Thomas Mermall

Thomas Mermall
Born July 25, 1937
Uzhhorod, now Ukraine
Died September 22, 2011(2011-09-22) (aged 74)
New York City
Academic work
Era 20th century
Main interests Spanish literature and philosophy
Notable works The rhetoric of humanism: Spanish culture after Ortega y Gasset; critical edition of Ortega y Gasset's The revolt of the masses

Thomas Mermall, Uzhhorod (in the Ruthenia region of Hungary, now the Ukraine) July 25, 1937 – New York City, September 22, 2011, Hispanist and professor of Spanish literature. Mermall's studies focused primarily on modern Spanish literature and thought, primarily the developments after the Spanish Civil War, including analyses and commentaries on the works of José Ortega y Gasset, Unamuno, Pedro Laín Entralgo, Juan Rof Carballo and Francisco Ayala, as well as comments on the importance of the essay in Spanish literature.

Biography

Thomas Mermall[1] was a Hispanist born to a Jewish family in the town of Uzhhorod in the Carpathian Ruthenia of Eastern Europe, a town that is today the administrative enter of Zakarpattia Oblast in the Ukraine. At the time of his birth the town was part of Czechoslovakia, although it was transferred to Hungary the following year.[2] His family spoke Hungarian at home and Ruthenian with the neighbors, some of whom also spoke Yiddish. Mermall would study Czech and Russian at school before leaving Europe and eventually adding Spanish, English and a bit of Hebrew to his linguistic experience.

When the Nazis reached Uzhhorod in the spring of 1944, Mermall’s father, Gabriel,[3] hoping to save his wife and child, returned from the Russian front where he had been part of a Hungarian motorized army unit. Mermall’s mother was too sick to travel, but he and his father fled into the forest where they were helped by a series of local residents until settling into a hayloft which housed a detachment of cavalry from the collaborationist Hungarian government, something which created a constant danger for them. Mermall’s mother was deported to Auschwitz where she died a few days after her family’s flight from the city. However, by what Mermall referred to as “the flip side of destiny” given the odds against his survival, he and his father were freed in November 1944 by the arrival of the Red Army. Thomas Mermall, it turned out, had been the only Jewish child in the entire region to have survived.

During their time in hiding Mermall’s father kept a diary, a diary he would later turn into an account of that experience and publish as “Seeds of Grace” in the book By the Grace of Strangers: Two Boys’ Rescue During the Holocaust.[4] Steven Spielberg purchased the film rights to the story, although the project was never carried out.

In 1947 Thomas Mermall and his father managed to leave Europe and settle in Chile for three years before moving to the United States where his father’s brother lived. Mermall completed his studies in the US and became a naturalized citizen. He went on to become a full professor of Spanish Literature at Brooklyn College and formed part of the doctoral program of the City University of New York.

Mermall’s published works have included studies of Unamuno, Octavio Paz, Pedro Laín Entralgo, Juan Rof Carballo and Francisco Ayala. Mermall also produced a critical edition of Ortega y Gasset’s The revolt of the masses and published his own memoirs, also entitled Seeds of Grace [Semillas de la Gracia]. At the time of his death he was completing a translation of contemporary Spanish philosopher Javier Gomá’s book Ejemplaridad pública [Public exemplarity].

Works

English

Spanish

Reference notes

  1. ↑ Based in large part on Thomas Mermall’s autobiographical article "La otra cara del destino", FronteraD Revista Digital and the obituary published in El País, (September 25, 2011), “Thomas Mermall, un hispanista en el exilio”.
  2. ↑ See Twentieth century history of Uzhhorod in Wikipedia.
  3. ↑ Gabor Mermelstain changed his name to Gabriel Mermall in the US. See Muñoz Molina, Antonio, "Pasados interactivos". El País, October 10, 2009.
  4. ↑ Mermall, Gabriel and Norbert Yasharoff. By the Grace of Strangers: Two Boys’ Rescue During the Holocaust. Holocaust Survivors Memoirs Project, 2006. ISBN 978-0976073949
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