Raoul Șorban (September 4, 1912 – July 19, 2006) was a

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

n painter, journalist, writer, essayist, art historian, academic, and memoirist.

Biography

His father, the composer Guilelm Șorban, descended from an old ethnic Romanian noble family in

Transylvania Transylvania ( ro, Ardeal or ; hu, Erdély; german: Siebenbürgen) is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and south its natural border is the Carpathian Mountains, and to the west the Ap ...

; his grandmother was of Alsatian origin. Born in Dej (then Dés,

Kingdom of Hungary The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from the Middle Ages into the 20th century. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the coronation of the first king Stephen ...

), Șorban studied painting and music in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

(at the

Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory The Milan Conservatory (''Conservatorio di Milano'') is a college of music in Milan, Italy. History The conservatory was established by a royal decree of 1807 in Milan, capital of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy. It opened the following year ...

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

and Germany between 1930 and 1934. He then studied Law at the University of Cluj. Meanwhile, he exhibited his works of painting in art shows at

Baia Mare Baia Mare ( , ; hu, Nagybánya; german: Frauenbach or Groß-Neustadt; la, Rivulus Dominarum) is a municipality along the Săsar River, in northwestern Romania; it is the capital of Maramureș County. The city lies in the region of Maramur ...

and

Cluj ; hu, kincses város) , official_name=Cluj-Napoca , native_name= , image_skyline= , subdivision_type1 = County , subdivision_name1 = Cluj County , subdivision_type2 = Status , subdivision_name2 = County seat , settlement_type = City , le ...

(1935),

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

and Baia Mare (1938), and again in Cluj (1939, 1942, 1943). In 1938, Șorban became a teaching assistant of art history at Cluj University. Following the

Second Vienna Award The Second Vienna Award, also known as the Vienna Diktat, was the second of two territorial disputes that were arbitrated by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. On 30 August 1940, they assigned the territory of Northern Transylvania, including all o ...

which assigned Northern Transylvania to

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

, he decided to remain in Cluj (Kolozsvár), and founded the Northern Transylvanian Romanian Publishing House (''Editura Românească din Ardealul de Nord''), the only

Romanian-language Romanian (obsolete spellings: Rumanian or Roumanian; autonym: ''limba română'' , or ''românește'', ) is the official and main language of Romania and the Republic of Moldova. As a minority language it is spoken by stable communities in t ...

publishing house in the region. At the same time, he contributed articles for the Romanian-language newspaper ''Tribuna Ardealului'' ("The Transylvanian Tribune"). He was arrested by the Hungarian authorities and held in custody between March and October 1942. In 1944, Șorban played an active part in the rescue of

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

who faced death during

The Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

, helping the remaining members of the community to escape to British Palestine. In May 1944, he returned to Bucharest, where he joined the Public Relations Department in the Romanian government (''see

Romania during World War II Following the outbreak of World War II on 1 September 1939, the Kingdom of Romania under King Carol II officially adopted a position of neutrality. However, the rapidly changing situation in Europe during 1940, as well as domestic political uph ...

''). After Romania's exit from the

Axis An axis (plural ''axes'') is an imaginary line around which an object rotates or is symmetrical. Axis may also refer to: Mathematics * Axis of rotation: see rotation around a fixed axis * Axis (mathematics), a designator for a Cartesian-coordinat ...

and the onset of

Soviet occupation During World War II, the Soviet Union occupied and annexed several countries effectively handed over by Nazi Germany in the secret Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of 1939. These included the eastern regions of Poland (incorporated into two different ...

, as Northern Transylvania was returned to Romania, Șorban again moved to Cluj. Between 1946 and 1948, he headed the Cluj Conservatory and, starting with 1948, the Art Institute of Cluj (until 1949). The

Communist regime A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state that is administered and governed by a communist party guided by Marxism–Leninism. Marxism–Leninism was the state ideology of the Soviet Union, the Cominte ...

purged him from office, which forced him to earn his living as a house painter in a cooperative. He was arrested in 1952 by the

Securitate The Securitate (, Romanian for ''security'') was the popular term for the Departamentul Securității Statului (Department of State Security), the secret police agency of the Socialist Republic of Romania. Previously, before the communist regime ...

and detained without trial until 1955 (overall, Șorban spent 50 months in prison without trial during his life). In 1956, he was again allowed access to academia. A publisher at Editura de stat pentru literatură și artă, he was re-admitted as professor, teaching at the

University of Bucharest The University of Bucharest ( ro, Universitatea din București), commonly known after its abbreviation UB in Romania, is a public university founded in its current form on by a decree of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza to convert the former Princel ...

(1965) and the

Nicolae Grigorescu Nicolae Grigorescu (; 15 May 1838 – 21 July 1907) was one of the founders of modern Romanian painting. There is a metro station named after Grigorescu in Bucharest. It was given his name in 1990, before which it was named after Communist army ...

Art Institute of Bucharest (1968). The

Yad Vashem Yad Vashem ( he, יָד וַשֵׁם; literally, "a memorial and a name") is Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; honoring Jews who fought against th ...

Holocaust Museum awarded him in 1987 the

Righteous Among the Nations Righteous Among the Nations ( he, חֲסִידֵי אֻמּוֹת הָעוֹלָם, ; "righteous (plural) of the world's nations") is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to sa ...

title for his efforts to save the Transylvanian Jews from extermination. He received the Honorary Citizenship of

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

in 1990. This role of his is disputed by some. A web site is dedicated to his memory.

Literary works

* Aurel Popp (biography), Raoul Ṣorban and Zoltan Banner, col. "Maeṣtrii Artei Româneṣti", Editura Meridiane, Bucureṣti, 1968 * ''Fantasma imperiului ungar și casa Europei'' (Editura Globus, București, 1990, ) * ''Chestiunea maghiară'' (Editura Valahia, București, 2001, ) * ''Invazie de stafii. Însemnări și mărturisiri despre o altă parte a vieții'' (Editura Meridiane, București, 2003, ) * ''Rețelele Omeniei'' (with Adrian Riza) (Editura R.A.I., 1995, ) * ''Vida (album)'' (Editura Meridiane, 1981) * ''Theodor Pallady (Mică bibliotecă de arta)'', Editura Meridiane, 1975 * Constantin Mustață, Raoul Șorban - ''Dialoguri cu Raoul Șorban'', Edditura Anotimp, Oradea, 2002, * ''Aurel Ciupe'', Editura Meridiane, București, 1967, * ''Constantin Baraschi'', Editura Meridiane, București 1966 * ''O viață de artist între München și Maramureș (Hollósy Simon)'', Editura Meridiane, București 1986 * ''Ter Borch'', Editura Meridiane, București 1985 * ''Theodor Pallady (album)''

References

External links

Raoul Șorban
– his activity to save Jews' lives during the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

, at

website {{DEFAULTSORT:Sorban, Raoul 1912 births 2006 deaths People from Dej Babeș-Bolyai University alumni Catholic Righteous Among the Nations Prisoners and detainees of Hungary Prisoners and detainees of Romania Romanian publishers (people) Romanian people of French descent Romanian Righteous Among the Nations Romanian art critics Romanian essayists Romanian Greek-Catholics Romanian journalists Romanian memoirists Romanian people of World War II Academic staff of the University of Bucharest 20th-century Romanian painters 20th-century essayists 20th-century journalists 20th-century memoirists