He was born in Koriv (Kurów), Lublin
region, Poland. As a child, in 1910, he
moved to Warsaw. He studied in religious
elementary school, yeshiva, in a seminary course, and self-preparation as an
external student. During WWI in 1917,
suffering from hunger, he returned with his parents to Koriv. At age fourteen in his hometown, he was
giving private lessons in Yiddish, Russian, and accounting. In 1920, following the death of his father,
he returned to Warsaw by himself. There
he was a street salesman, a business employee, and laborer, and in the evenings
he studied primarily on his own. From
1921 he was a member of the Labor Zionist organization “Yugend” (Youth). For a time he worked in the secretariat of
the Warsaw artists’ association, was an employee in the Labor Zionist publishing
house, secretary of the youth section of the association of employees, and from
1925 until just the time of the German occupation of Warsaw, when the last
issue of the newspaper had already appeared, he worked in the administration of
Haynt (Today) in Warsaw. Grossman began writing at age fourteen. Using the pseudonym Godlman, he published
several short, humorous items in Bontshe’s (Avrom Rozenfeld’s) humor magazine
Der foygl (The bird). In 1923 he published his first short story,
“Brokhe un klole” (Blessing and curse) in
Veltshpigl
(Mirror of the world) in Warsaw (edited by A. L. Yakubovitsh). From that point forward, he placed his
writings in such serials as:
Yugnt-fon
(Banner of youth),
Veltshpigl,
Literarishe bleter (Literary leaves),
Vokhnshrift (Weekly writings),
Farmest (Challenge),
Fraynd (Friend), and
Haynt—in Warsaw;
Yidishe bilder (Jewish images) in Riga-Warsaw;
Arbeter tsaytung (Workers’ newspaper) in Warsaw-Lodz. His first book appeared in 1931:
Flamen un roykh, roman fun an arbeter-svive
(Flames and smoke, a novel from a workers’ environment) (Warsaw), 136 pp. Later, he published:
Hamer af harfe (Hammer on the harp) (Warsaw, 1934), 65 pp.;
Karl marks, bay zayn shvel, byografish
montazh-roman (Karl Marx, at his threshold, a biographical montage novel)
(Warsaw, 1934), 288 pp., second edition (Warsaw: Farlag M. Rakovski, 1936), 261
pp.—this last work also appeared in a Polish translation (Warsaw, 1935), 240
pp.—
Dervakhung, historisher roman
(Awakening, a historical novel), a biographical novel about the life of Rosa
Luxembourg (Warsaw: Farlag literarishe bleter, 1937), 150 pp., which earlier
appeared serially in
Shikager kuryer
(Chicago courier) with an introduction that was excised by the censor in
Poland. With the outbreak of WWII, in October
1939 he sought refuge in Soviet Russia.
He was, though, arrested there, tortured by the Soviet authorities, and
deported to local concentration and labor camps. After the end of the war, in 1945 he returned
to Poland. He contributed to
Dos naye lebn (The new life) in Lodz and
served as editor of
Arbeter tsaytung
(Workers’ newspaper) in Lodz in 1946. He
also co-edited the anthology
Yidishe
shriftn (Yiddish writings), published by the Yiddish literary association
in Lodz in 1946. Leaving Poland at the
end of 1946, he spent just a year in Sweden, and in the fall of 1947 he moved
to France, living in Paris, where he became active in the Parisian Jewish
community and literary life. He was the
founder and one of the leaders of the association of Polish Jews in Paris, of
the association of refugee writers, and of the Yiddish PEN club. He contributed to the Parisian Jewish press,
including:
Unzer shtime (Our voice),
Unzer vort (Our word), and
Kiem (Existence). Under his own name—and under such pen names
as F. Grim Karl Grim, L. Anglister, P. Amster, M. Giml, M. Ben-Yankev, Y.
Shabes, M. Fazant, Leye, M. Rozes, M. Flint, and Moyshe Yisroeli—he published
his writings in:
Tsukunft (Future)
and
Forverts (Forward) in New York;
Folksblat (People’s newspaper) in
Uruguay;
Naye yidishe tsaytung (New
Jewish newspaper) in Munich;
Davar
(Word),
Hador (The generation), and
Hatsofe (The spectator) in Tel
Aviv. In 1948 Grosman came to New York
as a delegate to the World Jewish Culture Congress, returning to Paris after
the congress. He then published
In farkisheftn land fun legendarn
Dzhugashvili, mayne zibn yor lebn in ratnfarband, 1939-1946 (In the
enchanted land of the legendary Dzhugashvili (Stalin)], my seven years living
in the Soviet Union, 1939-1946) (Paris, 1949), vol. 1, 336 pp., vol. 2, 318
pp. (This work appeared in an English
translation by I. M. Lask as
In the
Enchanted Land: My Seven Years in Soviet Russia [Tel Aviv, 1960], 383 pp.) A second edition appeared in Paris in 1950,
and it was well received by the entire Yiddish and Hebrew press. “This book,” wrote Yankev Glatshteyn, “is
without a doubt a classic.” “In his
writing,” noted Shmuel Niger, “there is the clarity and simplicity of a man of
truth. This is at a high level.” This important two-volume work also appeared
in Hebrew translation:
Baarets haagadit
hakeshufa, sheva shenot ḥayim biverit hamoatsot (In the legendary land of
enchantment, seven years living in the Soviet Union)—vol. 1 translated by A. Ben
Meir (Tel Aviv, 1950), vol. 2 translated by Y. Ḥagi (Tel Aviv, 1951).
In 1950 he made aliya to the state of
Israel. There he published:
Heymishe geshtaltn: reportazhn, portretn, dertseylungen, minyaturn (Familiar images:
reportage, portraits, stories, miniatures) (Tel Aviv, 1953), 317 pp.; and
Der vide fun a revolutsyoner, politisher
roman (The confessions of a revolutionary, a political novel) (Tel Aviv,
1955), 288 pp. Over the years 1951-1953,
he co-edited the Mapai newspaper
Dos vort
(The word), which initially appeared thrice weekly and later daily, and the
biweekly illustrated magazine
Yidishe
bilder (Tel Aviv, 1951-1952). In
1956 he began publishing in Tel Aviv the monthly
Heymish (Familiar), which he edited and in which he published his
literary and informative works concerning Yiddish cultural and literary life in
the Jewish world. He contributed to an
important work concerning the Warsaw newspaper
Haynt in vol. 2 of
Fun noentn
over (From the recent past), published by the World Jewish Culture Congress
(New York, 1956), a well-documented monograph concerning the great Warsaw daily
newspaper from its founding until the publication of its final issue, under the
fire of Nazi bombs over Jewish Warsaw. Posthumously:
Shtoyb un eybikeyt (Dust and
eternity) (Tel Aviv: Bukh-komitet, 1970), 308 pp. He also edited
Yizker-bukh koriv (Memorial volume for Kurów) (Tel Aviv, 1955),
1150 pp. He was living in Tel Aviv,
working in the Yiddish and Hebrew press, and was esteemed as an important
literary figure. He died there. “Moyshe Grosman is a literary talent,” wrote
Ezriel Carlebach, “of whom we have very few….
They know how great is the flame, how acute the eye, and how
extraordinary the descriptive ability such a work as this one [
Dzhugashvili] is, but without a shadow
of a doubt this may be seen in his great biographical novel,
Karl Marks.”
