Gerda Szepansky

Life & Legacy

Gerda Szepansky (born Gerda Lange: 6 September 1925 - 3 August 2004) was a teacher in West Berlin who lost her job for political reasons. She had dreamed of working as a journalist since childhood, and following her dismissal was able to focus on building a successful career producing "cheerful stories about dogs and babies" for magazines. She also appeared on stage in post-war Berlin in cabaret and independent theatre groups. She married a concentration camp survivor (who was also a committed communist) and, after their children had grown up, published a number of popular history books focusing on contemporary history and on the Hitler years through which she had lived as a teenager, and during which her husband had been a resistance activist. Literary success and the passing of the years brought her a measure of official respectability: in 1996 she was a recipient of the Order of Merit ("Bundesverdienstkreuz am Bande").