Aharon Appelfeld - Writers, Facts and Childhood
Aharon Appelfeld's Personal Details
Aharon Appelfeld is a celebrated Israeli author
| Information | Detail |
|---|---|
| Birthday | February 16, 1932 |
| Nationality | Israeli |
| Famous | Writers, Poets, Novelists, Short Story Writers |
| Known as | Ervin Appelfeld |
| Universities |
|
| Birth Place | Zhadova, near Czernowitz, Romania (now Ukraine) |
| Gender | Male |
| Sun Sign | Aquarius |
| Born in | Zhadova, near Czernowitz, Romania (now Ukraine) |
| Famous as | Writer |
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Aharon Appelfeld's photo
Who is Aharon Appelfeld?
Aharon Appelfeld is a celebrated Israeli author who has written over two dozen novels as well as collections of poetry, essays and short stories. Born into a middle-class Jewish family in Eastern Europe, he was briefly interned in a concentration camp as a child during World War II. He witnessed the murder of his mother and was later separated from his father. Separation, resilience, and the healing power of spontaneous human connection are frequent themes in his work. His writings do not contend explicitly with the events of the Holocaust. Yet the suffering, death, and abandonment of Jewish people, especially children, echo in the background through memory and foreshadowing. His life has been a story of survival, resilience, and rebirth. His writing elebrate how other marginalized people in Europe—witches, prostitutes, vagrants, and criminals—aided refugees, especially children, in their quest to escape state-sanctioned violence. Although his poems, stories, and novels often look back to the dark scenes of his childhood, interviewers describe the writer as remarkably warm, humorous, and forgiving. They find it hard to imagine he is a person who at nine years old, escaped under a fence and hid in the forests Romania and Ukraine, surviving the threats of Nazism and world war.
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Childhood & Early Life
He was born as Ervin Appelfeld on February 16, 1932, in Czernowitz, Romania to Michael and Bunia Appelfeld.
He lived under Soviet occupation, from 1940 to 1941. In 1941 , the Romanian army retook the territory, storming Jewish neighborhoods. He heard a soldier shoot his mother, killing her in their home. He was transported with his father to a concentration camp in the Romanian-occupied region of Transnistria.
He escaped from the concentration camp and hid in the forests for three years, finding refuge among peasants, prostitutes, criminals, and vagrants. In 1944, he became a kitchen boy for the Soviet Army.
After the war ended, he traveled with other children and teenagers to a displaced persons camp in Italy, where he learned French and Italian from Catholic monks.
He immigrated to Palestine in 1946 and served in the Israeli Army from 1948 to 1950.
Career
Although he had no formal schooling since the age of nine, he eventually graduated from Hebrew University in Jerusalem, studying with Max Brod, Martin Buber, and Gershom Scholem.
After graduating from Hebrew University, he taught at high school. He began publishing poetry in 1959, expanding to short stories with his collection, ‘Smoke’, in 1962 and novels with ‘The Skin and the Gown’ in 1971.
He became a literature professor at Ben Gurion University in Beersheba in 1977.
By the late 1970s, he had gained international acclaim as a writer for his examinations of the Holocaust. Yet he prefers to describe himself as a writer of Jewish stories who happens to have grown up during that era.
His first language is German, but he has mastered Yiddish, Ukrainian, Russian, English and Italian. He chooses to write in Modern Hebrew, the language of his adopted country, Israel, even though he did not learn it until he was a teenager.
He has published over twenty-five books in Modern Hebrew, but he often feels it is obvious he is writing in a language other than his mother tongue. Critics believe this is part of the unique nature of his work.
Many of his works have been translated into other languages than Modern Hebrew, including seventeen of his novels. His novel ‘Badenheim 1939’ was his first work translated into English, in 1980.
In the 1980s and 1990s, he traveled frequently in Europe and the United States to lecture and discuss his books and modern Jewish literature.
He is now Professor Emeritus of Hebrew Literature at Ben Gurion University of the Negev.
Major Works
Appelfeld’s novel ‘Badenheim, 1939’ published in was his first work translated into English. An allegorical satire, the novel crafts a fictional tale of a Jewish resort town in Austria shortly before its citizens are sent to Nazi concentration camps.
In 1999, he published a memoir, ‘The Story of a Life’, detailing his childhood escape from a Ukrainian labor camp, his evasion of capture for the remainder of the war, and his emigration to Palestine.
His 2006 novel ‘Blooms of Darkness’ tells the story of a young Jewish boy sheltered within a brothel in Ukraine during World War II.
Awards & Achievements
In 1979, he received Bialik Prize for literature (jointly with Avot Yeshurun).
In 1983, he was honored with Israel Prize for literature.
