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Aharon Appelfeld Archive


(Chernowitz, Romania 1932 -  Israel, 2018)
Aharon Appelfeld's life experiences as a young Holocaust survivor and the trials of his absorption in Israel reverberate in his books. Appelfeld has written more than 30 books that have been translated into many languages and won many important awards, including the Israel Prize and the Nelly Sachs Prize (Germany). He is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Hebrew Literature at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. The archives contain, amongst other items, Appelfeld's original manuscripts.

Archive History

In June 2003 the author Aharon Appelfeld offer his works and writings
to the Library of the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, to be preserved in an archive established for that purpose.
Cardboard boxes with a lot of materials arrived from the author's home, including his original manuscripts which were created in coffee houses in Jerusalem, written on napkins and pieces of paper. After 3 years of strenuous work, the whole collection is classified and organized.
In 2007 the collection was transferred to the new home of the Literary Archives in the Diller Building, under the auspices
of the "Hekshrim Institute of the study of the Hebrew and Jewish Israeli research Literature and culture".
The main aim of the Archive is to collect and preserve anything published in print writing, video, audio and internet by the author and about him, to scan it and convert it to digital media.

What's in the Archive?

The archive includes about one hundred of the author's books and translations into twenty languages published in Israel and worldwide
and about one hundred and fifty short stories printed in Israeli newspapers and journals since the 1960's.
In addition the collection contains articles and reviews on his work
as well as audio interviews and videocassettes, posters and photographs, correspondence and biographical material. The highlights of the collection are the original manuscripts.

Publications: Books by Aharon Appelfeld, originals and translations, books and academic theses about Appelfeld's work, short stories, originals and translations. 

Articles from Newspapers and Periodicals: Research and criticism, bibliographies, general background, translations and translators, posters and media announcements.

Audio-Visual material: Interviews, conversations, lectures, radio and TV broadcasts.

Curriculum Vitae

No electric light shines in Appelfeld's modest work corner, so, every day, from the shadows, images of his past emerge. He doesn't type his works into a computer. He doesn't like the sense of alienation it creates. Only after he's satisfied with his writing, he types the final version on a small typewriter. There's something mystical about it, says Appelfeld in reference to his 50-year old typewriter; it gives him a tactile connection to his words.

Every day, like clockwork, Appelfeld sits in the Jerusalem coffee shops, where he conjures up and enhances memories of a disappearing world—his and that of the many good Jews who were lost in the chaos of that terrible War.

Aharon Appelfeld was born in 1932 near Czernowitz (Romania). He experienced the Holocaust as a young boy. At the beginning of World War II, he lost his mother, and he and his father were exiled to Transnistria (in the Ukraine). After they were separated, he wandered from village to village across the Ukraine with various groups of displaced persons. Appelfeld reached Israel at the age of fifteen as part of Aliyat ha-Noar (Jewish Agency for Israel's Youth Aliyah Dept.), who provided him with three years of education, the beginning of his formal education. After serving in the Israeli army, he studied Hebrew and Yiddish literatures at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

He began his writing career while still a youth. His first poems were published in newspapers between 1954-1955, and in 1959 his first story appeared in the journal Gazit. Many of his writings reflect his experiences as a youth during the Holocaust, or as a young Holocaust survivor in Israel.

Aharon Appelfeld served as a professor in the Dept. of Hebrew Literature at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev from 1979 until his retirement. He holds honorary degrees from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Brandeis University, Bar-Ilan University, the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, Yeshiva University and the Hebrew Union College. He has won the Anne Frank prize twice, and in 1969 he won the Literature Prize, bestowed by the Prime Minister of Israel. He was awarded the Bialik Prize, the Brenner Prize (in 1975 for his book Ke-ishon ha-`ayin) and the Israel Prize for Belles-Lettres in 1983. Recently, he received the respected Medici Prize in France for his work Sipur hayim.

The judges for the Brenner Prize said of Appelfeld: "The instinct of an artist whispered to him not to use the actual description of the Holocaust, since the horrific chronicle is stronger than all imagination and would stymie any worthy artistic design. However, he wisely internalized the horror, allowing it to settle at the base of his soul, fluttering in suffering, unable to extricate itself from its tragic complications."

Appelfeld died at the age of 85 on January 4, 2018.

Books by Aharon Appelfeld

Aharon Appelfeld Published more than 40 books that include novels, essays, anthologys of stories, short stories and plays:

  1. Smoke [Ashan], (anthology of Stories, 1962)

  2. [Ba-Gai  ha-Poreh] (anthology of Stories, 1963)

  3. [K'for al ha-Aretz] (anthology of Stories, 1965)

  4. In the Wilderness [Ba-Midbar], (Novel, 1965)

  5. [Be'komat ha-Karka] (anthology of Stories, 1968)

  1. [Adnei ha-Nahar] (anthology of Stories, 1971)

  2. [Ha-'or veha-kutonet] (Novel, 1971)

  3. Five Stories [Hamisha Sipurim], (anthology)

  4. Apple of the Eye [ke-Ishon ha-Ayin], (Novel, 1972) 

  5. [ke-Mea Edim] (Novel, 1975) 

  6. [Shanim ve-Sha'ot] (2 Novel, 1975) 

