Manuscript drafts of poetry by Itzhak Katzenelson

Itzhak Katzenelson (1886-1944) was a teacher, dramatist and poet, known for his works in Yiddish and Hebrew. He was born in Karelichy, a town in present-day Belarus, but his family moved to Łódz while he was a child. As an adult, he established a series of Jewish private schools in that city, where children were taught in Hebrew, while also being active as a poet who published his own poetry, and anthologies of poetry in Yiddish. After the Germans invaded Poland in 1939, he fled with his wife and children to Warsaw, but soon thereafter, was trapped in the ghetto that was established there by the Germans. He taught at an underground Jewish school in the ghetto, but eventually his wife and two of his children were deported to Treblinka and murdered there, and following the Warsaw Ghetto uprising in 1943, Katzenelson escaped and remained in hiding until he was discovered by the Gremans and sent to the Vittel camp in France. It was in Vittel where he wrote his works that reflected most on his experiences during the Holocaust, "Dos lid fun oysgehargetn yidishn folk" ("The Poem about the murdered Jewish people") and "Pinkas Vittel" ("Vittel Diary"), both of which were hidden or entrusted to others, and published after the war. From there, both he and his remaining son were deported to Auschwitz in 1944, where they were murdered.