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(JTA) — Marcel Reich-Ranicki, a German-Jewish author and literary critic sometimes referred to in Germany as the “pope of literature,” has died.<\/p>\n
The death of Reich-Ranicki, a Holocaust survivor and a spokesman for reconciliation between Jewish and non-Jewish Germans, was announced on Sept. 18. He was 93.<\/p>\n
Reich-Ranicki was “a piece of German-Jewish history, ” Charlotte Knobloch, former head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany and head of the Jewish community of Bavaria and Munich, said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact that this son of a Jewish German-Polish family, who lost his parents and relatives in the Nazi death camps, found a home in Germany again and gave our country so much is one of the postwar occurrences we can only be grateful for.\u201d<\/p>\n
Living in the Warsaw Ghetto under Nazi occupation, Reich-Ranicki became a translator and writer for the ghetto’s Jewish council and newspaper. He also wrote reviews of concerts under a pseudonym. He and his wife escaped in 1943, a year after marrying, surviving in hiding for 16 months with friends.<\/p>\n
In 1950, Reich-Ranicki served time in solitary confinement in a Polish prison for so-called “ideological alienation.” In 1958, after working several years as an editor for German literature and also publishing his own writing, Reich-Ranicki and his wife immigrated to West Germany with their son, Andrew.<\/p>\n
In Germany, Reich-Ranicki launched what would become a long and influential career as writer and literary critic, starting with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper, where he eventually headed the literature department.<\/p>\n
Revered and feared as a critic, he became famous for his TV roundtable with authors and critics, “The Literary Quartet,” which aired from 1988 to 2001.<\/p>\n
Though he was battling cancer, he continued to write regularly until this year for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.<\/p>\n