Edith Bruck (born 3 May 1931)Edith Bruck: ''Who love you like this''. Philadelphia: Paul Dry Books, 2001, p. 3; Philip Balma: ''Edith Bruck in the Mirror. Fictional Transitions and Cinematic Narratives'' (''Shofar Supplements in Jewish Studies''). West Lafayette, IN: Purdue UP, 2014, p. 2. Recently Edith Bruck claimed her birth year was often wrongly stated as 1932, while the correct year was 1931.
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, minute 1:34:43 is a Hungarian-born writer, director and

Holocaust survivor Holocaust survivors are people who survived the Holocaust, defined as the persecution and attempted annihilation of the Jews by Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, its collaborators before and during World War II ...

. She has lived most of her life in

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

and writes in

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

Early life

The daughter of poor Jewish parents, she was born Edit Steinschreiber in the village of Tiszabercel near the Ukrainian border. In 1944, with her parents, two brothers and a sister, she was sent to

Auschwitz Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It consisted of Auschw ...

, where her mother died. The family was transferred to Dachau where her father died, then to Christianstadt and finally

Bergen-Belsen Bergen-Belsen (), or Belsen, was a Nazi concentration camp in what is today Lower Saxony in Northern Germany, northern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen, Lower Saxony, Bergen near Celle. Originally established as a prisoner of war camp, ...

, where the remaining children were liberated by the

Allies An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not an explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are calle ...

in 1945. One brother also died in the

concentration camp A concentration camp is a prison or other facility used for the internment of political prisoners or politically targeted demographics, such as members of national or ethnic minority groups, on the grounds of national security, or for exploitati ...

s. She returned to Hungary and then went to

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

, where another sister was living with her family.

Career

In 1959, she published her autobiography ''Chi ti ama così'', later translated as ''Who loves you like this'' (2001). In 1971, she wrote her first play, ''Sulla porta''. Bruck was a founder of the Teatro della Maddalena theatre in Rome. From the 1970s to the 1990s, she worked for the

RAI (), commercially styled as since 2000 and known until 1954 as (RAI), is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many terrestrial and subscription television channels a ...

as a director and screenwriter. She has translated works by the Hungarian poets Attila József and Miklós Radnóti into Italian. Her own work has been translated into other languages including Hungarian, Danish, Dutch, English and German.

Personal life

When she was 16, she married Milan Grün and moved to

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

; the couple divorced the following year. She then married Dany Roth, but that marriage also ended in divorce. She next married an acquaintance named Bruck to postpone her compulsory military service; she had divorced him by the time she was 20 but kept his surname. In 1954, Bruck moved to

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

and later married Italian writer and director Nelo Risi.

Selected works

Source: * ''Chi ti ama così'', novel (1959) (''Who Loves You Like This'' (2001) tr. Thomas Kelso) * ''Andremo in città'', short stories (1962), title story adapted as a film in 1966 * ''Due stanze vuote'', short stories (1974), finalist for the

Strega Prize The Strega Prize ( ) is the most important Italian literary award. It has been awarded annually since 1947 for the best work of prose fiction written in the Italian language by an author of any nationality and first published between 1 March of t ...

* ''Per il tuo bene'', play (1975) * ''Mio splendido disastro'', novel (1979) * ''Lettera alla madre'',

epistolary novel An epistolary novel () is a novel written as a series of letters between the fictional characters of a narrative. The term is often extended to cover novels that intersperse other kinds of fictional document with the letters, most commonly di ...

, (1988), received the Rapallo Carige Prize * ''Nuda proprietà'' (1993), finalist for the

* ''Il silenzio degli amanti'', novel (1997) * ''L’amore offeso'', novel (2002) * ''Quanta stella c’è nel cielo'', novel (2009), received the

Viareggio Prize The Viareggio Prize ( or ) is an Italian literature, literary prize, first awarded in 1930. Named after the Tuscany, Tuscan city of Viareggio, it was conceived by three friends, , Carlo Salsa and Leonida Repaci, to rival the Milanese Bagutta Priz ...

, adapted to film as '' Anita B.''

English translations

* ''Who Loves You Like This'', translated by Thomas Kelso (Paul Dry Books, 2001) ISBN 9780966491371 * ''Lost Bread'', translated by Gabriella Romani and David Yanoff (Paul Dry Books, 2023) ISBN 9781589881785 * ''This Darkness Will Never End'', translated by Jeanne Bonner (Paul Dry Books, 2025) ISBN 9781589882010

Filmography

Source: * ''Improvviso'', director (1979) * ''Quale Sardegna?'', director (1983) * ''Fotografando Patrizia'', writer (1984) * ''Altare per la madre'', director (1986) * ''Per odio per amore'', writer (1991)

References

External links

*
- EDITH BRUCK - Rivista Primi Piani

- Edith Bruck, eine Stimme der Shoah - by Giorgia Sogos Wiquel
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bruck, Edith 1932 births Living people Italian women novelists Italian women short story writers Italian women film directors Italian dramatists and playwrights Viareggio Prize winners Hungarian Jews Auschwitz concentration camp survivors Bergen-Belsen concentration camp survivors Dachau concentration camp survivors Gross-Rosen concentration camp survivors Italian women dramatists and playwrights Jewish dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Italian novelists 20th-century Italian women writers 20th-century Italian dramatists and playwrights 21st-century Italian dramatists and playwrights 21st-century Italian novelists 21st-century Italian women writers Hungarian emigrants to Italy People from Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County Italian autobiographers Women autobiographers Translators from Hungarian Translators to Italian 20th-century translators 20th-century Italian short story writers 21st-century Italian short story writers Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany