Josef Burg (writer)
Josef Burg (Ukrainian Йосиф Кунович Бург / Jossyf Kunowytsch Castle;. Yiddish יוסף בורג; * May 30, 1912 in Wischnitz ( Bukovina, Austria - Hungary); † August 10, 2009 in Chernivtsi (Ukraine ) ) was one of the last writer Yiddish mother tongue. He wrote stories, sketches, and short stories.
Life and work
Josef Burg spent his early years in Wischnitz son of a Jewish raftsman. When he was twelve years old, the family moved to the capital of Bukovina, to Czernowitz on. He attended the schools and trained as a teacher at the Jewish school association founded in 1919. From 1935 to 1938 he studied German at the University of Vienna. After the Anschluss he was forced to leave Vienna. From 1938 to 1941 he held again in Chernivtsi on, but fled in 1941 from the advancing Wehrmacht to Samarkand (Uzbekistan ). Since 1959 he again lived in Czernowitz, first as a teacher and then as a freelance writer.
In 1934 he brought his first story Oifn splaw ( On the raft ) out. By 1940, two more works. After that, his writing career was interrupted for forty years. It was not until 1980 he was able to publish books again. They were translated into Russian, Polish, Ukrainian and English except in German. Burg's main concern was to preserve the memory of Yiddish literature. The published by him Tschernowizer Bleter should help.
Awards
- 2007: Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, First Class
- 2009: Theodor Kramer Prize