Stefan Heym

Writer
1913 (Chemnitz)–2001 (En Bokek, Israel)

His father, a Jewish merchant from Chemnitz, took his own life in 1935. At that point, his son – who had emigrated to Czechoslovakia – was already writing under the pseudonym Stefan Heym for anti-fascist journals. He was lucky enough to emigrate to the USA and study. In 1943, the Army recruited him for their psychological warfare and in 1945 he helped the Americans in Munich with the re-education of the Germans, who also gave them the influential Neue Zeitung. When McCarthy began his campaign against the liberals in 1952 in the USA, Heym, now a US citizen, left for the GDR. He became one of their best authors. Although in solidarity with the new state, he was also a steady critic who engaged in battle with those in power, and endured repeated harassment. However, Heym still fought to save parts of the socialist legacy at the end of 1989.

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