Lojze Kovačič

[4] Kovačič was born to a Slovene father and a German mother in Basel, Switzerland in 1928.

When his patriotic father refused Swiss citizenship, his family was expelled from Switzerland in 1938 and moved first to rural Lower Carniola and then to Ljubljana, just at the outbreak of the Second World War.

At the end of the war, the mere fact that they were half German made them suspicious and the whole family apart from Lojze were deported.

He found employment as an art and puppetry teacher in Ljubljana, and from 1978 to his retirement in 1989 he was also involved in literary education.

In addition to his opus of adult fiction, he also published a number of books for children and young readers.