Balys Sruoga

Balys Sruoga ( born February 2, 1896 in Baibokai at Biržai, † October 16, 1947 in Vilnius) was Lithuanian poet, playwright, critic and literary scholar.

Sruoga studied from 1914 to 1918 at the St. Petersburg and Moscow universities and from 1921 at the University of Munich, where he received his doctorate in 1924 Lithuanian folklore. After his return to Lithuania, Sruoga taught Russian literature and theater at the University of Kaunas and wrote literary and theater criticism. In the 1930s Sruoga was famous as a playwright with historical plays as Milžino Paunksme ( In the Shadow of the Giant, 1932).

In March 1943 Sruoga was arrested along with other Lithuanian intellectuals of the German occupying forces, accused of inciting the students to the service in the SS, and he was deported to the Stutthof concentration camp. His memories of the life and suffering in the concentration camp, he has written in the autobiographical novel Dievų MIŠKAS (The Forest of the Gods ). The novel was not published until 1957, 10 years after the death of the writer, and is now one of the most important works of the Lithuanian literature.

Works in German translation

• The Forest of the Gods. Novel, from Lithuanian by Markus Roduner, Langenthal ( Switzerland ), BaltArt Verlag, 2007, ISBN 3,952,310,913th