Miklós Radnóti (1909–1944)

Miklós Radnóti, né Glatter, was born to a Jewish family in Budapest, Hungary. His parents were Jakab and Ilona Glatter, who died soon after childbirth along with Miklós's twin brother.
He spent most of his childhood years living with an aunt and uncle who owned the textile company in which his father worked. After a stint in the business, he prevailed with his wish to attend university. From 1930-1935, he studied philosophy and Hungarian and French literature. His first collection of poetry, Pogány köszöntõ (Pagan Salute), was published in 1930. After graduation, he changed his name to Radnóti, after the birthplace of his paternal grandfather. He worked for a number of small magazines in Budapest, and became friends with many prominent artists and intellectuals. His second book, Újmódi pásztorok éneke (Song of Modern Shepherds, 1931), was banned by the fascist regime for offending public taste, and Radnóti barely escaped imprisonment. He published seven more collections of poetry and a memoir, Ikrek hava (1940; published in English as Under Gemini in 1985) during his lifetime. As the anti-Semitism in Hungary grew, Radnóti and his wife Fanni (Gyarmati) converted to the Roman Catholic faith. During World War II, he was sent to forced labor but continued to write poems, essays, and fiction, and to translate poets such as Guillaume Apollinaire and Henry de Montherlant. In 1944, he was working as a slave laborer in the copper mines in Yugoslavia. As the Red Army advanced, Radnóti and his fellow prisoners were forced on a death march in retreat to Hungary. Weakened from hunger and torture, in November 1944, Radnóti and 20 others collapsed and were shot to death. Their bodies were dumped into a mass grave. A year later, after the war, the grave was exhumed and a small notebook containing Radnóti's final poems was discovered. His collected poetry was published as Tajtékos ég (1946; translated into English as Clouded Sky, 1986). Radnóti is recognized as one of the key literary witnesses to the Holocaust, and his work has been translated widely and continuously. Recent English editions of his works include All That Still Matters at All (2014).