Jean Améry
Jean Améry (31 October 191217 October 1978), born
Hans Chaim Maier, was an Austrian-born essayist whose work was often informed by his experiences during
World War II. His most celebrated work, ''At the Mind's Limits: Contemplations by a Survivor on Auschwitz and Its Realities'' (1966), suggests that
torture was "the essence" of the
Third Reich. Other notable works included ''On Aging'' (1968) and ''On Suicide: A Discourse on Voluntary Death'' (1976). He adopted the pseudonym Jean Améry after 1945. Améry died by suicide in 1978.
Formerly a philosophy and literature student in Vienna, Améry's participation in organized resistance against the
Nazi occupation of Belgium resulted in his detainment and torture by the German
Gestapo at
Fort Breendonk, and several years of imprisonment in concentration camps. Améry survived internments in
Auschwitz and
Buchenwald, and was finally liberated at
Bergen-Belsen in 1945. After the war he settled in Belgium.
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