Ilse Koehn, a writer and graphic artist, died on May 8 at her home in Greenwich, Conn. She was 61 years old.

Ms. Koehn died of a heart attack, a spokesman for the family said.

She moved to New York City from West Berlin in 1958 and worked as an art director for the J. Walter Thompson and Campbell-Downe advertising agencies. After she moved to Greenwich in 1970, she and her husband, John Van Zwienen, worked together as writers, illustrators and graphic designers. The couple later divorced.

Ms. Koehn's first book, "Mischling, Second Degree," described her experiences as a child of part-Jewish parentage growing up in Berlin under the Nazis and in evacuation camps during World War II. The book was published in six countries outside the United States, including Britain, France and West Germany. It received the Boston Globe Hornbook Award, the Jane Addams Peace Foundation Award for nonfiction and the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award as a book recommended for young readers.

Ms. Koehn was a member of the Graphic Artists Guild and the Authors Guild.

She is survived by a stepdaughter, Kyle Van Zwienen of Webster, Mass.