  7. The Age of wonders [Tor ha-Pla'ot], (Novel, 1978)                

  8. Badenheim 1939 [Badenheim Ir ha-Nofesh] [Badenheim,1939], (Novel, 1979) 

  9. Essays in the first person [Masot be-Guf Rishon], (Novel, 1979) 

  10. Searing light [Michvat ha-Or], (Novel, 1980) 

  11. [ha-Kutonet veha-Pasim], (Novel, 1983) 

  12. [Tzili] (Novel, 1996) 

  13. The Immortal Bartfuss [Bartfuss Ben ha-Almavet], (Novel, 1988) 

  14. The Retreat [ha-Pisga], (Novel, 1984) 

  15. The Healer [Be'et ube-Ona Achat], (Novel, 1985) 

  16. [Ritzpat ha-Esh], (Novel, 1988) 

  17. For Every Sin [Al Kol ha-Psha'im], (Novel, 1992) 

  18. [Katerina], (Novel, 1989) 

  19. To the land of the reeds [El Eretz ha-Gome], (Novel, 1990) 
    To the land of the cattails 

  20. The Iron tracks [Mesilat ha-Barzel], (Novel, 1991) 

  21. The Conversion [Timyon], (Novel, 1993) 

  22. [Layish], (Novel, 1994) 

  23. Beyond despair [Me'ever la-Yeush], (Novel, 1994) 

  24. Unto the soul [Ad Nefesh], (Novel, 1994) 

  25. [Ad Sheya`aleh `Amud ha-Shahar], (Novel, 1995) 

  26. The Ice mine [Michre ha-Kerach], (Novel, 1997) 

  27. [Kol Asher Ahavti], (Novel, 1999) 

  28. The Story of a life [Sipur Ha'im], (Novel, 1999) 

  29. A Journey into Winter [Masa elha-Horef], (Novel, 2000) 

  30. [Lailah ve-od Lailah], (Novel, 2001) 

  31. A Table for one [Od ha-Yom Gadol], (Novel, 2001)                

  32. [Pit'om Ahavah], (Novel, 2001) 

  33. [Priha Pra'it], (Novel, 2004) 

  34. [Polin Eretz Yeruka], (Novel, 2005)                                                   

  35. [Pirhe ha-Afelah], (Novel, 2006) 

  36. [Hayim Shlemim], (Novel, 2007) 

  37. [veha-Za`am Od Lo Nadam], (Novel, 2008)

  38. The Man Who Never Stopped Sleeping [ha-ish she-lo pasak lishon], (Novel, 2010)

  39. Mighty Waters [Mayim adirim], (Novel, 2011)

  40. Until the Edge of Sorrow (Novel, 2012)

  41. Avi Veimi (Novel, 2013)

  42. Yalda Shelo Min Ha'olam Haze (children's book, 2013)

Prizes, Awards, and Honors of Aharon Appelfeld

1960-1961- Anne Frank Prize
1965 - Artists' Prize
1966 - Milo Prize for Frost on the ground (anthology of short stories), Youth Aliyah Prize for "In the children's eyes" (short story)
1967 - Ussishkin Prize
1969 - Prime Minister’s Prize to encourage literary creativity
1975 - Brenner Prize for Like the pupil of the eye
1977 - Bilhah and Israel Newman Prize, Institute for Hebrew Culture and Education, New York University

1979 - Bialik Literature Prize for The age of wonders (book)1982- Ka-Tsetnik Prize
1983 - Israel Prize for Hebrew Literature
1984 - Present Tense Literary Award for Tzili (book)
1987 - Harold U. Ribalow Hadassah Prize for The land of the cattails (book), 1987- WIZO Prize
1988 - Wingate Prize for The age of wonders (book)
1989 - Honorary doctorate, Yeshiva University, Scheiber Prize for Literature and Art – Beit Shalom Aleichem
1990 - Commonwealth Literature Prize
1991 - Jewish Book Prize for The healer (book)
1996 - Honorary doctorate, Brandeis University
1996 - Honorary doctorate, Bar-Ilan University
1998 - Yaakov Buchman Memorial Fund “Remembrance Prize” (Yad va-Shem) for The ice mine (book).
1999 - National Jewish Writers Association Prize for The Iron Tracks (book).
2000 - Honorary doctorate, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
2001 - ADEI-WIZO Prize, Italy, for The story of a life (book)
2004 - Prix Medias Etranger, France, for The story of a life (book)
2005 - Nelly Sachs Prize, Germany, International Film Prize, Jerusalem, “Commandeur de I‘Ordre des arts et des lettres”, France (Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters of the French Republic)
2007 - Honorary doctorate, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Honorary doctorate, Tel Aviv University
2008 - Boccaccio Prize, Italy, Grinzane Cavour Prize, Italy, Dialogue between Nations, Italy for Badenheim 1939 (book)
2009 - Lucioles Prize, France (for Pirhe ha-Afelah)
2010 - Rosa Deloro Festival La Milanesiana (Milano Italy)
2011 - National Book Awards for Until the Dawn's Light.
2012 - Medal of Light  award – Israel 2012, The Hebrew Language Academy Award, Independent Foreign Fiction Prize on his novel "Blooms of Darkness"

Translations by Books

German

French

English (United States)

English (United States)

English (United States)

English (United States)

German

​Czech, English (United States), Italian.

English (United States)

English (United States)