Szenes, Erzsi
SZENES, ERZSI
SZENES, ERZSI (1902–1979), Hungarian poet and author. Born in Nagymihály (then in Hungary) she lived in Kassa (Košice) between World War i and World War ii but was in contact with literary circles in Budapest, and with the literary periodical Nyugat. At the beginning of the Slovakian mass deportations, she fled to Budapest, but was deported to Auschwitz. After World War ii she returned to Czechoslovakia and from there moved to Israel in 1949.
Erzsi Szenes wrote verse in the biblical spirit, and Jewish themes were always present in her poetry; from the period of Nazi persecution onward, they formed the only subject of her work. Her writings include the poems Selyemgombolyag ("The Coil of Silk," 1924) and Fehér kendő ("White Shawl," 1928); and the stories Nyártól nyárig ("From Summer to Summer," 1943), and Van hazám ("I Have a Homeland," 1956).
bibliography:
Magyar Zsidó Lexikon (1929), s.v.; Magyar Irodalmi Lexikon, 3 (1965), s.v.
[Baruch Yaron]