Bereck Kofman (10 October 1900 – 1943) was a French Hasidic orthodox

rabbi A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...

, independent from the

consistory Consistory is the anglicized form of the consistorium, a council of the closest advisors of the Roman emperors. It can also refer to: *A papal consistory, a formal meeting of the Sacred College of Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church * Consistor ...

, born in Poland, deported and murdered in Auschwitz. Rabbi Bereck Kofman was born in Sobienie-Jeziory, located about 40 kilometers south of

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

, on 10 October 1900. Bereck Kofman was the father of a family of six children, three sons and three daughters, including the future professor of philosophy at the

Sorbonne Sorbonne may refer to: * Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities. *the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970) *one of its components or linked institution, ...

Sarah Kofman Sarah Kofman (; September 14, 1934 – October 15, 1994) was a French philosopher . Biography Kofman began her teaching career in Toulouse in 1960 at the Lycée Saint-Sernin, and worked with both Jean Hyppolite and Gilles Deleuze. Her aban ...

. The family settled in France in 1929Kofman, 1996, p. 9. where they were granted French citizenship. On 16 July 1942 Kofman was arrested by the Vichy police during the rafle du Vélodrome d'Hiver, together with about 13,000 other

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

, and moved to

Drancy internment camp Drancy internment camp was an assembly and detention camp for confining Jews who were later deported to the extermination camps during the German occupation of France during World War II. Originally conceived and built as a modernist urban commu ...

to wait for

deportation Deportation is the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. The term ''expulsion'' is often used as a synonym for deportation, though expulsion is more often used in the context of international law, while deportation ...

. According to his daughter Sarah, her father heard about the roundup through rumours and had left his residence very early to warn the other Jews of the danger, before returning home, ready to sacrifice himself for his family. He was arrested at four in the afternoon. His family, who never saw him again, received a postcard, written by someone else, from the camp at Drancy. He was deported to Auschwitz by the Convoi (Convoy) No 12 on 29 July 1942. After the war, a

death certificate A death certificate is either a legal document issued by a medical practitioner which states when a person died, or a document issued by a government civil registration office, that declares the date, location and cause of a person's death, as ...

was sent from Auschwitz. According to the testimony of a survivor from Auschwitz during this time, Rabbi Kofman was at the camp for one year before his murder by a

Kapo A kapo or prisoner functionary (german: Funktionshäftling) was a prisoner in a Nazi camp who was assigned by the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) guards to supervise forced labor or carry out administrative tasks. Also called "prisoner self-administrat ...

on a Shabbat because he refused to work. He was beaten up with a pickax and

buried alive Premature burial, also known as live burial, burial alive, or vivisepulture, means to be buried while still alive. Animals or humans may be buried alive accidentally on the mistaken assumption that they are dead, or intentionally as a form of t ...

. The perpetrator of the crime, a Jewish butcher, returned from

and reopened his shop,

Rue des Rosiers The Rue des Rosiers, which means "street of the rosebushes," is a street in the 4th arrondissement of Paris, 4th arrondissement of Paris, France. It begins at Rue Malher and proceeds northwest across Rue Pavée, Rue Ferdinand Duval, Rue des É ...

, in the

Pletzl The Pletzl (פלעצל, "little place" in Yiddish) is the Jewish quarter in the 4th arrondissement of Paris, France. The Place Saint-Paul and the surrounding area were unofficially named the Pletzl when the neighborhood became predominantly Jew ...

. Sarah Kofman has remarked that the only souvenir remaining from her father is a fountain pen and that this was the source of all her writings.Kofman, 1996, p. 3.

References

Bibliography

Serge Klarsfeld Serge Klarsfeld (born 17 September 1935) is a Romanian-born French activist and Nazi hunter known for documenting the Holocaust in order to establish the record and to enable the prosecution of war criminals. Since the 1960s, he has made notab ...

. ''Le Mémorial De La Déportation Des Juifs De France''. Beate et Serge Klarsfeld: Paris, 1978 * Sarah Kofman. ''Rue Ordener. Rue Labat.'' Translated with an introduction by Ann Smock. University of Nebraska Press: Lincoln & London, 1996. * Jacques Derrida. ''The Work of Mourning''. University of Chicago Press: Chicago & London, 2001. (Derrida mentions the death of Sarah Kofman, p. 173) {{DEFAULTSORT:Kofman, Bereck 1900 births 1943 deaths 20th-century French rabbis French Orthodox rabbis Hasidic rabbis in Europe French people who died in Auschwitz concentration camp French civilians killed in World War II French people of Polish-Jewish descent People from Otwock County French Jews who died in the Holocaust