Austrian author and Holocaust survivor Fred Wander dead at 89

Wander's book The Seventh Well won international acclaim.

fred wander 88 (photo credit: )
fred wander 88
(photo credit: )
Author Fred Wander, a Holocaust survivor whose books focused on his experiences during Nazi times and the rise and fall of the former East Germany, has died in Vienna, Austrian media reported late Tuesday. He was 89. Wander was born in Vienna in 1917 to poor Jewish parents who named him Fritz Rosenblatt, Austrian radio reported on its Web site. In 1938, after German troops entered Austria, he fled to France but was later deported and survived internment in the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps. Wander died Monday, the Austria Press Agency said. Wander's won international acclaim for his book The Seventh Well, which was translated into many languages. After World War II, Wander spent more than two decades in the former East Germany but returned to Vienna in 1983. "I see myself as a storyteller, who talks about the people he met," Wander had a tendency to say, according to APA.