Stefan Horvath was born in a Romani settlement in Oberwart, Austria in 1949. The settlement was later taken down to build the town hospital, where Horvath then worked. He was the first Rom to attend secondary school in Oberwart. From 1964 to 1982 he worked for construction companies in Vienna. From 1989 to 1994 he was a foreman for a construction company.

On the night of 4 February 1995, his son, Peter Sárközi, was killed along with three other young Roma while trying to dismantle a sign ‘Roma zurück nach Indien’ [Roma go back to India] that the letter bomber Franz Fuchs had set up on a road outside of Oberwart together with a bomb. For years, Stefan Horvath suffered sleeplessness and trauma. Then he began to write. His works include [Ich war nicht in Auschwitz. Erzählungen, Katzenstreu. Erzählung (2007), Atsinganos. Die Oberwarter Roma und ihre Siedlungen (2013), and So gewaltig ist nichts wie die Angst: Texte aus zwei Jahrzehnten (2017).

Bibliography

Horvath, Stefan. 2003. Ich war nicht in Auschwitz. Erzählungen. Oberwart: edition lex liszt 12.

Horvath, Stefan. 2007. Katzenstreu. Erzählung. Oberwart: edition lex liszt 12.

Horvath, Stefan. 2013. Atsinganos. Die Oberwarter Roma und ihre Siedlungen. Oberwart: edition lex liszt 12.

Horvath, Stefan. 2017. So gewaltig ist nichts wie die Angst: Texte aus zwei Jahrzehnten. Oberwart: edition lex liszt 12.