YITSKHOK GUTERMAN

YITSKHOK GUTERMAN (b. 1907)

            He was born in Konstantynów, near Lodz, Poland, into a middle-class family.  In his youth he moved with his parents to Lodz, worked there as a laborer, was active in the leftwing trade union movement as well as in Gezerd (All-Union Association for the Agricultural Settlement of Jewish Workers in the USSR), and in the Ayzenshtat Library.  After WWII broke out, he left for Bialystok.  With the German assault on Russia, he was evacuated to Kazakhstan, where he lived until 1946.  He then returned to Poland, and in 1957 he emigrated from there to Brazil.  He began writing stories with a proletarian bent in Literarishe tribune (Literary tribune) (Lodz, 1929).  From that point in time, he contributed to: Vokhnshrift (Weekly writings), Foroys (Onward), Literarishe bleter (Literary leaves), Naye folks-tsaytung (New people’s newspaper), Der fraynd (The friend), and Zibn teg (Seven days)—all in Warsaw; Nayer folks-blat (New people’s newspaper) in Lodz; and the like.  After the war he published novellas and short stories in: Dos naye lebn (The new life), Yidishe shriftn (Yiddish writings), Oyfgang (Arise), Folks-shtime (Voice of the people), and other Yiddish publications in Poland.  Among his books: In a puster shtot, dertseylungen (In an empty city, stories) (Lodz, 1949), 64 pp., images drawn from the Jewish Holocaust and from the destruction of Stalingrad; Banayte teg (Renewed days), stories and reportage pieces (Warsaw, 1954), 119 pp.; Kinder (Children), stories (Warsaw, 1956), 73 pp.; Di mame iz nit khoser-deye (Mama is not crazy) (Tel Aviv: 1981), 219 pp.  Although he did not himself experience the war years in Poland, his artistic descriptions of that dreadful era were forceful and tragically convincing.  He translated from Russian [probably, Polish—JAF] Bogdan Hamera’s Tsum bayshpil pleve (For example Plewe [original: Na przykład Plewa]) (Warsaw, 1952), 271 pp.  Together with Y. Yonasovitsh and Moyshe Bershling, he edited the publications Lodzher notitsn (Lodz notices) and Af naye vegn (Along new roads) (Lodz, 1936).  Recently he has published novellas about working class figures in Lodz.  He was a member of the editorial board (with Y. Shpigl, Kh. L. Fuks, Y. Yonasovitsh, Y. Okrutni, and A. V. Yasni) of the Lodzher yizker-bukh (Lodz memory book) which was prepared for publication in 1948.

Sources: Y. Shpigl, Folks-shtime (Lodz) 131 (1949); Sh. Kants, in Nidershlezye (Vrotslav) 48 (1949); M. Shklyar, in Dis naye lebn (Warsaw) 381 (1949); Kh. L. Fuks, in Fun noentn over (New York) 3 (1957).

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 152.]