Stanistaw Lem

Stanisław Lem (1921–2006) was born in Lviv into a Polish-Jewish family of doctors and studied medicine in 1940–41 at Lviv University. After the German invasion, Lem was able to conceal his Jewish background with false papers and worked as an assistant mechanic in a car shop. At the same time, he was active in the resistance against the German occupation. After forced displacement in 1946, he lived in Krakow, where he was a leading science fiction writer. His memoir of Lviv, Highcastle, was published in 1968 in Poland.