Martin Pollack wins Angelus Central European Literature Award for 2007

Martin Pollack is the winner of the Angelus Central European Literature Award for 2007. The winning book is titled “Smierc w Bunkrze – Opowiesc o Moim Ojcu” (“Death in the Bunker – the Story About My Father”).

Angelus is the most important award in the field of creative prose translated into the Polish language.
The award is presented on an annual basis to writers from Central Europe whose works undertake themes most relevant to the present day, encourage reflection and deepen the world’s knowledge of other cultures.

It is directly connected with Wroclaw as a city of intercultural dialogue, as it is the place where people of various nations and cultures have always been coexisting.

The members of the Angelus jury are: Natalia Gorbaniewska (Russian poet, journalist and translator of Polish literature), Stanislaw Beres ( a literary historian, poet, essayist and translator), Piotr Kepinski (poet and literary critic), Julian Kornhauser (poet, writer of prose and literary critic), Ryszard Krynicki (poet, translator and publisher), Tomasz Lubienski (playwright and writer), Krzysztof Maslon (publicist, literary critic) and Andrzej Zawada (literary historian, writer for radio and editor).

This year’s laureate is an Austrian essayist, publicist and translator. Martin Pollack, born in 1944, who translated into the German language all the books of Ryszard Kapuscinski, the famous Polish reporter, journalist, publicist, poet and photographer.
Pollack studied Slavic literature and Eastern European history in Vienna and Warsaw.

The honored book was written in 2004. Pollack tells the story of his father, Dr. Gerhard Bast, whose body was found in 1947 at the entrance to a bunker on the Austrian-Italian border.
The investigation brings into light a terrifying truth: Pollack’s father was a war criminal, as well as a Nazi SS member.