Jorge Semprun
Jorge Semprun was a Spanish writer and political figure born in Madrid in 1923 to a diplomat's family. His youth was marked by his involvement in the anti-Franco movement during the Spanish Civil War, leading to his family's escape to France just before the German occupation. Semprun joined the French Resistance and was later imprisoned in Buchenwald concentration camp. After World War II, he studied philosophy and literature at the Sorbonne but did not complete a degree. He became a member of the Communist Party in Spain and later the French Communist Party, but left due to his opposition to Stalinism. Semprun's literary career began with screenwriting for acclaimed French films, with his autobiographical screenplay for "La Guerre est finie" reflecting his own experiences. Upon returning to Spain, he shifted to fiction writing, producing notable works such as "Autobiografía de Federico Sanchez," which critiques European communism and earned him significant literary accolades. Semprun's writing often intertwines personal memories with historical events, providing a poignant perspective on survival and the impact of political ideologies.
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Jorge Semprun
Author
- Born: December 10, 1923
- Birthplace: Madrid, Spain
- Died: June 7, 2011
Biography
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Jorge Semprun was born in Madrid, Spain in 1923, the son of a diplomat. His childhood was spent in middle-class comfort and he was educated at home by German governesses. During the Spanish Civil War, a teenage Semprun became a member of the anti-Franco movement. To avoid political repercussions, he escaped with his family to France, ironically in time for the German occupation of 1940. Semprun joined the French Resistance, but was arrested and shipped to the Buchenwald concentration camp in 1943.
Following the liberation of 1945, he returned to Paris to study philosophy and literature at the Sorbonne but never completed a degree. He was a member of the underground Communist Party in Spain while serving openly as the secretary of the French Communist Party. In 1964, he was ousted from the Communist Party for rejecting Stalinism and advocating a more moderate form of socialism. Following the death of Franco in 1975, he returned to Spain, eventually serving as the country’s minister of culture from 1988 through 1991.
After his expulsion from the Communist party in France, Semprun secluded himself in Paris and began writing screenplays for what would become acclaimed French films like Stavisky and Z. Semprun’s script for La Guerre est finie is perhaps his most autobiographical; the film’s protagonist is an aging former Communist living in isolation in Paris.
When he returned to Spain, Semprun traded screenplays for fiction, although his first success, Autobiograía de Federico Sanchez (1977; The Autobiography of Federico Sanchez and the Communist Underground in Spain, 1979), is actually, as the title states, an autobiography. Initially the public mistook it for a novel, as did the judges who awarded the book a fiction prize. Federico Sanchez was Semprun’s alias when he was a member of the Spanish underground, and the book is his critique of European communism. Among his other works, Quel beau Dimanche (1980; What a Beautiful Sunday!, 1982) is Semprun’s most commended. A combination memoir and novel, it relates the story of a concentration camp inmate. The beautiful Sunday of the title is the pivotal date of the novel, towards which additional days, before and after, gravitate. An earlier novel, Le Grand voyage (1964; The Long Voyage, 1964), also mixes genres as it recounts an inmate’s trip to Buchenwald aboard a cattle truck, a journey that resembles Semprun’s own harrowing youthful experience.
Semprun’s Autobiografia de Federico Sanchez was awarded the Spanish Planeta Award for fiction. Le Grand voyage received the Formentor Prize. He shared the Edgar Allan Poe Award with Costa-Gavras, director and and cowriter of Z; Z also received an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1970. The University of Turin awarded Semprun an honorary doctorate in 1990, and in 1997 he received the Jerusalem Prize for his Holocaust works. Semprun is an acclaimed writer of fiction based on historical events who blends singular lived experiences with their larger social consequences. He narrates with an eyewitness’s precision the intimate experiences of imprisonment and survival.