| Boris Pahor | |
 | |
| Birth: | 26 August 1913 Trieste, Austria-Hungary (present-day Trieste, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy) |
| Death: | 30 May 2022 Contovello Trieste, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy |
| Age: | 108 years, 277 days |
| Country: |  ITA
|
| Centenarian | |
Boris Pahor, OMRI (26 August 1913 – 30 May 2022) was an Italian centenarian and novelist in the Slovene language who was best known for his heartfelt descriptions of life as a member of the Slovenian minority in pre-Second World War increasingly fascist Italy. as well as a Nazi concentration camp survivor. In his novel Necropolis he visits the Natzweiler-Struthof camp twenty years after his relocation to Dachau. Following Dachau, he was relocated three more times: to Mittelbau-Dora, Harzungen and finally to Bergen-Belsen, which was liberated on 15 April 1945.
Biography[]
Pahor was born into a Slovene minority community in Trieste, Austria-Hungary (present-day Trieste, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy) on 26 August 1913. His parents were Franc Pahor and Marija (née Ambrozic) Pahor.
His success was not instant; openly expressing his disapproval of communism in Yugoslavia, he was not acknowledged and was probably intentionally overseen by his homeland until after Slovenia had gained its independence in 1991. It was not until 2013 that his novel was first translated into English. The first translation (in 1995) was titled Pilgrim Among the Shadows and the second one (in 2010) Necropolis. The masterpiece has been translated into several other European languages; French: Pelerin parmi les ombres (1996), German: Nekropolis (2001, 2003), Catalan: Necropolis (2004), Finnish: Nekropoli (2006), Italian: Necropoli (2008), Serbian: Necropola (2009), Spanish: Necrópolis (2010), Dutch: Nekropolis (2011), Croatian: Nekropola (2012), Portuguese: Necropole (2013) and Esperanto: Pilgrimanto inter ombroj.
Pahor was a prominent public figure in the Slovene minority in Italy, who were affected by Fascist Italianization. Although a member of the Slovene Partisans, he opposed Titoist Communism as well. He was awarded the Legion of Honour by the French government and the Cross of Honour for Science and Art by the Austrian government, and was nominated for the Nobel prize for literature by the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts. He refused the title of honorary citizen of the capital of Slovenia because he believed that the Slovene minority in Italy (1920–47) was not supported the way it ought to have been during the period of Fascist Italianization by right-wing or left-wing Slovenian political elites. Pahor was married to the author Radoslava Premrl (1921–2009) and, at the age of 99, wrote a book dedicated to her. He is, in addition to Slovene and Italian, fluent in French.
He became the oldest known living person in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, following the death of 108-year-old Antonia Paliaga on 12 March 2022.
Pahor Died at his home in Contovello Trieste, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy, on 30 May 2022 at the age of 108 years, 277 days. At the time of his death, he was the oldest known living ethnic Slovenian man in the world, and the fourth-oldest known living man in Italy (behind Tripolino Giannini, Salvatore Nardi, and Renato Zagaglioni).
Gallery[]
References[]
- Profile of Boris Pahor
- Boris Pahor was nominated for the Nobel prize ff.uni-lj.si, 17 September 2007
- Boris Pahor: I do not want to become an honorary citizen of Ljubljana ("Ne želim postati častni meščan Ljubljane Delo.si, 19 April 2010
- Boris Pahor turns 99 Slovenia.si, October 2012
- Boris Pahor, fighter against totalitarianisms, turns 107 Slovenia Times, 26 August 2020
- Acclaimed Slovenian writer Boris Pahor celebrates 108th birthday STA, 26 August 2021
- Writer, Holocaust survivor Boris Pahor dies aged 108 ANSA.it, 30 May 2022