MARK DVORZHETSKI (DVORZETSKY)

MARK DVORZHETSKI (DVORZETSKY) (May 3, 1908-March 15, 1975)

            He was born in Vilna.  He was a Holocaust researcher.  He graduated from Epstein’s Hebrew high school in Vilna, and went on to study medicine at the Universities of Vilna and Nancy.  He received his medical degree from the Sorbonne in Paris.  In 1939 he was a councilman on the Vilna city council.  He fell into German captivity while serving as a military doctor in the Polish army.  He escaped and returned to Vilna where he was active in cultural affairs in the ghetto and, from the start, in the local underground organization.  He was deported in 1943 to Estonian concentration camps and from there to camps in Germany.  After the war he moved to Paris and in 1949 made aliya to Israel.  From 1960 he worked with the division of Holocaust history at Bar Ilan University in Ramat Gan.  He published research works on psycho-social issues among the survivors, pathology problems from the Holocaust era, and issues concerning saved children.  His articles have been published in: Unzer vort (Our word) in Paris (of which he served as editor); Parizer shriftn (Parisian writings) 1 (1945); Tog-morgn zhurnal (Day morning journal) in New York; Almanakh fun di yidishe shrayber in yisroel (Almanac of Yiddish writers in Israel) in Tel Aviv (1962); and in many of the Yiddish publications around the world, as well as in Davar (Word), Dapim refuyim (Medical pages), Niv harefua (Words of healing), and other Hebrew writings.  His work was included in Shmuel Niger’s Kidush-hashem (Sanctification of the name) (New York, 1948).  Among his works: Kamf farn gezunt in geto vilne (Struggle for health in the Vilna ghetto) (Paris-Geneva: OZE, 1946), 78 pp., also appeared in French (Le ghetto de Vilna, rapport sanitaire [Genève, 1946], 85 pp.); Yerusholaim delite in kamf un umkum (The Jerusalem of Lithuania in struggle and death) (Paris, 1948), 515 pp., with Hebrew editions (Yerushalaim delita bemeri uveshoa, 1950, 1952) and French editions (1950, 1962, 1972), winner of the Israel Prize; Ben habetarim (Amid the pieces) (Jerusalem, 1956), 141 pp.; Farbrekhns fun di natzi-visnshaftler (Crimes of the Nazi scientists) (Tel Aviv, 1960), unpaginated; Eyrope on kinder (Europe without children) (Tel Aviv: Peretz Publ., 1961), 400 pp., appearing earlier in Hebrew (1958); Hirshke glik, der mekhaber fun partizaner-himn, zog nisht keynmol az du geyst dayn letstn veg (Hirshke Glik, author of the partisan hymn, “Zog nisht keynmol as du geyst dayn letstn veg”) (Paris: Unzer kiem, 1966), 96 pp.; Vayse nekht un shvartse teg, yidn-lagern in estonye (White nights and black days, Jewish concentration camps in Estonia) (Tel Aviv: Peretz Publ., 1970), 440 pp., Hebrew edition (Maḥanot hayehudim beestoniya, 1942-1944 [Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 1970], 402 pp.).  In Spanish translation by Roberto A. Gombert, there appeared his work: Historia de la resistencia antinazi judía, 1933-1945, problemática y metodología (Buenos Aires, 1963), 48 pp.  In his last year, he worked on two pieces of research: the international Red Cross and its ties to Jews in the ghettos and camps; and Jews who escaped from Auschwitz.  Both works remain incomplete.  He died in Tel Aviv.

Sources: Shmuel Niger, in Tog (New York) (August 18, 1946); N. Y. Gotlib, in Keneder odler (Montreal) (August 26, 1946); A. M. Fuks, in Di tsayt (London) (Nissan [April-May] 1948); T. Amster, in Unzer shtime (Paris) (April 10, 1948); D. Klementinovski, in Fraye arbeter shtime (New York) (July 16, 1948); A. Mukdoni, in Morgn zhurnal (New York) (September 5, 1948); Y. Tsineman, in Tsienistishe shtime (Paris) (October 2, 1949); R. Oyerbakh, in Goldene keyt (Tel Aviv) 27 (1957); B. Karu, in Haboker (Tel Aviv) (May 16, 1958); M. Ovadyahu, in Hapoel hatsair (Tel Aviv) (1958), 40; Sh. Rozhanski, in Idishe tsaytung (Buenos Aires) (June 16, 1961); Y. Rimon, in Unzer vort (Paris) (April 13, 1963); Y. Korn, in Unzer kiem (Paris) (January 1964); Sh. Bikl, in Idishe tsaytung (March 7, 1965); M. Ungerfeld, in Hatsofe (Tel Aviv) (May 14, 1971); Y. Kaplan, in Goldene keyt 72 (1971); Sh. Kants, in Letste nayes (Tel Aviv) (March 24, 1973); R. Rus, Yisroel shtime (Tel Aviv) (March 6, 1974); Y. Shmulevitsh, in Forverts (New York) (March 24, 1975); L. Engelshtern, in Idishe tsaytung (April 12, 1975).  This bibliography is a selection from Khasye Dvorzhetski’s listing of 156 items in Yiddish, Hebrew, and other languages.

Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), cols. 191-93.

Ruvn Goldberg