Nazi camp life inspired Nobel winner

The Jewish author found his career restricted by the Communist authorities who took over in his native Hungary after the war, and his first novel Fateless was not published until 1975, when he was in his mid-40s. Kertesz’s theme is how some human beings managed to survive in the appalling conditions of a place like Auschwitz, and his bleak answer is that they did so by conforming.

‘‘Kertesz’s message is that to live is to conform,’’ the Swedish Academy said. ‘‘The capacity of the captives to come to terms with Auschwitz is one outcome of the principle that finds expression in everyday human coexistence.’’

Imre Kertesz was born in Budapest on November 9, 1929, to Jewish parents. Deported to Auschwitz in German-occupied Poland in 1944, he was held in several camps including Buchenwald, from which he was liberated in 1945.

After returning to Hungary he worked as a journalist from 1948, but was fired when his paper, Vilagossag, adopted the communist party line. He did two years military service and later supported himself as an independent writer and translator.

Kertesz has no college or university diploma and ironically, some of his closest ties are with Germany, where he has won several awards including the Brandenburg Literature Award in 1995. He also has two awards from the Soros Foundation.

Many of Kertesz’s book have been translated into German, and he himself had translated many German-language authors including Friedrich Nietzsche, whose ideas have been linked to Nazi principles.