Jakov Lind

Jakov Lind (born Heinz Jakov Landwirth, 10 February 1927 in Vienna – 16 February 2007 in London) was an Austrian-British writer of short stories and novels.

After the annexation of Austria by Germany in 1938, Jews were immediately targeted by the new Nazi regime with anti-Semitic decrees designed to make their lives untenable and force them to leave Austria. The decrees included prohibition of using public transportation, of being employed, and of operating businesses. Jews were expelled from schools and universities, had their businesses "Aryanized", a euphemism for their theft and confiscation by the Nazi regime, and were harassed with washing street signs of the previous regime in front of cheering and violent mobs. Eventually they were forced out of their apartments and prevented from leaving the country by themselves.

While sitting in a cafe, Lind's father was picked up and arrested by the Gestapo, and shortly afterwards the family was ordered to evacuate their apartment within 24 hours. On the run, his mother managed to find a place for Lind and two sisters on a "Kindertransport" bound to the Netherlands. After Lind's father was somehow released, his parents struggled to leave Austria on a Danube barge bound for the Black Sea. There they boarded the ship Patria which was accidentally sunk at Haifa Port in November 1940 by the Hagana in an effort to prevent the British from turning it back to Europe.

As a child of 11 years in the Netherlands, Lind stayed initially in a children home in The Hague with his two sisters, but after a few months the siblings were separated and Lind moved in with a foster family who was paid by a Jewish organization towards his upkeep. After the Nazi invasion of the Netherlands on 10 May 1940, the situation became difficult for the family, and Lind had to leave. He spent various time periods with different families as well as in a youth center in Gouda. Lind moved to Amsterdam and stayed with the family Granaat, first in their home in Amsterdam South, then joining them when they were forced to evacuate their apartment and move into the Jewish Ghetto.

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