Ivan Ivanji (; 24 January 1929 – 9 May 2024) was a Serbian author of many internationally renowned novels.

Biography

Ivanji was held in

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 ...

and

Buchenwald Buchenwald (; 'beech forest') was a German Nazi concentration camp established on Ettersberg hill near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within the Altreich (Old Reich) territori ...

during 1944 and 1945. He was Secretary General of the Yugoslav Writers' Union from 1982 to 1988. His last book was a fictionalized account of his pre-World War II experiences in the town of

Zrenjanin Zrenjanin ( sr-Cyrl, Зрењанин, ; ; ; ; ) is a List of cities in Serbia, city and the administrative center of the Central Banat District in the autonomous province of Vojvodina, Serbia. The city urban area has a population of 67,129 inh ...

(Betschkerek) in the

Banat Banat ( , ; ; ; ) is a geographical and Historical regions of Central Europe, historical region located in the Pannonian Basin that straddles Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe. It is divided among three countries: the eastern part lie ...

. He translated his own works from Serbian into German. Born in 1929 in Zrenjanin, Serbia he lived in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

and

Belgrade Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...

. In 2017, he signed the

Declaration on the Common Language The Declaration on the Common Language ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, Deklaracija o zajedničkom jeziku, Декларација о заједничком језику, separator=" / ") was issued in 2017 by a group of intellectuals and NGOs from Bosnia and He ...

of the

Croats The Croats (; , ) are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and other neighboring countries in Central Europe, Central and Southeastern Europe who share a common Croatian Cultural heritage, ancest ...

Serbs The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to Southeastern Europe who share a common Serbian Cultural heritage, ancestry, Culture of Serbia, culture, History of Serbia, history, and Serbian lan ...

Bosniaks The Bosniaks (, Cyrillic script, Cyrillic: Бошњаци, ; , ) are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to the Southeast European historical region of Bosnia (region), Bosnia, today part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and who sha ...

and

Montenegrins Montenegrins (, or ) are a South Slavic ethnic group that share a common ancestry, culture, history, and language, identified with the country of Montenegro. Montenegrins are mostly Orthodox Christians; however, the population also includes ...

. In April 2020, he was appointed honorary citizen of Weimar. Ivanji died in

Weimar Weimar is a city in the state (Germany), German state of Thuringia, in Central Germany (cultural area), Central Germany between Erfurt to the west and Jena to the east, southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together w ...

Thuringia Thuringia (; officially the Free State of Thuringia, ) is one of Germany, Germany's 16 States of Germany, states. With 2.1 million people, it is 12th-largest by population, and with 16,171 square kilometers, it is 11th-largest in area. Er ...

, Germany on 9 May 2024, at the age of 95.Preminuo književnik Ivan Ivanji

Works of Fiction

* ''Dioklecijan''. Belgrade 1973
astBerlin 1976; Munich 1978, * ''Smrt za Zmajevoj steni''. 1982
. Dorsten 1984, * ''Konstantin''. Belgrade 1988
, Verlag Volk und Welt, Berlin 1988, * ''Schattenspringen''. Vienna 1993, * ''Ein ungarischer Herbst'', Vienna 1995, * ''Barbarossas Jude'', Vienna 1996, * ''Der Aschenmensch von Buchenwald''. Vienna 1999, * ''Die Tänzerin und der Krieg''. Vienna 2002, Serbocroatian Title: ''Balerina i rat'', 2003 * ''Geister aus einer kleinen Stadt'', Vienna 2008,

Prizes

* ''2011 Austrian Cross for Science and Art, I Class Extraordinary

References

External links

* http://wordswithoutborders.org/contributor/ivan-ivanji/ 1929 births 2024 deaths Writers from Zrenjanin Serbian Jews Serbian novelists Serbian science fiction writers Yugoslav science fiction writers Signatories of the Declaration on the Common Language Auschwitz concentration camp survivors Buchenwald concentration camp survivors {{Serbia-writer-stub