born 13. January 1907, Będzin
died 9. May 1992, Giwatajim (Israel)
lived in Będzin, ul. Sączewskiego 13 / Giwatajim (Israel)
novelist, poet and literary critic, translator of German and Jewish literature
In 1926, as a communist activist, he was expelled from Fürstenberg Gymnasium before graduation and sentenced to two years in prison. As a poet, he made his debut in 1928; from 1930 he published in left-wing newspapers. He worked as a clerk at the „Feniks” mill in Będzin.
On 1. August 1943 during the deportation from the ghetto to the death camp he gave luminal to his wife and his beloved 4-year-old daughter Inka, then swallowed it himself as well. However he survived, which is why one of the guiding themes of his poetry is the pain of losing his daughter. He went through Birkenau, Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg and Dachau concentration camps. In the Munich hospital where he was treated for tuberculosis he met his future wife, Irena Beitne. In 1947-1948 he worked in the Ministry of Culture and Arts in Warsaw, and from 1948 to 1953 in the Polish Radio as the literary director. Since 1953 he focused exclusively on literary work. In January 1968 he was forced to immigrate to Israel. In 1969 he started cooperation with Hebrew and Polish-speaking literary press. He joined the Hebrew Writers’ Association. In 1972 he received the state prize for his work about the Holocaust.