Born in Hamburg in 1927, she was the daughter of Herta Emanuel, who was half Portuguese, and Simon, a Polish Jew. Both were sent by the Nazis to the Treblinka extermination camp where they died in 1942. Parnass tells the story of her childhood in Unter die Haut (1983) and in Kindheit (2014), illustrated by Tita do Rêgo Silva. She and her little brother Gady had been sent to Sweden in 1939. Separated from her brother, she lived in 12 different families until, towards the end of the Second World War, she was sent to London to stay with an uncle, the only surviving member of the family. After spending three years there, she returned to Stockholm, completing her studies in Hamburg and Paris. Her brother went to Israel.
