Close-up portrait of Hebrew and Yiddish author Itzhak Katzenelson in the Vittel internment camp.
Overview
- Caption
- Close-up portrait of Hebrew and Yiddish author Itzhak Katzenelson in the Vittel internment camp.
- Date
-
1943 - 1944
- Locale
- Vittel, [Vosges] France
- Photo Credit
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Anne Wolfe
Rights & Restrictions
- Photo Source
-
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Copyright: United States Holocaust Memorial MuseumProvenance: Anne WolfeSource Record ID: Collections: 2015.356.1
Keywords & Subjects
Administrative Notes
- Biography
- Itzhak Katzenelson (1886-1944) was a Jewish poet and dramatist who wrote both in Hebrew and Yiddish. Katzenelson was born and raised in Korelichi, Russia (near Novogrudok). He later moved to Lodz, where he created a network of secular Hebrew schools and founded a Hebrew theater troupe. He was also involved in the Dror and Hehalutz Zionist youth movements. Katzenelson visited Palestine several times in the interwar period but always returned to Europe. Soon after the outbreak of World War II Katzenelson left Lodz for Warsaw, where he remained until the spring of 1943. During this period he kept a diary (which survived the war). In addition, Katzenelson wrote a great deal for the underground press, taught high school, organized bible study groups, led seminars, gave public readings of his poetry, and directed a Yiddish theater group. In the summer of 1942 Katzenelson's wife and two of his sons were deported to Treblinka. Katzenelson remained in the ghetto until the second day of the ghetto uprising, April 20, when he escaped to the Aryan sector with his remaining son. In May, however, they were discovered by the Germans. Because he possessed a Honduran passport, Katzenelson and his son were sent to the Vittel internment camp in France. They remained there for a year, during which time Katzenelson continued to write. In April 1944, however, both were deported to their death in Auschwitz.
- Record last modified:
- 2015-03-30 00:00:00
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1180906
