DOVID (DAVID) UMRU

DOVID (DAVID) UMRU (1910-July 1941)

He was a prose writer, born in Alite (Alytus), Lithuania.  He lived in Kovno (Kaunas), Lithuania.  He was a member of the group of Yiddish poets and writers who arose in Lithuania between the two world wars.  He began publishing stories and sketches in the 1930s in the Yiddish press.  In 1940 he placed work in a literary and artistic collection brought out by the press of Yiddish writers and artists in Lithuania, entitled Bleter (Leaves) (Kovno, 1938)—together with Chaim Grade, Meyer Yelin, Avrom Sutzkever, Hirsh Glik, and Noyekh Prilutski). That same year he also contributed to an anthology entitled Unter-vegs (The way) (Vilna). Over the years 1940-1941, he served as editor of Vilner emes (Vilna truth) and the director of the Jewish State Theater in Vilna.  He also published in Brikn (Bridges) (Kovno, 1937).  His stories in book form include: Zhaver (Rust) (Kovno, 1937); Derner (Thorns) (Kovno, 1939), 167 pp.  In July 1941 he fell into the hands of the Gestapo in Vilna and was killed.

 Sources: Sh. Katshurginski, Tsvishn hamer un serp (Between hammer and sickle) (Paris, 1949); N. Y. Gotlib, in Keneder odler (April 10, 1944).

 [Additional information from: Chaim Beider, Leksikon fun yidishe shrayber in ratn-farband (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers in the Soviet Union), ed. Boris Sandler and Gennady Estraikh (New York: Congress for Jewish Culture, Inc., 2011), pp. 15-16.]