ALTER HOFMAN

ALTER HOFMAN (1909-May 29, 1944)

            He was born in a town in the Kielce region in Poland, into a poor, laboring family.  He received his education in religious elementary school, public school, and with private tutors.  He moved to Lodz as a child and became a tailor.  He began writing stories, in 1932, for Lodzer tageblat (Lodz daily newspaper), about poor Jewish and general life which draws the reader’s attention with a highly intimate lyrical tone and simplicity of description.  He later published novellas and stories in: Os (Letter) in Lodz-Warsaw; Literarishe bleter (Literary leaves), Arbeter-tsaytung (Workers’ newspaper), and Vokhnshrift far literatur (Weekly writing for literature)—in Warsaw; Nayer folksblat (New people’s newspaper) in Lodz, and elsewhere.  In book form: Gefuremte koykhes, dertseylungen (Shaped strengths, stories) (Lodz, 1938), 96 pp.  He was confined in the Lodz ghetto, suffered want, and was creatively active in the writers’ circle of Miriam Ulyanover.  He died of hunger in 1944.

Sources: A. Gleb, in Os (Lodz-Warsaw) 3 (1938); Y. Shpigl, in Dos naye lebn (Lodz) 30 (1946); M Gelbart, in Arbeter-tsaytunbg (Warsaw) 63 (1949); Ts. Shner, in Dapim leḥeker hashoa (Tel Aviv) 1 (1950); B. Mark, Umgekumene shrayber fun di getos un lagern (Murdered writers from the ghettos and camps) (Warsaw, 1954); M. Valdman, Ksovim fun khayim krul (The writings of Khayim Krul) (New York, 1955); Y. Yanasovitsh, in Di prese (Buenos Aires) (August 7, 1956); Kh. L. Fuks, in Fun noentn over (New York) 3 (1957), pp. 268, 272; Y. Goldkorn, in Montreoler heftn (May 1958), pp. 8-13.

Khayim Leyb Fuks