Chaja Polak (* 1941) is a Dutch writer and visual artist. Her Jewish parents were active in the resistance during the Second World War, including for the underground newspaper “De Waarheid”. After their betrayal in 1944, Chaja’s father Hans Polak was murdered in Dachau, while her mother Annetje survived the Auschwitz concentration camp. Chaja was hidden at various addresses – initially with her mother, then later alone, with various families. Thus she was able to escape deportation. After the war, Polak was reunited with her mothe and went on to study at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie. Her paintings and drawings have been exhibited internationally, and she made her debut as a writer in 1989. Several of her books have been translated. Most recently, her “Letter in the Night” was published, in which a Holocaust survivor takes a humanistic look at the conflict in Israel and Gaza.
