KNIEŽA, EMIL

KNIEŽA, EMIL (originally Fuerst; 1920–1990), Slovak writer and publicist. Knieža was born in Nacina Ves, Slovakia. A partisan fighter during World War II, he later described the horrors of the Nazi occupation in his novels and stories, Šiestý prápor na stráž\! ("The Sixth Battalion on Guard\!," 1964), Kóšer rota ("The Kosher Battalion," 1966), and Mušketieri žltej hviezdy ("Musketeers of the Yellow Star," 1967), while other works broke new ground with their accounts of Jewish forced labor units under the fascist regime. Knieža left Czechoslovakia for Switzerland after 1968 where he lived until his death. During his exile he visited Israel many times. He also published Slovak translations from the Yiddish (Shalom Aleichem). (Avigdor Dagan / Milos Pojar (2nd ed.)