Imre Kertész's Life and Times

Imre Kertész was born in Budapest in a Jewish family. In 1944 he was sent to Auschwitz at the age of fourteen. He survived the German concentration camps and returned back to his native Budapest where he has been living since. During communism, Kertész worked as a journalist, playwright and translator. Fatelessness (Sorstalanság) was first published in Hungary in 1975.

It was consequently translated into German, French and Swedish.In 1992 Fateless was published in English and in 2002, Imre Kertész received the Nobel Prize for literature. 

Questions to the Video:

1. Before the interview, the presenter visits a monument to the Holocaust created by the American artist Peter Eiserman. Considering the shapes, architecture and general design, in what ways do you think he represents the reality in the concentration camps?

2. Which is the paradox the presenter mentions regarding Imre Kertész and the place where he lives?

3. Refer to antisemitism before and after Auschwitz according to Kertész.

4. In what way do reminders of the past in historical books make us "much richer"?

5. Which metaphor does Imre use to exemplify the effect of FATELESSNESS on its readers?

Answers:

1. It shows vulnerability, because the huge pillars makes you look small and defenseless.

2. He says that he only feels safe in germany, the weird thing is that is the country that once wanted to kill him.

3. The antisemitism before wants a new auswitz, more totalitarian.

4. It make us avoid problems in the future.

5. If we don't know about the past this would become an entity lock down in a box trying to break down the wall.