Itzhak Katzenelson ( he, יצחק קצנלסון, yi, (יצחק קאַצ(ע)נעלסאָן(זון; also transcribed as ''Icchak-Lejb Kacenelson'', ''Jizchak Katzenelson''; ''Yitzhok Katznelson'') (1 July 1886 – 1 May 1944) was a

Polish Jew The history of the Jews in Poland dates back at least 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Ashkenazi Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the lon ...

ish teacher, poet and dramatist. He was born in 1886 in Karelichy near

Minsk Minsk ( be, Мінск ; russian: Минск) is the capital and the largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach (Berezina), Svislach and the now subterranean Nyamiha, Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative stat ...

, and was murdered on 1 May 1944 in

Auschwitz Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed int ...

Biography

Soon after his birth Katzenelson's family moved to

Łódź Łódź, also rendered in English as Lodz, is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located approximately south-west of Warsaw. The city's coat of arms is an example of ca ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

, where he grew up. He worked as a teacher, founding a school, and as a dramatist in both Yiddish and Hebrew, starting a theatre group which toured Poland and

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

. Following the

German invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week afte ...

in 1939 he and his family fled to

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 officiall ...

, where they got trapped in the

Ghetto A ghetto, often called ''the'' ghetto, is a part of a city in which members of a minority group live, especially as a result of political, social, legal, environmental or economic pressure. Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished ...

. There he ran an underground school for Jewish children. His wife and two of his sons were deported to the

Treblinka extermination camp Treblinka () was an extermination camp, built and operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II. It was in a forest north-east of Warsaw, south of the village of Treblinka in what is now the Masovian Voivodeship. The camp ...

and murdered there. Katzenelson participated in the

Warsaw Ghetto Uprising The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising; pl, powstanie w getcie warszawskim; german: link=no, Aufstand im Warschauer Ghetto was the 1943 act of Jewish resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto in German-occupied Poland during World War II to oppose Nazi Germany' ...

, starting on 19 April 1943. To save his life, friends supplied him and his surviving son with forged Honduran passports. They managed to leave the ghetto but later ended up in Germans hands as part of the Hotel Polski affair. He was deported to a detention camp in

Vittel Vittel (; archaic ) is a commune in the Vosges department in Grand Est in northeastern France. Mineral water is bottled and sold here by Nestlé Waters France, under the '' Vittel'' brand. History In 1854, after visiting the baths at nearby ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, where the Nazis held American and British citizens and nationals of other Allied and neutral countries, for possible later prisoner exchange. In Vittel, Katzenelson wrote ''Dos lid funem oysgehargetn yidishn folk'' ("Song of the Murdered Jewish People"). He put the manuscript in bottles and buried them under a tree, from where it was recovered after the war. A copy was sewn into the handle of a suitcase and later taken to

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

. In late April 1944, Itzhak Katzenelson and his son Zvi were sent on a transport to the

Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. I ...

, where they were murdered on 1 May 1944.

Legacy

The

Ghetto Fighters' House The Ghetto Fighters' House ( he, בית לוחמי הגטאות, ''Beit Lohamei Ha-Getaot''), full name, Itzhak Katzenelson Holocaust and Jewish Resistance Heritage Museum, Documentation and Study Center, was founded in 1949 by members of Kibbut ...

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

and Jewish Resistance Heritage Museum in

, is named in his memory. "The Song of the Murdered Jewish People" has been translated into numerous languages and published as an individual volume.

Published works

* ''Vittel Diary (22.v.43 – 16.9.43)'',

, 1964. Translated from the

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

by Dr. Myer Cohen; includes biographical notes and appendix of terms and place names. * ''Le Chant du peuple juif assassiné'',

: Bibliothèque Medem, 2005. Yiddish-French edition, French translation by Batia Baum, introduction by .

References

External links

Nine poems by Yitzkhok Katznelson in Yiddish and English at Poetry in Hell

Itzhak Katzenelson genealogy
Geni Family Tree
excerpt from ''The Song of the Murdered Jewish People''

poem *
''Dos lid funem oysgehargetn Yidishn folk''

Pdf Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. ...

*
''Yitshak Katsenelson zayn lebn un shafn''
Biography by his sister

*
Katzenelson.de
Website of translator Helmut Homfeld * Schmidt, Andreas (1997).

www.buber.de * ttp://www.yiddishweb.com/medem/Publications.html ''Yitskhok Katzenelson at Maison de la culture yiddish-Bibliothèque Medem''
Free version in Yiddish (with Hebrew letters) of ''Dos lid funem oysgehargetn yidishn folk''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Katzenelson, Yitzhak 1886 births 1944 deaths Warsaw Ghetto inmates Polish people who died in Auschwitz concentration camp Modern Hebrew writers People from Karelichy Polish poets Polish civilians killed in World War II Yiddish-language poets Jewish poets Jewish Combat Organization members Polish Jews who died in the Holocaust Ładoś List