K. L. Reich

K.L Reich – “Reich concentration camp”, was the abbreviation used to mark all the objects in the Nazi concentration camps. It is also the title of the testimonial novel written by J. Amat-Piniella between 1945 and 1946, shortly after being liberated from Nazi camps, now published in its full version. It chronicles the extraordinary experience of Emili, a republican prisoner who survived in Mauthausen for five years thanks to his pornographic drawings for SS officers. It is a striking chronicle that adds up to the descriptions of hardships of life in prison, suffering, death of companions and the horrors of the crematorium.

For its quality of reflection on the capacity of destruction and safeguard of dignity in the concentration camps, ‘K.L. Reich’ can be compared to the classic works of the genre written by Primo Levi, Robert Antelme, Imre Kertész or Jorge Semprún. Moreover, it joins the tradition of protest, represented in our culture by works of Montserrat Roig and Francesc Comellas, who remind us that in Mauthausen alone more than 5500 Spanish prisoners lost their lives.

The present edition, a translation from the original in Catalan, restores the fragments that could not be published in the 1963 Seix Barral edition, due to the Francoist censorship.

‘K.L. Reich’ won the Fasten Rath prize in 1965.