SHOYEL
(SAUL) DEGENFISH (1869-July 26, 1941)
He was born in Kutne (Kutno), Poland, into a
family of a registrar for felling timber.
In his youth he joined the socialist movement. He was an active leader of the Polish Socialist Party (PPS [Polska Partia Socjalistyczna]) and a
contributor to the illegal Jewish Party press.
He translated from Russian, German, and Polish a variety of pamphlets
into Yiddish which were illegally published in Poland, such as: Di velt fun harte mentshn (The world of
unbending men) by L. M. Gernter. He was
arrested many times and held in Russian prisons. In 1899 he escaped from Poland to the United
States, where, together with his close friend, the writer Yankev Milkh, he
served as representative of the PPS. At
that time he worked as an actor in Yiddish theater. In 1903 after his performance in Hauptmann’s Di veber (The weavers [original: Die Weber]), he took the name S.
Baumers. He returned to Poland in 1920,
but he soon thereafter returned once again to the United States and became
active in the Communist movement. He
worked at that time as a simple laborer in Ford’s factory. He visited Russia and Birobidzhan in 1932,
but he returned in disappointment and was drawn back into community work. He spent his last years in Venice,
California, and it was there that he died.
Sources: YIVO archives (New
York); archives of Dr. Y. Shatski at YIVO.
Khayim Leyb Fuks
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