Anja Lundholm (1918–2007)

Anja Lundholm was the pen name of Helga Erdtmann. She went to Berlin as a young woman to study acting and singing, but in 1941 had to flee to Rome to escape Nazi persecution. There she worked for the Resistance, was captured by the Gestapo and sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp. She survived and after the war worked as a journalist and translator in Brussels, Stockholm, Rome and London. She wrote a memoir, Das Höllentor (The Gates of Hell) and numerous novels, and in her last two decades received many literary awards for her work, both in Germany and in Sweden. She also appeared in two documentaries about her life, in 1998 and 2007.