Posted on January 4, 2019 at 12:00 PM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

Edgar Hilsenrath, whose autobiographical novels depicted his survival of the Holocaust, died Sunday of pneumonia.

His death at age ninety-two was announced by his publisher, Le Tripode, according to the New York Times.

Hilsenrath, who was born in Germany, fled to Romania with his mother and brother in hopes of escaping persecution in the years leading up to World War II.

While the family was later sent to a ghetto in what’s now Ukraine, all members — including his father, who had gone to France instead of Romania — did survive the war.

Hilsenrath’s first novel, Night, describes life in the ghetto; among his later works was the celebrated farce The Nazi and the Barber, about an SS officer who kills his Jewish best friend and steals his identity.

Read more about Hilsenrath’s remarkable life in his obituary in the New York Times.

Categories: Today in Books

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