Hanna Krall (born 1935), is a Polish writer with a degree in journalism from the University of Warsaw, specializing among other subjects in the history of the Holocaust in occupied Poland. Personal life Krall is of Jewish origin, the daughter of Salomon Krall and Felicia Jadwiga née Reichold. She was born in Warsaw, Poland, but her date of birth is contested between 20 May 1935 and 20 May 1937. She was four years old, living in Lublin, when the World War II began with the Nazi German invasion of Poland. Krall lost most of her close relatives in the Holocaust, including her mother and father, who were murdered in Majdanek. She survived deportations to death camps only because she was hidden from the Germans by the Polish rescuers. After the war, she stayed in her childhood home in Otwock until going to the University of Warsaw for her education from 1951-1955. She is married to reporter Jerzy Szperkowicz and together have one daughter, Katarzyna. Career Journalism After Krall finished her studies in journalism, she started working for the Polish local paper Życie Warszawy ("Warsaw Life") from 1955 to 1966. She debuted her first article In 1966, she left the paper and began to write for the well known magazine Polityka ("Politics"). In 1981, Wojciech Jaruzelski, then Prime Minister of the former People's Republic of Poland, declared martial law, Krall was forced to leave Polityka. Afterwards, she worked as a freelance writer for the rest of the decade, writing articles for the Catholic newsletter Tygodnik Powszechny. In the early 90s, after the fall of Communism, she started writing articles for the Gazeta Wyborcza, under Adam Michnik. Books During Krall's time working for Polityka, she published her first book named Na wschód od Arbatu ("Heading east from Arbat") in 1972, written after she spent several years as a correspondent in Moscow. The book depicted day-to-day life in Moscow during the 1960s. Commercial success came with the publication of the 1977 Zdążyć przed Panem Bogiem (engl. title: Shielding the Flame). The book is based on an interview with a Polish Jewish cardiologist and social activist, Marek Edelman, who was one of the founders of Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa (Jewish Combat Organization) and who took over its leadership after the head-commander Mordechai Anielewicz had perished. 'Shielding the Flame can be seen as a model for most of Krall's works. Krall describes the relations between Jews,