Background
The daughter of Alfred Michaelis and Gonda Sara Swaab, both Jewish, she was born in Amsterdam.
The daughter of Alfred Michaelis and Gonda Sara Swaab, both Jewish, she was born in Amsterdam.
Her parents were sent to Sobibór in 1943 and never returned. She lived in hiding from 1942 to 1945. After World World War II, Michaelis worked for the Artistic Affairs department of the municipality of Amsterdam.
She was awarded the Anna Bijns Prize in 1996.
Her work has a prevailing tone of melancholy, loneliness and despair, although her last collection of poems has a more vital tone to it and moments of humour. Michaelis died in Amsterdam at the age of 84.