Nelly Sachs was born Leonie Sachs on December 10, 1891. She was educated in Berlin, the only child born into an upper-class, liberal family. Her parents, William Sachs and Margarete Karger Sachs, were fully assimilated into German life and had largely abandoned their Jewish traditions. Indeed, many of Sachs earlier works include references to Christianity, rather than to Judaism. Sachs's father was an inventor and industrialist and her mother did not work away from home. Sachs did not adjust well to school and so she was educated at home, where she learned about literature, music, and dance. The Sachs family was musical; the father played the piano and Sachs danced for her parents. Perhaps because she did not attend school, Sachs had few friends and spent most of her time in the company of her parents. She rarely spoke about the details of her childhood, and so little...