SHIMEN HUBERBAND

SHIMEN HUBERBAND (April 19, 1909-August 1942)

            He was born in Khentshin (Chęciny), Kelts (Kielce) region, Poland.  He was raised by his grandfather, Khayim-Shmuel Horvits, who was the Khentshiner Rebbe and from whom he received rabbinical ordination.  For a time he lived in Otvosk (Otwock), and there he began his community and literary activities.  He was the founder and chair of the local organization of Tseire emune yisrael (Young believers in Israel), and he served as a delegate to the first youth conference in Warsaw in 1928.  He later settled in Pyotrków (Pyetrikov) were he founded the “Society for Jewish Scholarship,” before which he would appear each Sabbath to give his lectures in Yiddish.  When Hitler’s armies occupied Pyotrków in 1939, he escaped to Warsaw where he was confined to the ghetto, and during the first liquidation was killed in 1942 by an S. S. unit.  In his youth he had already begun writing poems and stories in both Yiddish and Hebrew.  He later published articles on Jewish issues in: Pyetrikover lebn (Pyotrków life), Keltser-radomer tsaytung (Kielce-Radom newspaper), and other Yiddish provincial newspapers in Poland.  He contributed as well to: Or tora (Light of the Torah), Deglanu (Our banner), Kerem bet yisrael (Vineyard of the house of Israel), Karmenu (Our vineyard), and Hakerem (The vineyard)—all in Warsaw; and Kerem bet shmuel (Vineyard of the house of Samuel) in Aleksander (Aleksandrow), in which he published articles on Halakhic problems, Jewish antiquity, criticism, and bibliography.  He served as editor of Or tora and Hakerem.  He was the author of works on ancient Jewish cemeteries and the “Star of David,” and from the materials on Jewish life in Poland which drew the attention of such Jewish historians as Meyer Balaban and Yitskhok Shiper, as well as Di ikre emune in likht fun der modener visnshaft (The principles of faith in light of modern science); Di yidishe sotsyale gezetsn (The Jewish social laws); Di yidishe etik (The Jewish ethic); Di heldn fun yidishn gayst (The heroes of Jewish spirit), biographies of the ancient rabbis of the Talmud; and A band dertseylungen fun khsidishn lebn (A volume of stories of Hassidic life).  In Hebrew: Ḥokhmat yisrael (Wisdom of Israel), a work on ancient Jewish tombstones, a history of the town of Wąwolnica in Lublin district, Mishnaic novella, and the like.  In the ghetto he became one of the most important contributors to Dr. Emanuel Ringelblum and his archive.  Among his historical works: “Milkhome-iberlebungen fun a yidishn tsivilman” (The war experiences of a civilian); “Di moralishe leydn un moralishe yeride fun der yidisher froy beys der milkhome” (Moral suffering and moral decline of Jewish women during the war); “Tlies” (Gallows); “Der khurbn fun di yidishe kehiles af di nay-farnumene sovetishe gebitn” (The destruction of Jewish communities in the recently occupied Soviet region); “Khurbn fun di yidishe kehiles unter der natsi-okupatsye” (Destruction of Jewish communities under Nazi occupation); “Yon-toyvim beys der milkhome” (Holidays during the war); “Dos religyeze lebn beys der milkhome” (Religious life during the war); “Der khurbn fun shuln, bote-medroshim, bote-yesoymim” (The destruction of schools, small synagogues, and orphanages); and “Kidesh-hashem” (Martyrdom)—all these were discovered in the buried Ringelblum archive in the Warsaw Ghetto.  Later was discovered his manuscripts: “Vilne un svive” (Vilna and environs); “Byalistok un svive” (Bialystok and environs); a five-volume “A navenadik” (A homeless man); and two-volume “Fun yener tsayt” (From that time)—important materials on the history of Polish Jewry in the years 1939-1945.  His work, “Vi azoy di natsis hobn nekome genumen far homenen in purim fun 1942” (How the Nazis took revenge for Haman in Purim, 1945), concerning the twelve gallows set up for Jews in Zduńska Wola, was published in Hebrew in Yeda am (Folklore) in Tel Aviv (1956).

Sources: M. Nayshtadt, Khurbn un oyfshtand fun di yidn in varshe (Destruction and resistance of the Jews in Warsaw) (Tel Aviv, 1948), p. 430; Y. Turkov, Azoy iz es geven (That’s how it was) (Buenos Aires, 1948), pp. 66, 250; Byalistoker shtime (New York) (September-October 1950); Dr. Emanuel Ringelblum, Notitsn fun varshever geto (Notices from the Warsaw Ghetto) (Warsaw, 1952), see index; Sh. Lastik, Mitn ponem tsum morgn (Facing morning) (Warsaw, 1952), p. 150; B. Mark, Umgekumene shrayber fun di getos un lagern (Murdered writers from the ghettos and camps) (Warsaw, 1954), pp. 56, 67; Sefer milḥamot hagetaot (The fighting ghettos) (Tel Aviv, 1954), p. 721.

Leyzer Ran and Khayim Leyb Fuks