the daughter of eduard joseph glaser, a roman catholic, and ella cohn, a jew, she was born elisabeth theresia glaser in friedenau, a suburb of berlin, and grew up in leipzig and berlin. by the age of 20, she was writing poetry and short stories that were published in local newspapers. in 1933, she completed her first novel "der ausgestoßene" (the outcast); it was accepted for publication but was not released due to the political environment in germany at the time. later that year, she left for the netherlands. her husband, paul felix augustin, had grown up there and she already spoke dutch.