Benjamin Fundanian (November 14, 1898 - October 2, 1944), Romanian poet (considered during his lifetime to be the most important Jewish poet), critic, and existentialist philosopher, was also known for his work in film and theater. In Romania he made contact with what would be his teacher, Lev Shestov, and soon reviewed one of his books.

Fondane emigrated to Paris in 1923. Affiliated with Surrealism, close to Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes and the Dada group, he ended up opting for theater, poetry and, above all, philosophy. His relationship with his teacher Shestov, who introduced him to the intellectual circles of the time, became closer. At the same time, he made a career in the cinema: critic and screenwriter for Paramount Pictures, later he worked on Rapt with Dimitri Kirsanoff and directed the film Tararira in Argentina, on the occasion of the two trips to which he was invited by Victoria Ocampo.

His critique is a worthy successor to Shestov's and is especially directed against political dogma, rationalism, history and the belief in salvation through art, which was reflected in his poetry and in his essays on Charles Baudelaire and Arthur Rimbaud. In addition to Shestov, he studied, among others, Martin Heidegger, Nietzsche, Husserl, Bergson, Freud, and Kierkegaard.

A prisoner of war at the fall of France, he was released and spent several years of Nazi occupation in hiding. Having been captured again, it was his friend Emil Cioran (he approached Fondane due to his interest in Shestov's work, since he was one of his main philosophers along with Nietzsche) who tried to free him on two occasions . Fondane refused to release him. By refusing to leave his sister, who had also been taken prisoner, alone and grieving, he paid for this decision with her life. He was handed over to Nazi German authorities, deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, and sent to the gas chamber in the last wave of the Holocaust.