Jorge Semprún

Jorge Semprún (Madrid, 1923 – Paris, 2011) was a Spanish writer who worked mostly in French, as well as a screenwriter and politician. His life went through the Civil War, Nazi deportation, anti-Francoist underground activity and the return of democracy, and these experiences became the core of his work. He served as Spain's Minister of Culture from 1988 to 1991 under Felipe González, although he never joined the Socialist Party. He matters for his reflections on the memory of atrocity, political militancy and the idea of Europe.

He was the son of the republican intellectual José María de Semprún Gurrea, and his maternal grandfather was the conservative statesman Antonio Maura. The family left Spain in 1936 and, after a period in The Hague, settled in Paris in 1939, where he studied philosophy at the Sorbonne. During the German occupation he joined the Resistance and, in 1942, the Spanish Communist Party. Arrested by the Gestapo in 1943, he was deported to Buchenwald. That ordeal shaped Le grand voyage (1963) and Quel beau dimanche! (1980), books that move back and forth in time.

Between 1953 and 1962 he carried out clandestine party work inside Spain under the alias Federico Sánchez. He was expelled from the Communist Party in 1964 over disagreements with its official line, and his Autobiografía de Federico Sánchez (1977) gives a sharp account of Cold War communism. As minister, he helped drive the 1989 film aid decree and took part in negotiations over the Thyssen collection. His clash with Alfonso Guerra is recorded in his later memoir.

He also wrote screenplays for Costa-Gavras, including Z, and for Alain Resnais. In 1996 he became the first non-French author elected to the Académie Goncourt. His legacy lies in the testimony literature of the camps and in his reflections on memory and European identity.