orig. Paul Antschel
born Nov. 23, 1920, Cernăui, Rom.
died May 1, 1970, Paris, France
Romanian poet who wrote in German.
When Romania came under Nazi control during World War II, Celan, a Jew, was sent to a forced-labour camp; his parents were murdered. He moved to Vienna in 1947 and published his first volume of poetry, The Sand from the Urns , in 1948. His second volume, Poppy and Memory (1952), established his reputation in West Germany. He produced seven more volumes before taking his own life by drowning in the Seine. Celan's dense and complex verse is marked by his experience of World War II; his early poem "Todesfuge" is one of the most famous poetic expressions of the Holocaust.