Elzbieta Ettinger

Elżbieta Ettinger (September 19, 1924 – March 12, 2005) was a Polish-American Jewish writer.

Early life and education The daughter of Emmanuel Ettinger and Regina Stahl, she was born in Łódź. Along with her family, she was transferred to the Warsaw Ghetto but in 1942, she was able to escape the ghetto with the help of her mother and, using forged identity papers, adopted the name Elżbieta Chodakowska. She worked with the Polish resistance during World War II. In 1946, she received a degree in English and German philology from Jagellonian University and, in 1949, a MA in English philology from Warsaw University. In 1966, she earned a PhD in English and American literature from Warsaw University.

Career She worked at various jobs in post-war Poland, including journalism, translation, editing and research. Her career in Poland took a downturn after she refused a permanent post in the country's National Security office and she sought employment in the United States. Rising anti-Semitism in Poland at the time may have also contributed to her departure. From 1967 to 1974, she was a senior fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. From 1975 to 1996, she was a professor of writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; she helped establish the program in writing and humanistic studies there. Ettinger and her daughter later became American citizens. She also taught at the Pine Manor College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts from 1971 to 1973 and at the Harvard Extension School from 1972 to 1973.

Personal life In 1943, she married Gierek, a partisan sympathizer. The couple separated after the war and she had a relationship with university professor Manfred Lachs; they had a daughter.