Due to age, time elapsed, there are now very few witnesses of those who were the horrors of the Shoah. Among these is the writer and screenwriter Edith Bruck. Let’s find out more about who it is winner of the 2021 Strega Giovani Award.
Who is Edith Bruck
To the registry office Edith Steinschreiber but later became known as Edith Bruck, was born in Tiszabercel in Hungary the May 3, 1931. Youngest of six children of one Jewish family, from an early age he lived on his own skin the discrimination and horrors to which Jews are subjected.
It is in fact the 1944 when just thirteen years old comes deported from the ghetto of Sátoraljaújhely, his abode until then, in Aushwitz and later in other German concentration camps such as Dachau is Bergen-Belsen, where it will finally come from released in April 1945.
Unfortunately, the other family members including the parents and one of the brothers will not have the same luck as Edith.
Who is Edith Bruck: life after the concentration camps
After the terrible experience in the concentration camps Edith Bruck tries to rebuild her life, first trying to return to Hungary, in what was her home, a year later instead she tries to reunite with one of the surviving sisters, in Czechoslovakia, but without success.
In 1948 instead it reaches Israel and to avoid military service she married the man whose surname she still bears today. But six years later, failing to find the much sought-after peace, leaves the country to move to Rome where it remains permanently.
Who is Edith Bruck: the activity as a writer and screenwriter
In the capital she began her activity as a writer with his first autobiographical story entitled “Who loves you like this”, a double effort since in addition to having to tell about himself, he does it in Italian language who was still learning at the time. Also in Rome she comes into contact with other very important exponents of Italian literature such as Vittorini, Sereni, Montale, Ungaretti and also Primo Levi, the latter witness like her to the tragedy of the Shoah. In addition to her literary activity, Edith has carried on several over the years collaborations with the most important Italian newspapers: Corriere della Sera, La Stampa and Il Tempo among all.
More than twenty literary works written by Bruck, not to mention the theatrical, television and film scripts. In 1958 then, she will also take part as an actress in the cult film “I soliti ingnoti”, by Mario Monticelli. To act alongside her other great pillars of Italian cinema such as “the prince of laughter” Totò, Vittorio Gassman, father of the equally famous Alessandro Gassman and the famous Marcello Mastroianni.
The meeting with Nelo Risi
Attending the Roman literary environment Edith Bruck knows the poet and screenwriter Nelo Risi, which he subsequently marries, thus beginning a very long period of artistic and sentimental partnership lasted sixty years.
And the 2015 when Risi passes away due to a long illness. A sad event that greatly affects the woman, who transforms his pain once again in art, dedicating to his beloved three works such as “The swallow on the radiator”, “I let you sleep”, “Versi lived” and “Poems”.
Curiosity
Thanks to his commitment literary and his tireless dissemination work of what the Holocaust was, Edith Bruck has received many awards such as the honorary degree causea in Modern Philology in 2019 and the honor of Knight of the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic conferred on it by the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella in 2021.
In the same year Edith Bruck also receives a visit from Pope francesco, who wanted to pay homage to her and thank her for being the spokesperson for those who, like her, have experienced the Nazi madness.