MENDL GELBART

MENDL GELBART (b. February 16, 1898)

            He was born in Lodz, Poland, to poor Hassidic parents.  He studied in religious primary school and on his own in the synagogue study hall.  As a youth he became a laborer and was active in anarchist circles.  He lived in Lodz until WWII, later confined to the Lodz ghetto, from which he was deported in August 1944 to Auschwitz and from there to another camp.  He was liberated in April 1945, and until 1948 he lived in Germany.  In late 1948 he returned to Lodz and in 1950 departed for the state of Israel.  In the late 1920s he started writing for Lodzher folksblat (Lodz people’s newspaper)—essays and reviews of Yiddish books.  Over the years 1948-1949 he was editorial secretary for the weekly Arbeter vort (Workers’ word) in Lodz.  He published as well in Dos naye lebn (The new life) in postwar Poland.  He edited the periodical Morgn (Morning) in Reichenhall in 1947 and Khodesh-bleter (Monthly newspaper) for literature and criticism in Munich in August 1947, in which he published articles on community and literary matters.  He was living in Israel, publishing his writings in Lebns-fragn (Life issues), Letste nayes (Latest news), Heymish (Familiar), and others.  In 1957 he received an award from Yad Vashem for a work on the Lodz ghetto.

Source: Kh. L. Fuks, in Fun noentn over 3 (New York, 1957).