Leopold Lahola
Leopold Lahola (1918–1968) was a Slovak Jewish fiction writer, playwright, and film director. He escaped deportation to a concentration camp, wrote under a pseudonym, and later joined the resistance. After the war, following the Communist takeover, his promising career as a playwright was cut short by a vicious campaign accusing him of promoting existentialist values. In 1949 Lahola emigrated to Israel, where he worked in film before moving to West Germany to work in film and TV. During Prague Spring his plays were staged again in Czechoslovakia to considerable critical acclaim and during 1967–1968 Lahola became a frequent visitor, enjoying renewed interest in his work as a playwright and film director, until his premature death of a heart attack in June 1968. The Last Thing was shortlisted for the inaugural 2026 Adam Freudenheim Translation Prize.
photo courtesy of Slovak Film Institute
