Ida Fink ( he, אידה פינק, 1 November 1921 – 27 September 2011) was a Polish-born Israeli author who wrote about the Holocaust in Polish.

Biography

Ida Fink was born as Ida Landau in Zbaraż, Poland (now Zbarazh, Ukraine) on 1 November 1921 to a

Polish-Jewish The history of the Jews in Poland dates back at least 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Ashkenazi Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the lon ...

family. Her father, Ludwig Landau, was a physician and her mother, Fannie Landau, worked as a teacher in a local school. She was a student of music at the Lwów Conservatory, but her studies were halted by the German invasion of Poland in 1939. Landau and her family spent 1941–1942 in the Zbaraż ghetto, before escaping, along with her sister, with the help of

Aryan Aryan or Arya (, Indo-Iranian *''arya'') is a term originally used as an ethnocultural self-designation by Indo-Iranians in ancient times, in contrast to the nearby outsiders known as 'non-Aryan' (*''an-arya''). In Ancient India, the term ' ...

papers. During those two years her mother also died of cancer. After the Holocaust, Landau married Bruno Fink and had a daughter, Miri Fink. In 1957, Fink and her family immigrated to Israel. They settled in

Holon Holon ( he, חוֹלוֹן ) is a city on the central coastal strip of Israel, south of Tel Aviv. Holon is part of the metropolitan Gush Dan area. In it had a population of . Holon has the second-largest industrial zone in Israel, after Haifa. ...

, where she worked as a music librarian and an interviewer for Yad Vashem. In 1958, she began publishing short stories in Polish-language press. In her final years, she resided in Ramat Aviv, a neighborhood of Tel Aviv.

Literary career

Fink began publishing her short stories in 1958 but published her first anthology only in 1987. She wrote in Polish, primarily on Holocaust themes. Her stories revolve around the terrible choices that the Jews had to make during the Nazi era and the hardships of Holocaust survivors after the war. Her short stories appeared twice on the Polish Matriculation Exam, Matura.

Films

A documentary about Ida Fink, ''The Garden that Floated Away'', was produced by Israeli filmmaker Ruth Walk. The film ' (2002) was based on her book ''The Journey''. The 2008 film ''

Spring 1941 ''Spring 1941'' (also titled ''Aviv 41'') is a 2008 Polish-Israeli war drama film directed by Uri Barbash and starring Joseph Fiennes, Neve McIntosh and Kelly Harrison. It is based on the short stories "A Conversation" and "A Spring Morning" by ...

'', directed by Uri Barbash, was based on her book ''Wiosna 1941''.

Awards

In 2008, Fink was awarded the

Israel Prize The Israel Prize ( he, פרס ישראל; ''pras israél'') is an award bestowed by the State of Israel, and regarded as the state's highest cultural honor. History The Israel Prize is awarded annually, on Israeli Independence Day, in a state cer ...

, for literature.Israel Prize for Literature awarded to Ida Fink, Tuvya Ruebner and Nili Mirsky - Haaretz - Israel News
/ref> She has also won the Anne Frank Prize (1985), the Buchman Prize and the Sapir Prize.

Published work

* ''The Key Game'' (1986) * '' A Scrap of Time and Other Stories'' (1987) * ''The Journey'' (1990) * ''Traces'' (1996)

References

External links

Sara R. Horowitz Sara Reva Horowitz (born 1951) is an American Holocaust literary scholar. She is a professor of Comparative Literature and Humanities and former Director of the Israel and Golda Koschitzky Centre for Jewish Studies at York University. She is a ...

Biography of Ida Fink
Jewish Women's Encyclopedia
Michael A. Rauch, Ida Fink: An Appreciation, The Forward, 17 October 2011

Teaching the Holocaust through a story by Ida Fink

Jewish Women's Archive page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fink, Ida 1921 births 2011 deaths Polish emigrants to Israel Israeli people of Polish-Jewish descent Israel Prize women recipients Israel Prize in literature recipients Israeli writers in Polish 20th-century Israeli women writers