Naked Among Wolves (novel)

First edition (publ. Mitteldeutscher Verlag)

Naked Among Wolves (German: Nackt unter Wölfen) is a novel by the East German author Bruno Apitz. The novel was first published in 1958 and tells the story of prisoners in the Buchenwald concentration camp who risk their lives to hide a young Polish-Jewish boy. Apitz himself had been imprisoned in Buchenwald as a communist from 1937 to 1945. After being librated, he worked for the East German state-run national film production company DEFA and as a radio play author.

The boy, named as Stefan Cyliak in Apitz's novel, was revealed to be based on Stefan Jerzy Zweig after publication of the novel.[1]

The book has been translated into 30 languages[2] and published in 28 countries.[3]

Adaptations

• In 1960 a first TV movie titled Nackt unter Wölfen was adapted for East German television.
• In 1963 the novel was adapted for a film, also titled Naked Among Wolves, by the East German director Frank Beyer.[4]
• In 2015 a TV adaptation was released, directed by Philipp Kadelbach.[5][6]

See also

• Buchenwald Resistance

References

1. Kate Connolly (March 17, 2012). "Mystery grows over the Jewish boy who survived Buchenwald". The Guardian. Berlin. Retrieved November 16, 2014.
2. William Grange (July 9, 2009). Historical Dictionary of Postwar German Literature. Scarecrow Press. pp. 11–. ISBN 978-0-8108-6314-9. Retrieved November 16, 2014.
3. Müller, Volker (2000-04-28). "Das willkommene Heldenlied". Berliner Zeitung (in ge). Archived from the original on 2008-04-18. Retrieved 2009-06-04.
4. "The Screen: Death Camp: 'Naked Among Wolves' at 34th Street East". The New York Times. ProQuest document ID 118148099. 19 April 1967. p. 54. Retrieved 5 January 2012.
5. "Naked among wolves - Il bambino nella valigia, la recensione". Everyeye Cinema (in Italian). Retrieved 2020-05-21.
6. "Nahý mezi vlky / Nackt unter Wölfen (2015)". Česko-Slovenská filmová databáze (Czecho-Slovak Film Databse) (in Czech). Retrieved 11 January 2025.