Search engine Google has celebrated German-Swedish poet Nelly Sachs' 127th birth anniversary with a doodle. Leonie 'Nelly Sachs was born in Berlin on December 10, 1891. She arrived as a refugee in Sweden and since then worked actively as a writer. A daughter of a successful manufacturer she picked up writing from an early age. Her poems were featured in several newspapers of the 1920s. Her poems left a deep impact on the readers as she wrote about the aftermath of the war and expressing the sentiment of the families who lost their lives. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in the year 1966.

Sachs has published several poetry collections, playwrights and has won many accolades for her work. She has also won the 1965 Peace Prize. Her work speaks volumes of her and the Google Doodle illustrated by Finnish artist Daniel Stolle, gives a background of the war, the departure or rather the longing to go back. The typewriter with flowing pages signifies her writing about the world war and its aftermath. As Google celebrates her 127th birth anniversary know some more facts about Nelly Sachs and her work.

  • Nelly Sachs' poem titled "O die Schornsteine" ("O the Chimneys"), actually talks about the spirits of those who have departed in the war, it had an image of smoke rising from the camps and was one of the most tugging works of her.
  • Sachs was so affected by the Nazis intervention that at one time she thought she would lose her ability to speak. A lot of her family was killed in the concentration camps. She fled from Germany in the year 1940 along with her mother.
  • She took extremely good care of her mother and helped the family through her works and translations.
  • Some of her most famous works include "Zeichen im Sand" (1962), "Verzauberung" (1970), poetry collections like In den Wohnungen des Todes(1947), Flucht und Verwandlung (1959), Fahrt ins Staublose (1961) and the play titled Eli: Ein Mysterienspiel vom Leiden Israels (1950).
  • After the death of her mother, Nelly Sachs went into a psychiatric breakdown.
  • Nelly Sachs passed away at the age of 78. She lost her life to intestinal cancer on May 12, 1970.

Nelly Sachs was no less than an inspiration and a support to the people affected by the World War II. Calling the metaphorical writing as "wounds," Nelly Sachs had the ability to invoke emotions about one of the darkest times of world history.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 10, 2018 03:40 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).