Jacob Rosenberg, a survivor of Auschwitz and an award-winning author, has died. Rosenberg died in Melbourne at the age of 86. He was buried Oct. 31.
He won several Australian awards for his books about World War II.
“East of Time,” which was set in the Lodz ghetto, where Rosenberg grew up, won the 2006 New South Wales Premier’s Award for non-fiction and the 2007 National Biography Award. The sequel, “Sunrise West,” which follows Rosenberg’s postwar journey to Australia, won the Community Relations Award earlier this year.
Rosenberg’s entire family except one sister was gassed on arrival at Auschwitz. The sister committed suicide a few days later.
His Sydney-based publisher, Brandl & Schlesinger, called Rosenberg’s death a “big loss” for the literary world, according to the Australian Jewish News.
Rosenberg wrote several books as well as poetry, in English and Yiddish, his mother tongue. He arrived in Australia in 1948 with his wife, Esther. They had one child.
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