Boris Pahor (photo, left), a prominent Slovene writer, has died at age 108 (see story here).
Pahor (bio here) was “one of the most important” Slovenian-language authors of the 20th century.
His best-known work, an autobiographical novel titled “Necropolis,” recounts the 15 months he spent in 5 Nazi concentration camps. Slovenia’s leader called him “a witness, an admonisher, the conscience of Slovenia, Europe and the world” for bearing personal witness against the Nazi horrors.
He fought with partisans in World War 2, and after being captured worked as a medic in Dachau, Natzweiler-Struthof, Dora-Mittelbau, Harzungen, and Bergen-Belsen. He later became a literary opponent of totalitarianism, in both its fascist and communist forms; his writings earned him a Nobel Prize nomination, although not the prize.