WŁADYSŁAW BĄK (VLADISLAV BONK)

WŁADYSŁAW BĄK (VLADISLAV BONK) (November 28, 1906-March 1983)

            His Hebraized name was Zev Edary.  He was born in Warsaw and graduated from Kogan’s school in Warsaw.  From 1922 he was living in Israel, where he was active in the Communist Party.  In 1928 he returned to Poland.  During WWII, he served in the Red Army, advancing to the rank of lieutenant colonel.  In 1968 he again went to Israel and lived in Reḥovot.  He wrote primarily in Polish.  From 1956 he began publishing memoirs and articles about military matters in: Yidishe shriftn (Yiddish writings) in Warsaw; Lebns-fragn (Life issues), Letste nayes (Latest news), Yisroel shtime (Voice of Israel), and Fray yisroel (Free Israel)—all in Tel Aviv; and Yerusholaimer almanakh (Jerusalem almanac), among others.  Among his books: Blut oyfn tseylem (Blood on the cross) (Tel Aviv: Peretz Publ., 1973), 328 pp., seventeen short stories translated by the author from a Polish volume of his and several by others; and Nie wierzę (I don’t believe) (Tel Aviv: Palpres, 1970), 116 pp., which appeared in Yiddish translation by Yitskhok Luden under the title Ikh gloyb nisht (I don’t believe) (Tel Aviv: Palpres, 1970), 153 pp.  He died in Reḥovot.

Sources: A. Baraban, in Yidishe tsaytung (Tel Aviv) (April 21, 1970); N. List, in Letste nayes (Tel Aviv) (December 14, 1973); E. Riblis, in Al hamishmar (Tel Aviv) (March 24, 1978).

Reuven Goldberg

Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 52.