Aurel Baranga (born Aurel Leibovici; June 20, 1913 – June 10, 1979) was a

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

n playwright and poet. Born into a

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

family in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

, his parents were company clerk Jean Leibovici and his wife Paulina. He graduated from Matei Basarab High School in 1931 and from the

University of Bucharest The University of Bucharest (UB) () is a public university, public research university in Bucharest, Romania. It was founded in its current form on by a decree of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza to convert the former Princely Academy of Bucharest, P ...

's medical faculty in 1938. His first published work appeared in 1929 in ''

Bilete de Papagal ''Bilete de Papagal'' was a Romanian left-wing publication edited by Tudor Arghezi, begun as a daily newspaper and soon after issued as a weekly satirical and literary magazine. It was published at three different intervals: 1928–1930, 1937–1938 ...

''. Together with

Gherasim Luca Gherasim Luca (; 23 July 1913 – 9 February 1994) was a Romanian surrealist theorist and poet. Born Salman Locker in Romania and also known as Costea Sar, and Petre Malcoci, he became an apatrid (stateless person) after leaving Romania in 1952. ...

, he edited ''Alge'' magazine in 1930-1931, and also contributed to ''

Unu ''unu'' (Romanian for "one"; lower case used on purpose) was the name of an avant-garde art and literary magazine, published in Romania from April 1928 to December 1932. Edited by writers Sașa Pană and , it was dedicated to Dada and Surrealis ...

''. His ''Poeme cu orbi'', a volume of avant-garde poetry, appeared in 1933. Between 1934 and 1940, he submitted reportages, satirical pieces and drama reviews to ''Facla'', ''Cuvântul liber'', ''Reporter, Azi'' and ''Lumea românească''. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, he joined the

Romanian Communist Party The Romanian Communist Party ( ; PCR) was a communist party in Romania. The successor to the pro-Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave an ideological endorsement to a communist revolution that would replace the social system ...

. After the coup of 1944 against Romania's pro-Axis dictator, he became an editor of ''

România Liberă Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to the east, and the Black Sea t ...

'', and also worked at Radiodifuziunea Română (1945), ' (editor, 1949–1979), the

National Theatre Bucharest The National Theatre Bucharest () is one of the national theatres of Romania, located in the capital city of Bucharest. Founding It was founded as the ''Teatrul cel Mare din București'' ("Grand Theatre of Bucharest") in 1852, its first director ...

(1949–1953; 1958–1961) and ''

Viața Românească ''Viața Românească'' (, "The Romanian Life") is a monthly literary magazine published in Romania. Formerly the platform of the left-wing traditionalist trend known as poporanism, it is now one of the Writers' Union of Romania's main venues. ...

''. He published a volume of reportages, ''Ninge peste Ucraina'' (1945); dealing with the

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

Transnistria Governorate The Transnistria Governorate () was a Romanian-administered territory between the Dniester and Southern Bug, conquered by the Axis Powers from the Soviet Union during Operation Barbarossa. A Romanian civilian administration governed the territo ...

, it was among the few accounts on the topic published in immediate postwar Romania. Radu Ioanid, "Romania", in David S. Wyman, Charles H. Rosenzveig (eds.), ''The World Reacts to the Holocaust'', p. 238. Baltimore:

Johns Hopkins University Press Johns Hopkins University Press (also referred to as JHU Press or JHUP) is the publishing division of Johns Hopkins University. It was founded in 1878 and is the oldest continuously running university press in the United States. The press publi ...

, 1996. Avant-garde elements persisted in his 1946 book of poetry, ''Marea furtună''. Baranga wrote the lyrics to " Zdrobite cătușe", Romania's national anthem between 1948 and 1953.Stan Stoica, Dinu C. Giurescu (eds.), ''Dicționar de istorie a României'', p. 180. Bucharest: Editura Meronia, 2007. Baranga's first play, written in the socialist realist style promoted by the governing

, was the 1946 ''Bal în Făgădău''. His first real success came with the comedy ''Mielul turbat'' (1954), which featured characters special to his drama, and who reappeared in ''Adam și Eva'' (1963), ''Sfântul Mitică Blajinu'' (1966), ''Opinia publică'' (1967), and ''Interesul general'' (1971). Generally speaking, his plays revolve around work and family. His worker-protagonists are functionaries who find themselves in a bureaucratic hierarchy, the stage decor consisting of files, waste-paper baskets and charts on walls, their main activity being the generation of more files. Characters are defined by how they serve the institution: those who show initiative, energy, honesty and devotion to the "general interest" are good; those who place their own interests first and lie, slander, delay and forge in order to attain it are bad. His 1975 ''Viața unei femei'' is a psychological drama in which the heroine stages her own past, playing herself. The 1978 ''Jurnal de atelier'' features a selection of diary entries covering thirty years and reworked from a 1970s perspective; they include information about the conception and composition of his plays, fragments of poetry, autobiographical notes, sketches of artists and acidic portraits of

nomenklatura The ''nomenklatura'' (; from , system of names) were a category of people within the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries who held various key administrative positions in the bureaucracy, running all spheres of those countries' activity: ...

members, written with the cynicism of a man who was himself the beneficiary of many privileges from the

communist regime A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state in which the totality of the power belongs to a party adhering to some form of Marxism–Leninism, a branch of the communist ideology. Marxism–Leninism was ...

. He was the artistic director of the National Theatre Bucharest under director

Zaharia Stancu Zaharia Stancu (; October 7, 1902 – December 5, 1974) was a Romanian prose writer, novelist, poet, and philosopher. He was also the director of the National Theatre Bucharest, the President of the Writers' Union of Romania, and a titular memb ...

, and a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party between 1969 and 1974. In 1978, terminally ill, he launched into a

self-criticism Self-criticism involves how an individual evaluates oneself. Self-criticism in psychology is typically studied and discussed as a negative personality trait in which a person has a disrupted self-identity. The opposite of self-criticism would be ...

, addressing a letter to the National Colloquium of Dramatic Literature. There, he recognized the failure of part of his work, confessing that it featured "manipulated mannequins" and "minutely made-up characters", which, as a "rudimentary notion of aesthetics" could reveal, disfigured the reality they sought to convey. He won the in 1954 and the Prize of the Bucharest Writers' Association in 1975.Aurel Sasu (ed.), ''Dicționarul biografic al literaturii române'', vol. I, p. 106. Pitești: Editura Paralela 45, 2004. The ruling party appreciated him for following its directives in his writing, while the public enjoyed his ironic comments toward bureaucracy and demagogy, which seemed to indicate a form of assertiveness. Critic describes him as "an I. L. Caragiale produced by communist culture, which means a subdued, decolorized and predictable I. L. Caragiale".
"Aurel Baranga"
, in ''

România Literară ''România Literară'' is a cultural and literary magazine from Romania. In its original edition, it was founded on 1 January 1855 by Vasile Alecsandri and published in Iași until 3 December 1855, when it was suppressed. The new series appeared ...

'', nr. 14/2003 According to

Vladimir Tismăneanu Vladimir Tismăneanu (; born July 4, 1951) is a Romanian American political scientist, political analyst, sociologist, and professor at the University of Maryland, College Park. A specialist in political systems and comparative politics, he is d ...

, "he could have been a real intellectual, he chose to be a buffoon, a valet or a servant. He was too intelligent to be a fanatic, but also too fanatical to be considered intelligent." With his first wife he had a son, Harry Baranga, who studied at the IATC and then went to work for the Romanian section of the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

. He later married actress . Baranga died in Bucharest at age 65, and was incinerated in the city's .

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