BETSALEL BRAZD

BETSALEL BRAZD (b. November 28, 1910)

He was born in Grodno.  His father was a teacher of mathematics.  Following the outbreak of WWI, his family moved to Russia where his father was killed (1919) in a pogrom.  In 1922 he and his family returned to Grodno.  He had earlier studied in a Polish Jewish senior high school and later in a Polish one, graduating in 1932.  For two years he privately studied humanistic subject matter.  In 1934 he entered the history faculty of Vilna University.  His seminar work was “The Cultural History of Lithuanian Jews.”  He worked on a dissertation concerning the history of Jews in Grodno.  Several chapters were published in Polish on Jewish archives in Grodno; in Grodner moment (Grodno moment), 1936, he published on Jewish historical materials in Grodno and on Jewish self-management in Grodno.  In addition, he assembled materials for the history of Polish, Russian, and Jewish theater in Grodno.  His fate remains unknown.