Gunvor Hofmo never came across his teenage girlfriend, Ruth Maier. She who was gassed to death in Auschwitz 22 years old. – In my world, the two are Romeo and Juliet, says Jan Erik Vold.
Jan Erik Vold is up to date with the biography of Gunvor Hofmo. – Hofmo’s history is important and must not be forgotten, says Vold. Photo: Vidar Ruud, NTB scanpix
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The highly original poet Gunvor Hofmo is something unique in Norwegian literature. Through 50 years and 20 collections of poems, she never quite manages to escape the loss of her only one, her boyfriend; Ruth Maier. Jewish Maier was deported in 1942 along with 531 Norwegian Jews. She was gassed to death shortly after arriving in Auschwitz.
Ruth Maier was not allowed to live in Norway for four years, from the time she arrived in 1939 until she was deported in November 1942. The only person she really connected with in Norway was Gunvor Hofmo, who never recovered from the loss of Ruth Maier. The author constantly returns to the loss, to the shock, to the grief and to the meaningless cruelty of the war in what she writes.
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