Becker, Jurek

The German author Jurek Becker was born as Jerzy Bekker in Lódz, Poland. Because all documents were destroyed in the war, his date of birth was later estimated by the authorities. Both his parents were Jewish. His father, a clerk, was originally from Lithuania and his mother was Polish. Becker spent his early years in the Lódz ghetto. His father was later deported to Auschwitz while Becker and his mother were sent to Ravensbrück in 1944 and later to Sachsenhausen. His mother died from hunger, but father and son survived and were united after the end of the war. As Becker’s father thought that the Soviet regime would never allow anti-Semitism to spread again, they settled in East Berlin. Becker spoke no German at the time.