Avigdor Dagan

Avigdor Dagan was born in 1912 in Hradec Králové

Avigdor Dagan was born Viktor Fischl on 30 June 1912 in Hradec Králové, Bohemia. He studied at Charles University in Prague and earned a doctorate in law and political science. In Prague he edited a Zionist weekly and was secretary of the Jewish faction in the Czechoslovak parliament.

In 1939 he left for London to escape the Nazis and worked alongside Jan Masaryk, the Czechoslovak foreign minister in exile. After the war he returned home, but in 1948, as the communists took power, he fled and moved to Israel. In 1955 he changed his name to Avigdor Dagan.

He joined Israel's Foreign Ministry and served in Japan and Burma, as envoy to Yugoslavia, and as ambassador to Poland, Norway and Austria. He was also a non-resident ambassador to Iceland and led talks to set up relations with Nepal in 1962. He retired from the ministry in 1977 to write full time.

He wrote in Czech, first poetry and later stories and novels. His works include the poem The Dead Village, about the destruction of Lidice, and the novel The Court Jesters, translated into 12 languages. He also translated Psalms and the Song of Songs into modern Czech.

In 1990 he visited his homeland for the first time since fleeing. He was married to Stella Berger and had 2 sons. He died on 28 May 2006 in Jerusalem.