Aharon Appelfeld was born in 1932 in Czernovitz, Bukovina (now part of the Ukraine). At the age of nine he was imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp, from which he escaped. Having witnessed the murder of his mother by the Nazis and having been separated from his father, Appelfeld hid in the forests. He eventually joined the Soviet army as a kitchen boy, immigrating to Palestine in 1946.

Appelfeld has been exploring the existential themes of the Holocaust for more than forty years. The author of twelve internationally acclaimed novels, including Badenheim 1939, The Iron Tracks, Unto the Soul, The Retreat, and The Age of Wonders. Appelfeld's depth of insight and distinctively stark, elegant style have won him recognition as one of the world's great writers. Appelfeld lives in Jerusalem.

Photo: Hadar Shtull-Trauring

If you do not already have the Real Audio plug-in for your browser, you can download the free RealPlayer from Real Networks in order to hear the broadcast.

Click on a selection below to hear a moving audio webcast interview with author Aharon Appelfeld:

1. The fundamentals of my writing
2. I was surrounded by many wonderful people
3. It is a privilege to be a Hebrew writer
4. The religious tune that has been lost...
5. I am surrounded with Jewishness
6. Creativity is a permanent memory
7. The Holocaust was my childhood
8. I am not a Holocaust writer
9. Healing means to become a Jew again
10. The purpose for a writer is to bring hope
11. I am the Israeli writer
12. You are drinking coffee in a coffee house and so you are connected...


Introduction to Appelfeld's Iron Tracks

 

   
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