Jorge Semprún.

On 10 December 1923, Jorge Semprún was born in Madrid, Spain, to José María Semprún Gurrea, a diplomat for the Spanish Republic, and Susana Maura Gamazo, daughter of former prime minister Antonio Maura. After the Spanish Civil War ended in 1939, the family went into exile in France when he was fifteen. He studied at Lycée Henri-IV in Paris and later philosophy at the Sorbonne, where he joined the Spanish Communist Party and the French Resistance during World War II. In September 1943, the Gestapo arrested him and deported him to Buchenwald concentration camp, where he remained until April 1945.

Semprún’s first novel, The Long Voyage 1963, drew on his experiences in the French Resistance and Buchenwald and won the Formentor Prize. He wrote screenplays for several major films, including The War Is Over 1966, starring Yves Montand and directed by Alain Resnais, and Costa-Gavras’s Z 1969, which earned international acclaim. He also directed the film The Sidewalks of Saturn 1986. Under the pseudonym Federico Sánchez, he worked in the Spanish Communist underground from 1947 until his expulsion in 1964 for anti-Stalinist views. Later, he served as Spain’s Minister of Culture under Prime Minister Felipe González from 1988 to 1991. In 2003, at age 79, he wrote his first novel in Spanish, Veinte Años y Un Día.

He was married twice: first to Colette Leloup and later to actress Loleh Bellon. He had one son, Jaime Semprun, who became an author, actor, and director. He also had a brother, Carlos Semprún, and was survived by a grandson, Thomas Landman. Semprún lived in Paris for much of his life and supported Lionel Jospin’s 2002 presidential campaign. He served on the jury of the Cannes Film Festival in 1984.

Jorge Semprún transformed his harrowing experiences into literature and cinema, becoming a voice of conscience. His novel The Long Voyage remains a key Holocaust testimony, and his screenplays helped shape politically engaged European cinema. He received numerous honors, including the Jerusalem Prize 1999, the Peace Prize of the German Publishers’ and Booksellers’ Association 1994, and the Grand Cross of the Order of Charles III 2003. His life inspired the character Diego Mora in The War Is Over. His unflinching examination of totalitarianism and survival defines his legacy.