Ludvik Mrzel (pen name Frigid) (28 July 1904 – 29 September 1971) was a Slovene writer, poet, dissident and journalist.

Early life and prewar career

Ludvik Mrzel was born on 28 July 1904 in Loka pri Zidanem Mostu, Slovenia. After completing elementary school he enrolled in a secondary school, from which he was expelled for participating in a miners' strike in

Trbovlje Trbovlje (; ''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru,'' vol. 4: ''Štajersko''. 1904. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna, p. 58.) is Slovenia's eleventh-largest town, located in the traditional province of Styria ...

. He drew upon this experience for his 1937 collection of short stories ''Bog v Trbovljah'' (God in Trbovlje). Mrzel completed his secondary-school education in

Jagodina Jagodina ( sr-cyrl, Јагодина, ) is a List of cities in Serbia, city and the administrative center of the Pomoravlje District in central Serbia. It is situated on the banks of the Belica (river), Belica River, in the geographical region of � ...

and

Ćuprija Ćuprija (Serbian Cyrillic: Ћуприја, ) is a town and municipality located in the Pomoravlje District of central Serbia. The population of the town is 16,522, while the municipality has 25,325 inhabitants (2022 census). History The Romans ...

Serbia , image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg , national_motto = , image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg , national_anthem = () , image_map = , map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...

. He then enrolled in medical school, but soon switched his studies to philosophy and Slavic studies. Mrzel found employment as a journalist and worked as an editor for the journals ''Mladina'' and ''Svobodna mladina''. He wrote literary and arts features for the newspaper ''Jutro'' and also wrote lyric verse, novellas, and socially-colored stories. His writing style included

Expressionism Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

and

Social realism Social realism is work produced by painters, printmakers, photographers, writers, filmmakers and some musicians that aims to draw attention to the real socio-political conditions of the working class as a means to critique the power structures ...

. He also published book and theater reviews, and reports about cultural events among Slovene emigrants to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Second World War

During the Second World War Mrzel was a prisoner in Italian and German prisons, including the

Dachau concentration camp Dachau (, ; , ; ) was one of the first concentration camps built by Nazi Germany and the longest-running one, opening on 22 March 1933. The camp was initially intended to intern Hitler's political opponents, which consisted of communists, s ...

. Upon the liberation of the camp, he became the editor of a periodical issued at the camp, the ''Dahavski poročevalec'' (Dachau Reporter).

Postwar

After his return to Slovenia, he became the director of the Slovene National Theater and assistant director of the National Theater in Maribor. In 1945,

Josip Broz Tito Josip Broz ( sh-Cyrl, Јосип Броз, ; 7 May 1892 – 4 May 1980), commonly known as Tito ( ; , ), was a Yugoslavia, Yugoslav communist revolutionary and politician who served in various positions of national leadership from 1943 unti ...

's communists seized control of Slovenia and established a communist government. As a result, many writers and journalists including Mrzel who were critical of Tito and the communist regime were arrested and jailed. Mrzel was eventually judged to be an "insufficiently cultured person for building socialism." He was charged with "mysticism" and "literary fetishism," and was eventually sentenced to 12 years in prison in 1949 during the

Dachau trials The Dachau trials, also known as the Dachau Military Tribunal, handled the prosecution of almost every war criminal captured in the U.S. military zones in Allied-occupied Germany and in Allied-occupied Austria, and the prosecutions of military ...

. He served his sentence in

Ljubljana {{Infobox settlement , name = Ljubljana , official_name = , settlement_type = Capital city , image_skyline = {{multiple image , border = infobox , perrow = 1/2/2/1 , total_widt ...

Bileća Bileća ( sr-cyrl, Билећа) is a town and municipality in Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina. As of 2013, the town has a population of 7,476 inhabitants, while the municipality has 10,807 inhabitants. History The first traces of ci ...

, and Goli Otok before being released on parole on 20 October 1955. After his release, he supported himself as a freelance writer and translator. He first lived with his sister in the

Polje A polje, also called karst polje or karst field, is a large flat plain found in karstic geological regions of the world, with areas usually in the range of 5–400 km2 (2–154 sq mi). The name derives from the Slavic languages, ...

district of Ljubljana and then in

Piran Piran (; ) is a town in southwestern Slovenia on the Gulf of Piran on the Adriatic Sea. It is one of the three major towns of Slovenian Istria. A bilingual city, with population speaking both Slovene and Italian, Piran is known for its medieva ...

and in Zagradec. He was partially pardoned in 1971. Despite his release, Mrzel was kept under surveillance by the communist secret police (UDBA).Mrzel, Ludvik. 1991. ''Luč ob cesti''. Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga, pp. 272–273. Mrzel's translations include Russian and Ukrainian fairy tales and writings by

Knut Hamsun Knut Hamsun (4 August 1859 – 19 February 1952) was a Norwegian writer who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1920 Nobel Prize in Literature, 1920. Hamsun's work spans more than 70 years and shows variation with regard to conscio ...

, Alexis Steiner, Theodor Plievier,

Franz Werfel Franz Viktor Werfel (; 10 September 1890 – 26 August 1945) was an Austrian-Bohemian novelist, playwright, and poet whose career spanned World War I, the Interwar period, and World War II. He is primarily known as the author of '' The Forty ...

, Antonius Roothaert,

Vasily Chuikov Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov (, ; – 18 March 1982) was a Soviet military commander and Marshal of the Soviet Union. He is best known for commanding the 62nd Army which saw heavy combat during the Battle of Stalingrad in the Second World War ...

Andrey Yeryomenko Andrey Ivanovich Yeryomenko (; Ukrainian: Андрій Іванович Єрьоменко; November 19, 1970) was a Soviet general during World War II and Marshal of the Soviet Union. During the war, Yeryomenko commanded the Southeastern Front ...

Günther Anders Günther Anders (; born Günther Siegmund Stern, 12 July 1902 – 17 December 1992) was a German-born philosopher, journalist and critical theorist. Trained as a philosopher in the phenomenological tradition, he obtained his doctorate under ...

, Jean Rousselot, John Knittel, Sergei Aleksandrovich Tokarev, and

Karl May Karl Friedrich May ( , ; 25 February 1842 – 30 March 1912) was a German author. He is best known for his novels of travels and adventures, set in the American Old West, the Orient, the Middle East, Latin America, China and Germany. He als ...

. Mrzel died on 29 September 1971 in Ljubljana.

Selected works

* ''Luči ob cesti'' (Lights along the Street; sketches, 1932) * ''Peter se zbudi v življenje'' (Peter Awakens into Life; novel, 1933) * ''Bog v Trbovljah'' (God in Trbovlje; short stories, 1937) * ''Ogrlica'' (The Necklace; poetry, 1962)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mrzel, Ludvik Slovenian journalists Slovenian male poets Slovenian editors Slovenian translators Slovenian theatre directors Dachau concentration camp survivors Ethnic Slovene people 1904 births 1971 deaths People from the Municipality of Sevnica 20th-century Slovenian translators 20th-century Slovenian poets 20th-century journalists