Vintilă Horia


Vintilă Horia was a Romanian writer, winner of the Prix Goncourt, and convicted war criminal.

Life and career

Horia was born in Segarcea, a small town in Dolj County, Romania. After graduating from Saint Sava High School in Bucharest, he studied Law, and then Letters at the University of Bucharest, and in parallel at universities in Italy and Austria. An associate of the far right thinker Nichifor Crainic, Horia sat on the editorial board of his Sfarmă Piatră journal. He contributed to Gândirea and Porunca Vremii articles praising the Italian fascism of Benito Mussolini, as well as pieces attacking authors whom the traditionalist group viewed as decadent.
After Crainic took over as Minister of Propaganda in King Carol II's authoritarian government, he appointed Horia as member of the diplomatic mission to Rome. According to his own account, Horia shared Crainic's rejection of the Iron Guard, and, after Carol was ousted by the latter's National Legionary State government, he was recalled from office. He later left for Vienna.
With Romania's siding with the Allies in August 1944, Horia was taken prisoner by the Nazi authorities, and interned in the concentration camps at Karpacz and Maria Pfarr. He was liberated a year later by the British Army.
Deciding not to return to an increasingly Soviet Union-dominated Romania, Vintilă Horia lived in Italy.
In 1946, following a trial in absentia by the Romanian People's Tribunals, Horia was sentenced to life in prison for facilitating the penetration of fascist ideas in Romania, and for making the case for those ideas to be implemented under the leadership of the German embassy in Bucharest. The sentence against him has never been rescinded. In 1948, Horia moved to Argentina, where he taught at the Universidad de Buenos Aires; after March 1953, he lived in Spain, employed as a researcher in the Italic Studies field.
He won the Prix Goncourt for his novel Dieu est né en exil in 1960; however, following the allegations that he had been a member of the Iron Guard, Horia refused to receive the Prize, but the Goncourt remains attributed to him. According to some, the allegations constituted slander aimed at Horia by the communist regime, with the purpose of blackmailing him into issuing positive remarks about the regime. His book notably attracted Jean-Paul Sartre's criticism.
Other prizes received by Vintilă Horia include Medalla de Oro de „Il Conciliatore”, Milano ; “Bravo para loshombres que unem en la verdad”, Madrid ; and the “Dante Aligheri" Prize, Florence.
He died in Collado Villalba, a municipality of Madrid.
The centenary of Vintilă Horia was celebrated at the University of Alcalá and in several towns in Romania.

Literary works

Novels

Books