A Lesser Child: An Autobiography

Gershon (1924-1993), a poet who has written about her experience as a refugee during WW II ( We Came As Children ), here gives a searing account of growing up as a Jewish child in Hitler's Germany. She writes in the third person, referring to herself as ``Kate,'' the youngest of three daughters born into a close, financially secure family. As anti-Semitism gained ground, Kate's feelings of inferiority increased. Gershon skillfully evokes the slow erosion of civil rights for German Jews and the ways in which this political climate increased the tensions among Kate, her parents and sisters. She is unflinchingly candid about the hostility she felt towards her older sister Anne, whose strength of character she envied. Channeling her anxiety into poetry, Kate wrote about the meaning of being Jewish and her desire to go to Israel. In 1938 her father was able to evacuate Kate and one of her sisters to England before he and his wife were murdered by the Nazis. Photos. (June)