Ephraim Kishon (1924 – 2005) was an Israeli author, dramatist, screenwriter, and Oscar-nominated film director. He was one of the most widely read contemporary satirists in the world.
During World War II the Nazis imprisoned him in several concentration camps. At one camp his chess talent helped him survive, as he played chess with the guards.[4] In another camp, the Germans lined up the inmates and shot every tenth person, but passed him by. He later wrote in his book The Scapegoat, "They made a mistake—they left one satirist alive". He eventually managed to escape the concentration camps while being transported to the Sobibor extermination camp in Nazi German Occupied Poland, and hid the remainder of the war disguised as "Stanko Andras", a Slovakian laborer.
Kishon's books have been translated into 37 languages and sold particularly well in Germany. Kishon rejected the idea of universal guilt for the Holocaust. He said: “It gives me great satisfaction to see the grandchildren of my executioners queuing up to buy my books.”