Imre Kertész was a Hungarian Jewish author and a Holocaust concentration camp survivor. Born in Budapest in 1929, during World War II, Kertész was imprisoned at Auschwitz in 1944 and later at Buchenwald. After the war and repatriation, he soon ended his brief career as a journalist and turned to translation, specializing in German language works. He later emigrated to Berlin.

In 2002, Imre Kertész was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for "writing that upholds the fragile experience of the individual against the barbaric arbitrariness of history." He was the first Hungarian to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. His works deal with themes of the Holocaust, dictatorship, and personal freedom.