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

Hasidic Hasidism () or Hasidic Judaism is a religious movement within Judaism that arose in the 18th century as a spiritual revival movement in contemporary Western Ukraine before spreading rapidly throughout Eastern Europe. Today, most of those aff ...

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 t ...

, 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 Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, 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. It consisted of Auschw ...

. Rabbi Bereck Kofman was born in

Sobienie-Jeziory Sobienie-Jeziory is a village in Otwock County, Poland. It is the capital of a Gmina Sobienie-Jeziory (commune). It lies approximately south of Otwock and south-east of Warsaw. In the 18th century, Jacek Jezierski established Poland's first sc ...

, located about 40 kilometers south of

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

, 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 Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

at the Sorbonne,

Sarah Kofman Sarah Kofman (; 14 September 1934 – 15 October 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 abandon ...

. 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 (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

, 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 military administration in occupied France during World War II, German occupation of France duri ...

to wait for

deportation Deportation is the expulsion of a person or group of people by a state from its sovereign territory. The actual definition changes depending on the place and context, and it also changes over time. A person who has been deported or is under sen ...

. 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

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, a ...

was sent from

. According to the testimony of a survivor from

during this time, Rabbi Kofman was at the camp for one year before his murder by a

Kapo A kapo was a type of prisoner functionary () at a Nazi concentration or extermination camp. They were, whether voluntary or coerced, collaborators who worked under the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) to carry out administrative tasks or supervise th ...

on a

Shabbat Shabbat (, , or ; , , ) or the Sabbath (), also called Shabbos (, ) by Ashkenazi Hebrew, Ashkenazim, is Judaism's day of rest on the seventh day of the seven-day week, week—i.e., Friday prayer, Friday–Saturday. On this day, religious Jews ...

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 ...

. 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, France. It begins at the Rue Malher and proceeds northwest across the Rue Pavée, Rue Ferdinand Duval, Rue des Écouffes, and Rue d ...

, in the Pletzl. 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 notable ...

. ''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 Jacques Derrida (; ; born Jackie Élie Derrida;Peeters (2013), pp. 12–13. See also 15 July 1930 – 9 October 2004) was a French Algerian philosopher. He developed the philosophy of deconstruction, which he utilized in a number of his texts, ...

. ''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