Itzhak Katzenelson (; also transcribed as ''Icchak-Lejb Kacenelson'', ''Jizchak Katzenelson''; ''Yitzhok Katznelson'') (1 July 1886 – 1 May 1944) was a Polish Jewish teacher, poet and dramatist. He was born in 1886 in Karelichy near

Minsk Minsk (, ; , ) is the capital and 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 status in Belarus and is the administra ...

, and was murdered on 1 May 1944 in Auschwitz.

Biography

Soon after his birth Katzenelson's family moved to

Łódź Łódź is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located south-west of Warsaw. Łódź has a population of 655,279, making it the country's List of cities and towns in Polan ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

, 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, officially the Republic of Lithuania, 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, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

. Following the

Invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Second Polish Republic, Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak R ...

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

in 1939, he and his family fled to

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 ...

, where they were trapped in the

Warsaw Ghetto The Warsaw Ghetto (, officially , ; ) was the largest of the Nazi ghettos during World War II and the Holocaust. It was established in November 1940 by the Nazi Germany, German authorities within the new General Government territory of Occupat ...

. 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 the second-deadliest extermination camp to be 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 Mas ...

and murdered there. Katzenelson participated in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, 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,

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, 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 "Song of the Murdered Jewish People" (). He put the manuscript in bottles and buried them under a tree, where it was recovered after the war. A copy was sewn into a suitcase handle and later taken to

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

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

Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, 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 into Germany in 1939) d ...

, where they were murdered on 1 May 1944.

Legacy

The Ghetto Fighters' House

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

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)'',

: Ghetto Fighters' House, 1964. Translated from the

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

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 Inc., Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, computer hardware, ...

*
''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''
The Itzhak Katzenelson Collection
at

European Holocaust Research Infrastructure The European Holocaust Research Infrastructure (EHRI) is an international digital infrastructure and community. It is a joint undertaking of Holocaust historians, archivists, and specialists in digital humanities. Through the development of herit ...

. Includes biography of Itzhak Katzenelson * Holtzman, Avner
Katzenelson, Yitsḥak
at '' The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe''
Yitzhak Katzenelson
2014, at Holocaust Historical Society * Schulman, Elias
KATZENELSON, ITZHAK
"updated" ''

Encyclopaedia Judaica The ''Encyclopaedia Judaica'' is a multi-volume English-language encyclopedia of the Jewish people, Judaism, and Israel. It covers diverse areas of the Jewish world and civilization, including Jewish history of all eras, culture, Jewish holida ...

'' article at ''

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'' * Szwarcman-Czarnota, Bella
Itzhak Katzenelson
April 2013, updated 14 October 2016, at Culture.pl {{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 male 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 People from Grodno Governorate Jews from the Russian Empire