Together with her brother, she was raised by her grandmother, as her father's low income made it necessary for her ailing mother to work by hand to support the poor household.
During the First World War in 1915 she returned early to her parents' home in Krappitz, where she devoted herself entirely to her literary work in addition to caring for her sick mother.
Her first sketch, published in 1921 in the Sunday supplement of Vorwärts, was a story from the world of the working people, concise and simple, darkly tinted and of a strange fidelity to reality.
Throughout her life, Pohl was afflicted by illnesses and severe strokes of fate, but honourable words full of recognition, e.g. from Enrica von Handel-Mazzetti, lovingly encouraged her to continue her work and mature.
She was not a revolutionary and did not strive for social change; in her works she was much more reminiscent of a Christian's point of view, demanding compassion and understanding for the needy.