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] was first published in 1952 in English translation [transl. James Stern. New York: Appleton, Century] and half a year later in the German original. In this novel Remarque tells the story of a group of inmates of a concentration camp located outside a fictitious city called Mellern. The camp he describes is not an extermination camp but a labor camp which to a large extent is modeled on the actual concentration camp at Buchenwald, near Weimar. Although told in the third person, Remarque focuses on the fate of “Skeleton 509”, or simply 509, a former journalist who later reveals his name as Friedrich Koller. Under torture Koller refused to divulge the names of persons sought by the Gestapo, and so he was sent to the camp twelve years ago. A younger inmate,…

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Citation: Wagener, Hans. "Der Funke Leben". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 10 October 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=19776, accessed 23 November 2024.]