Else Ury

Born in Berlin to an affluent family, Else Ury received a private education, and after graduating from high school, she began writing for the important German newspaper Vossische Zeitung. She published her first book—of didactic stories for children—in 1905. At the end of World War I, Ury put out the first volume in the Nesthäkchen series for which she is best known. The series, intended for and marketed to teenage girls, was massively popular in Weimar Germany, bringing Ury a great deal of independent wealth and fame. In all, Ury’s literary output totaled thirty-nine books, including the ten volumes of the Nesthäkchen series published between 1918 and 1925. Ury’s writing made no reference to Jewish characters, but regardless, Nazi authorities barred her from publishing in 1935, and banned her books. She was murdered at the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp.