Kurt Kläber was a Jewish Communist and writer displaced from Germany during the Second World War. He has also been published under the pseudonym Kurt Held.

He married writer Lisa Tetzner. With the encouragement of his wife, Lisa, Kläber devoted himself to writing. The conditions of his exile prohibited him from publishing under his own name, so he adopted the pseudonym Kurt Held. He saw children as the true victims of war, class struggle and injustice. His books portrayed children realistically and conveyed messages of morality. His greatest success "The Outsiders of Oskoken Castle" (German: Die Rote Zora und ihre Bande) was soon followed by similar books about working class children: “Der Trommler von Faido” (The Drummer of Faido), “Matthias und seine Freunde” (Matthias and his Friends) and the four volume series “Giuseppe und Maria”.