April 3, 2016
The B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission (ADC), has mourned the passing of Hungarian-Jewish writer Imre Kertesz at the age of 86. In 2002, Mr. Kertesz became the first Hungarian writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. In his body of works, the acclaimed author drew on his experiences as a teenage prisoner in Auschwitz, most notably in his 1975 novel Fatelessness.
Dr Dvir Abramovich, Chairman of the B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission, issued the following statement:
“The world has lost one of the greatest chroniclers of the Holocaust, a writer who through his haunting and timeless corpus conveyed the harrowing experience of the Nazi death camps and the Shoah. We recall the words of the Nobel Committee which described his body of works as, “writing that upholds the fragile experience of the individual against the barbaric arbitrariness of history.” Mr Kertesz’s immeasurable courage and ability to write about the horrors and human depravity he encountered in Auschwitz are a testament to his indomitable spirit, and his writings provided an accessible gateway to understanding the Holocaust for millions of readers. As we extend our condolences to Mr Kertesz’s wife Magda, and mourn his passing, we recommit ourselves to memorialising history’s darkest chapter, and to ensuring that the legacy of the Holocaust and its timeless lessons—confronting hatred and anti-Semitism, preventing genocide and promoting tolerance— are never forgotten. This is a cause to which Mr Kertesz dedicated his life, and we are truly blessed and indebted for the eternal gifts that he left us and future generations.”
The Anti-Defamation Commission, founded in 1979, is Australia’s leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through educational programs that combat bigotry, prejudice and all forms of hatred.
For further information please contact Dr Dvir Abramovich on (03) 9272 5677
Join the ADC on Facebook
or visit our website at antidef.org.au