Jurek Becker was a Polish-born German writer, born on September 30, 1937, in Lodz, Poland. He is best known for his novels and screenplays that often explore themes of identity, memory, and the impact of the Holocaust. Becker himself was a survivor of the Nazi concentration camps, which deeply influenced his work. Becker's most famous novel, Jakob the Liar, published in 1969, tells the story of a Jewish man in a ghetto who spreads hope through fabricated stories. His writing has earned him several awards, and he remains an important figure in post-war German literature until his death on March 14, 1997.