Ruth Klüger
Ruth Klüger | |
|---|---|
 Ruth Klüger at Frankfurt Book Fair 2010 | |
| Born | 30 October 1931 |
| Died | 5 October 2020 (aged 88) |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation(s) | professor, author |
| Notable work | weiter leben: Eine Jugend, Still Alive |
Ruth Klüger (30 October 1931 – 6 October 2020)[1][2] was Professor Emerita of German Studies at the University of California, Irvine[3] and a Holocaust survivor. She was the author of the bestseller Weiter leben: Eine Jugend (English translation by the author: Still Alive: A Holocaust Girlhood Remembered) about her childhood in Vienna and in Nazi concentration camps.[4]
Biography
[edit]Ruth Klüger was born on 30 October 1931 in Vienna.[2] In March 1938, Hitler marched into Vienna. The annexation of Austria by the Nazis deeply affected Klüger's life: Klüger, who then was only six years old, had to change schools frequently and grew up in an increasingly hostile and anti-Semitic environment. Her father, a Jewish gynaecologist, lost his license and was later sent to prison for performing an illegal abortion.[5]
In September 1942,[2] she was deported to Theresienstadt at the age of 10, together with her mother; her father had tried to flee abroad, but was detained and murdered. One year later she was transferred to Auschwitz, then to Christianstadt, a subcamp of Gross-Rosen. After the end of World War II in 1945, she settled in the Bavarian town of Straubing and later studied philosophy and history at the Philosophisch-theologische Hochschule in Regensburg.
In 1947 she emigrated to the United States and studied English literature at Hunter College and German literature at the University of California, Berkeley.[6] Kl�ger obtained an M.A. in 1952 and a Ph.D. in 1967. She worked as a professor of German literature in Cleveland, Kansas, and Virginia, and at Princeton and UC Irvine.
Kl�ger was a recognized authority on German literature, and especially on Lessing and Kleist. She lived in Irvine, California, and G�ttingen, Germany.
Her memoir, Still Alive, which focuses primarily on her youth in concentration camps, is critical of the museum culture surrounding the Holocaust.[7]
Kl�ger died in her home in Irvine, California, on 5 October 2020, 25 days before she would have turned 89.[2][6] She was buried at Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery.[8]
Bibliography
[edit]Publications include:
- Weiter leben: Eine Jugend, G�ttingen 1992
- Katastrophen: �ber die deutsche Literatur, G�ttingen 1993
- Von hoher und niederer Literatur, G�ttingen 1995
- Knigges Umgang mit Menschen, "Eine Vorlesung", G�ttingen 1996
- Frauen lesen anders, Munich 1996
- Still Alive: A Holocaust Girlhood Remembered, New York: The Feminist Press, 2001 (English translation of weiter leben: Eine Jugend); issued in Great Britain in 2003 (London: Bloomsbury Publishing) under the title Landscapes of Memory
- Unterwegs verloren: Erinnerungen, Wien, Paul Zsolnay 2008
She also published under the name Ruth Angress.
Prizes
[edit]Kl�ger was awarded many prizes, including:
- Rauris Literature Prize (1993)
- Grimmelshausen Prize (1993)
- Niedersachsenpreis (1993)
- Marie Luise Kaschnitz Prize (1995)
- Andreas Gryphius Prize, honorary prize (1996)[9]
- Heinrich-Heine-Medaille (1997)
- �sterreichischer Staatspreis f�r Literaturkritik (1998)
- Prix de la Shoah (1998)
- Thomas Mann Prize (1999)
- Preis der Frankfurter Anthologie (1999)
- Goethe Medal (2005)
- Roswitha Prize (2006)
- Lessing Prize of the Free State of Saxony (2007)
- Hermann Cohen Medal (2008)
- Ehrenmedaille der Stadt G�ttingen (2010)
- Austrian Danubius Donauland Nonfiction Book Prize (de) (2010), for her life's work[10][11]
- Theodor-Kramer-Preis (2011)
References
[edit]- ^ Die Schriftstellerin und KZ-�berlebende Ruth Kl�ger ist 88-j�hrig in den USA gestorben (in German), nzz.ch. Retrieved 7 October 2020
- ^ a b c d "Holocaust-�berlebende Ruth Kl�ger gestorben". Deutsche Welle (in German). Retrieved 7 October 2020.
- ^ "Department of German: People". UC Irvine School of Humanities. Archived from the original on 2012-02-12. Retrieved 7 February 2012.
- ^ Mednick, Jason (March 2009). "A Holocaust Childhood" (review of Still Alive). University of California Irvine. Archived from the original on 10 December 2010. Retrieved 7 February 2012.
- ^ Kl�ger, Ruth (27 November 2006). "Holocaust Survivor Ruth Kl�ger: "Vienna Reeks of Anti-Semitism"". Spiegel Online (Interview). Interviewed by Martin Doerry. Retrieved 7 February 2012.
- ^ a b "Renowned author and Holocaust survivor Ruth Klueger dies at 88". WIO News. Retrieved 7 October 2020.
- ^ Lappin, Elena (14 March 2003). "Saved by a Lie" (review of Landscapes of Memory). The Guardian. Retrieved 14 October 2019.
- ^ "Ruth Klüger Traueranzeige". lebenswege.faz.net (in German). Retrieved 20 October 2020.
- ^ "Ehrungen und Auszeichnungen", in: Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung: Jahrbuch 1996 (in German). Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag, 1997. p. 220.
- ^ "Ruth Klüger erhält Danubius-Preis für Lebenswerk" (in German). Der Standard (Vienna). 7 October 2011. Retrieved 9 October 2019.
- ^ "US writer, academic and Holocaust survivor Ruth Klueger ...", October 25, 2011. Getty Images. Retrieved 9 October 2019.
- 1931 births
- 2020 deaths
- Austrian women writers
- Jewish Austrian writers
- Theresienstadt Ghetto survivors
- Auschwitz concentration camp survivors
- Gross-Rosen concentration camp survivors
- University of California, Irvine faculty
- Literary critics of German
- Writers from Vienna
- Burials at Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery