Mascha Kaléko's exile poems. Forced into exile by the Nazis, Mascha Kaléko lost not only her homeland but also her language and, consequently, her audience. She no longer wrote as she did in the 'Lyrical Stenogram Notebook' for the general public, but instead addressed her fellow sufferers and contemporaries who had to go into exile with her. Melancholic, often yearning, yet pointed and infused with her unique wit, she explores themes of home and foreignness, while subtly paying literary tribute to the New York artist neighborhood of Greenwich Village, where she lived with her family. 'Verses for Contemporaries' was one of the few volumes published in German in the USA during the 1940s.