Pool, Rosa Eva, 1903-1971

Born in 1905, Rosey (Rosa) Eva Pool grew up in the Jewish quarter of Amsterdam. Raised by liberal-minded parents who preached against prejudice and in favour of tolerance, Pool developed an avid interest in African-American writing while training to be a teacher. A fan letter to Harlem Renaissance figure Counte Cullen (provoked by a chance reading of his poem 'Incident') mushroomed into frequent correspondence with various African-American poets in the 1920s. By the end of the decade, Pool was studying cultural anthropology in Berlin and completing a thesis entitled 'The Poetic Art of the North American Negro'.

After the Nazi Party took power in Germany, and their persecution of the Jews became increasingly overt, Pool began to speak out against the regime. By 1938 the situation had become too dangerous for her to remain. Before the year was out she had returned to Amsterdam where she taught English to refugees and Jewish children for several years. In May 1943 her family was interned in the Westerbork transit camp and within weeks her parents, her only brother, and his wife had died in Sobibor. In September the Westerbork officials allowed a small group of inmates to travel to Amsterdam to collect books for a projected library and Rosey made her escape. She remained in hiding in Baarn until the war's end, writing poetry inspired by her experiences of the camp, and, through the underground press, publishing poetry translations.

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