Erna Rosenstein was a surrealist

Surrealism

Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....

 painter and poet

Poetry

Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...

. She was the daughter of an Austrian judge, born into a Jewish family in the town of Lemberg, Austria-Hungary

Austria-Hungary

Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...

, now Lwov in Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

. She died of arterial sclerosis

Atherosclerosis

Atherosclerosis is a condition in which an artery wall thickens as a result of the accumulation of fatty materials such as cholesterol...

.

In 1918 they moved to Kraków. In November 1918 Poland regained its independence as the Second Polish Republic (including Kraków and Lwov). Her father wanted her to take up in the family business of law. She however studied at Wiener Frauen Akademie (1932–1934) and Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków

Kraków

Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...

 (1934–1936).

She was a Communist and belonged to a group of artists known as the Kraków Group, which she had met at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. Her works were evoked by her experiences as a Jew in Nazi

Nazism

Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...

-occupied Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

. She and her parents went to Warsaw, but they were murdered by a Polish bandit, while they were trying to find a safe place. She was severely wounded, but survived.

After the war she was confronted with the reality of Communism

Communism

Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...

. Having idyllized it earlier, she ran into conflict with it. Her brother, the Austrian professor Paul N. Rosenstein-Rodan went on to became a Boston University

Boston University

Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...

 professor and economist

Economist

An economist is a professional in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy...

. Paul N. Rosenstein-Rodan coined the term "underdeveloped countries".

Erna Rosenstein published a book of her memoirs and several volumes of poetry.

External links

• Erna Rosenstein Bio
• Obituary from The Times
  The Times
  The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...