Jacob Picard, a lawyer with a doctorate, is regarded as the chronicler of rural German Jews on account of his literary works. He was born in 1883 as the son of Jewish parents in Wangen on the Höri peninsula of Lake Constance where ostracised artists such as Otto Dix or Max Ackermann went into "inner emigration" during the Nazi dictatorship in Germany.

Picard, too, was persecuted at that time. He was forced from his profession as a lawyer in 1933 and, in 1935, from the Reich Literature Chamber. He continued to write, however, including his autobiography Erinnerungen eigenen Lebens. As a result, Picard moved to Berlin and left Germany in 1940 in fear of his life. His escape route took him via Russia, Korea, and Japan to the USA. There Picard enjoyed no success either as a lawyer or as a writer and had to rely on grants. He made his living variously as a gardener and labourer. Occasionally he was able to publish newspaper or magazine articles. 

In 1942, Picard became a resident of the Refugee Hostel in Cummington, soon followed by one of his friends, the graphic artist Gustav Wolf . In 1946, he accepted US citizenship, but then decided to move with his daughter to the Netherlands. At the end of the 1950s he made his first visit to Germany, where he returned permanently in 1965. Picard died in Konstanz two years later, having seen his early stories reissued.

Selected works:
Das Ufer (Gedichte, 1913)
Erschütterung (Gedichte, 1920)
Der Gezeichnete. Jüdische Geschichten aus einem Jahrhundert (1935)
Der Uhrenschlag (Gedichte, 1960) 

Further reading:
Bosch, Manfred (Hrsg.): Jacob Picard. Werke, 2 Bände, Konstanz: Faude 1991.