilson found a new American audience after the New York Time published glowing reviews of new English translations of his work.
Dr. Roland Kaufhold in Cologne has written exenstively about Keilson's work (both psychoanalytic and fiction) has a moving obituary on haGalil.com:
Sein Leben hat mehr als 100 Jahre berührt, durchlebt: glückliche, traumatische, mörderische, produktiv verarbeitete – nun ist er nicht mehr unter uns. Am 31. Mai 2011 ist der jüdische Schriftsteller, Psychoanalytiker, Exilant und Menschenfreund Hans Keilson im Alter von 101 Jahren in einem Krankenhaus im niederländischen Hilversum verstorben. Ich werde ihn vermissen. Er hat das Leben zahlreicher Leser bereichert, weltweit. Was jedoch mehr zählen mag ist Hans Keilsons jahrzehntelange psychotherapeutische Arbeit mit jüdischen Jugendlichen, Überlebenden der Schoah. Ihnen hat er Lebensmut geschenkt, über ihr schweres Schicksal hat er geschrieben. Immer wieder.
(His life spanned and touched more than 100 years – productive, happy ones, but also traumatic and murderous ones, all dealt with productively – now he is no longer among us. On May 31, 2011 the Jewish writer, psychoanalyst, exile, and friend of humanity Hans Keislon died in a hospital in the Dutch city Hilversum at the age of 101. I will miss him. He enriched the lives of countless readers around the world. But what may count even more is his decades-long therapeutic work with Jewish youth who survieve the Shoah. He gave them the courage to live, and wrote constantly about their terrible fate.)
Read my reviews of Tod des Widersachers (Death of the Adversary) and Das Leben geht weiter (Life Goes On).
