1906–1942
Exiled writer who recorded children’s experiences of the Spanish war
She drew on children she met at an International Brigades home, seeking to represent their memories and emotions rather than treating them only as an audience for propaganda.
German Jewish writer for children and young readers. After fleeing Nazi Germany for France, she worked at the Ernst Thälmann children’s home established by the International Brigades in Spain. Children’s experiences informed her novel Vier spanische Jungen. Deported to Auschwitz in 1942, she is believed to have been murdered there; the exact date of her death is unknown.
Also known as: Ruth Schaul
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1925–1929Studied law in Berlin and Heidelberg but left without a degree.
- 1931Published her first stories in the children's book series Sonne und Regen im Kinderland.
- 1932Published Müllerstraße, Jungens von heute, about the lives of working-class children in Berlin.
- 1934Her youth novel Janko, der Junge aus Mexiko, written in Parisian exile, was published in Strasbourg.
- 1937Tsao und Jing-Ling, Kinderleben in China appeared in a Swiss trade-union newspaper through Lisa Tetzner's advocacy.
- 1937–1938Travelled in Spain to research a children's book on the civil war on the side of the International Brigades.
- 1938Completed Vier spanische Jungen at the end of the year; the novel was published only in 1987.
Related historical events
Child relief and war literature
Rewald’s work in child relief shows that the international volunteers’ activities extended beyond combat. Stories from children at the Ernst Thälmann home became material for Vier spanische Jungen. Writing about the conflict meant bringing its political character together with children’s everyday lives, fears, and feelings.
In chapter 6 of Untold Stories of the Spanish Civil War, Lena Hein examines Rewald’s manuscripts and personal papers to consider how childhood experiences were reconstructed as literature. A novel is not an unmediated transcript of testimony, but it can open a route into experiences often excluded from adult-centered military histories. Rewald’s political commitments therefore need to be read alongside her attention to young readers’ understanding.