Ida Fink - Biography

Ida Fink (1 November 1921 – 27 September 2011) was an Israeli Polish-language Jewish author who wrote about the Holocaust.

Biography

Ida Fink was born in Zbaraż, Poland (now Zbarazh, Ukraine) in 1 November 1921. Her father was a physician, and her mother worked as a teacher in a local school. She was a student of music at Lwow Conservatory. In 1941-1942, she spent two years in the Zbaraz ghetto, before escaping with the help of Aryan papers. After the Holocaust she married and had a daughter. In 1957, Fink immigrated to Israel. She settled in Holon, where she worked as a music librarian and an interviewer for Yad Vashem. She published her first story in 1971. She lived with her sister in Ramat Aviv.

Literary career

Fink 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.

A documentary about Ida Fink, The Garden that Floated Away, was produced by Israeli filmmaker Ruth Walk.

The 2008 film Spring 1941, directed by Uri Barbash, was based on her work.

Awards

In 2008, Fink was awarded the Israel Prize, for literature.

She has also won the Anne Frank Prize, 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)

See also

• List of Israel Prize recipients

External links

• Sara R. Horowitz, Biography of Ida Fink, Jewish Women's Encyclopedia

• Michael A. Rauch, Ida Fink: An Appreciation, The Forward, October 17, 2011 [1]