In 1989, he won the National Jewish Book Award for fiction for his novel 'Badenheim 1939'.
In 2004, he won Prix Médicis (foreign works category) for his autobiography, 'The Story of a Life: A Memoir'
In 2005, he was awarded with Nelly Sachs Prize by the city of Dortmund.
He won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize for his novel Blooms of Darkness, Great Britain, 2012.
Personal Life & Legacy
In 1960, when Appelfeld was twenty-eight years old, he found his father’s name on a Jewish Agency list of immigrants due to arrive from Eastern Europe. He then located him in a refugee camp in Be’er Tuvia, Israel.
He married his wife Judith, an Argentinian immigrant, in 1964. They have three children, Meir, Yitzak, and Batya, and several grandchildren.
He continues to empathize with displaced people and often speaks with Ethiopian and Russian Jewish immigrants residing in the absorption center near his home.
Trivia
Appelfeld’s blond hair and blue eyes helped him pass as non-Jewish during after his escape from the concentration camp. He called himself “Janek.”
In 2012, when he received the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, he was the oldest recipient ever.
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Aharon Appelfeld's awards
| Year | Name | Award |
|---|---|---|
Other | ||
| 2005 | Nelly Sachs Prize by the city of Dortmund | |
| 0 | - Brenner Prize for literature | |
| 0 | 1979 - Bialik Prize for literature (jointly with Avot Yeshurun) | |
| 0 | 1983 - Israel Prize for literature | |
| 0 | 1989 - National Jewish Book Award for fiction (Badenheim 1939 (ISBN 0-87923-799-6 ) and The Immortal Bartfuss (ISBN 0-8021-3358-4) | |
Aharon Appelfeld biography timelines
- // 16th Feb 1932He was born as Ervin Appelfeld on February 16, 1932, in Czernowitz, Romania to Michael and Bunia Appelfeld.
- // 1939 To 1989In 1989, he won the National Jewish Book Award for fiction for his novel 'Badenheim 1939'.
- // 1944He escaped from the concentration camp and hid in the forests for three years, finding refuge among peasants, prostitutes, criminals, and vagrants. In 1944, he became a kitchen boy for the Soviet Army.
- // 1946 To 1950He immigrated to Palestine in 1946 and served in the Israeli Army from 1948 to 1950.
- // 1960In 1960, when Appelfeld was twenty-eight years old, he found his father’s name on a Jewish Agency list of immigrants due to arrive from Eastern Europe. He then located him in a refugee camp in Be’er Tuvia, Israel.
- // 1964He married his wife Judith, an Argentinian immigrant, in 1964. They have three children, Meir, Yitzak, and Batya, and several grandchildren.
- // 1977He became a literature professor at Ben Gurion University in Beersheba in 1977.
- // 1978Appelfeld’s novel ‘Badenheim, 1939’ published in was his first work translated into English. An allegorical satire, the novel crafts a fictional tale of a Jewish resort town in Austria shortly before its citizens are sent to Nazi concentration camps.
- // 1979In 1979, he received Bialik Prize for literature (jointly with Avot Yeshurun).
- // 1980Many of his works have been translated into other languages than Modern Hebrew, including seventeen of his novels. His novel ‘Badenheim 1939’ was his first work translated into English, in 1980.
- // 1983In 1983, he was honored with Israel Prize for literature.
- // 1999In 1999, he published a memoir, ‘The Story of a Life’, detailing his childhood escape from a Ukrainian labor camp, his evasion of capture for the remainder of the war, and his emigration to Palestine.
- // 2004In 2004, he won Prix Médicis (foreign works category) for his autobiography, 'The Story of a Life: A Memoir'
- // 2005In 2005, he was awarded with Nelly Sachs Prize by the city of Dortmund.
- // 2006His 2006 novel ‘Blooms of Darkness’ tells the story of a young Jewish boy sheltered within a brothel in Ukraine during World War II.
- // 2012He won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize for his novel Blooms of Darkness, Great Britain, 2012.
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Aharon Appelfeld's FAQ
What is Aharon Appelfeld birthday?
Aharon Appelfeld was born at 1932-02-16
Where is Aharon Appelfeld's birth place?
Aharon Appelfeld was born in Zhadova, near Czernowitz, Romania (now Ukraine)
What is Aharon Appelfeld nationalities?
Aharon Appelfeld's nationalities is Israeli
What was Aharon Appelfeld universities?
Aharon Appelfeld studied at Hebrew University of Jerusalem
What is Aharon Appelfeld's sun sign?
Aharon Appelfeld is Aquarius
How famous is Aharon Appelfeld?
Aharon Appelfeld is famouse as Writer