AustLit

Hanna Foks was born in Mährisch-Ostrau, Austria (later Moravska Ostrava, Czechoslovakia), attended a German-speaking high school, then in 1929 gained qualifications for teaching the piano at the German Conservatorium in Prague. Between 1929 and 1932 she lived in Berlin performing in literary cabarets. From 1933 to 1940 she lived in Paris, moving on to Marseilles from where, in 1942, she escaped to Switzerland only to be arrested and interned.

Foks began writing at the age of eight, first in German and later in French. Her first book was published in Konstanz (Germany) in 1932. Her second volume of poetry was published in Paris in 1938.She won a prize in 1944 for one of the best ten stories by a refugee writer. She read her poems on the German program of Moravska Ostrava Radio between 1929 and 1933 and in German on Radio 5 UV, Adelaide. She was also interviewed and read her work on Channel 7, Melbourne, and on Radio 3RRR in 1985.