Heym, Stefan, 1913-2001

Stefan Heym (1913-2001) was an East German/American Jewish writer. He was born in Chemnitz, and in 1933 became Germany's youngest literary exile, spending the next two years subsisting from his writing in Prague. In 1935 he settled in America, where his activities included editing a German-language, anti-Fascist newspaper in New York, 1937-1939, and writing his first bestseller, Hostages . As an American soldier during World War II, he was at the spearhead of the Normandy invasion, and wrote broadcasts for Radio Luxembourg and newspapers in 1945 for the German civilian population. During the McCarthy purges Heym returned to Europe, and lived in East Berlin from 1953 until his death. In Germany his writings were influential, but at a cost: his open criticism of 'real existing socialism' brought him into conflict with the authorities, and he had the largest secret police file in East Germany. Heym received wide media coverage as a literary and political figure, and today his books are constantly in print in Germany.

From the guide to the Stefan Heym: Papers, 1931-[ongoing], (Cambridge University Library, Department of Manuscripts and University Archives)