inspired by personal experiences in German concentration camps.
In a letter to the author, obtained by BosNewsLife on Friday October 11, Rau writes he is "deeply moved" that despite Kertesz’s "atrocious experiences" he did "so much for the progress of German culture in Hungary."
Rau, who also congratulated him in a phone call, adds he is "especially glad" that Kertesz learned about the Nobel Prize Thursday, October 10, while staying in the German capital Berlin.
NOVEL
The President currently reads one of Kertesz’s Holocaust novels, and explains that the writer shares with his readers the personal pain over the many lost lives and all those who suffered under the "horrific violence" of the last century.
"I myself experience this as I am reading your (novel) Fateless" known in Germany as "Roman eines Schicksallosen," Rau writes in his letter to Kertesz.
Rau’s letter came shortly after Kertesz said in an interview with BosNewsLife that Hungary should recognize its involvement in World War Two, when it was for the most part a close ally of Nazi Germany.
TRAUMA
"I hope that through my Nobel Prize, the (Hungarian) society will finally recognize (the trauma) that 600-thousand Hungarians Jews were massacred in the gas chambers," he told BosNewsLife, speaking by telephone from Berlin.
Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Medgyessy said his cabinet will honour Kertesz by amending current tax legislation that would otherwise force him to hand over nearly half (40 percent) of his $1 million Prize money to the state.
"We would like to burden the government budget with many such prestigious awards," Medgyessy explained to reporters Friday, October 11, after tax-consultants had suggested the amendment.
13TH HUNGARIAN
Under Hungarian law, most prestigious prizes, like the Kossuth and Szechenyi awards for excellence in science and art, are tax-exempt, but the Nobel Prize was not part of it. All but one of the previous Hungarian Nobel winners won their awards while living outside the country, so avoided paying tax on the prize money.
Though Kertesz is the 13th Nobel Prize winner, he is the first to win the award for literature. Despite his expected worldly wealth, Kertesz has pledged not to stop working, as writing is his life for an apparent rapidly growing public.
Local media reported that Kertesz’s books were snapped up in Hungary on Thursday, October 10, soon after news broke that the had won the Nobel Prize. This interest in Kertesz’s works and German President Rau’s comments about his writings, are also believed to help preparations for a film version of his first novel.
