This paper examines the emigration and exile of Nobel Laureate Nelly Sachs. Forced to leave Germany in 1940 Nelly Sachs found herself in Sweden, an unknown not welcoming country. Trapped between the sending country and the receiving one, she had to cope with her two-fold situation. Can personal belongings be of importance? Can things, artifacts that we have around us and sometimes don¹t reflect over simply be of great importance for us when we need to leave our homeland and start a new life in a new country?
My intention is to discuss whether or not emigration and exile is easier to endure for people who manage to take something along with them on their journey to a new country. Whatever it is that was grasped in flight, it can become an artifact of remembrance, a bridge between the old country and the new or even more, it can be the difference between life and death.