DOVID HOFNUNG

DOVID HOFNUNG (1908-December 11, 1952)

            He was born in Warsaw, Poland.  At age four he was orphaned on his father’s side and was raised by his family in the town of Voidislav (Wodzisław), Kielce region.  He studied in religious elementary school and with private tutors.  Until WWII he lived in Katowice, engaged in business affairs.  When the Germans drove the local Jews into the ghetto, he switched over to live with Aryan papers and thus survived until 1945.  He was among the first Jews who renewed Jewish life in postwar Poland in Lower Silesia.  He was active among the left Labor Zionists.  In 1947 he moved to Lodz, and from there in 1950 he departed for the state of Israel.

            Hofnung wrote stories—mainly on motifs involving the Holocaust and Jewish martyrdom.  His first story, “Yidishe hayzer” (Jewish homes), appeared in Yidishe shriftn (Jewish writings) in Lodz (1948), and later he published as well in: Dos naye lebn (The new land) and Unzer vort (Our word) in Warsaw; Nayvelt (New world) and Letste nayes (Latest news) in Tel Aviv; and elsewhere.  In book form: Der veg fun payn (The way of anguish), with a few words from Leyb Olitski (Lodz, 1949), 119 pp.  Shortly after arriving in Israel, he settled in Beersheba, and he died there.

Sources: Sh. Kants, in Nidershlezye (Wrocław) 10 (1949); Sh. Lastik, in Dos naye lebn (Warsaw) 61 (1949); B. Mark, in Yidishe shriftn (Lodz) (June 1949); Sh. Vilner, Yidishe shriftn (June 7, 1949); A. V. Yasni, in Nayvelt (Tel Aviv) 58 (May 1950); R. Rubinek, in Yidishe shriftn (December 19, 1952); Rubinek, in Af der vakh (Tel Aviv) (December 30, 1954); N. Sh. Life, in Letste nayes (Tel Aviv) (January 29, 1954).

Khayim Leyb Fuks