YANKEV-SHIYE HERTSIG

YANKEV-SHIYE HERTSIG (1887-April 13, 1956)

            He was born in Stryj, eastern Galicia.  He graduated from Lemberg University and practiced as a lawyer.  He was a cofounder and chairman of the Labor Zionist Party in Stryj, vice chair of the student organization Emunah (Faith) in Lemberg—it was here for the first time in Galicia that lectures by Avrom Reyzen, Y. L. Perets, and others took place.  He was an officer in the Austrian army during WWI, later settling in Jaslo (Jasło), western Galicia, where during WWII he was on the Aryan side of the city during the Nazi occupation.  He took part in the underground movement in Poland.  In 1946 he moved to Paris, and from there he moved to Canada in 1952.  He began writing poetry in Polish, switching to Yiddish after the WWII.  He published stories in Unzer vort (Our word) in Paris.  He authored the dramas Di pastke (The trap) and Emese mentshn (Real people), among others, which were produced on stage.  He was the editor of a mimeographed weekly bulletin in Yiddish and Polish, entitled Farband fun poylishe yidn in frankraykh (Union of Polish Jews in France) (Paris, 1946-1947).  His works, “Etapn fun milkhome-vanderungen” (Stages in war migrations) and a historical monograph about Jaslo appeared in Yasler yizker-bukh (Jaslo remembrance volume), published in Israel.  A portion of his surviving writings, among them the story “Der khsidishe tants” (The Hassidic dance), in which he describes the martyrdom of Hassidic Jews under the Nazis, was published in Keneder odler (Canadian eagle) in Montreal.  He died in Montreal.

Sources: Keneder odler (Montreal) (May 15, 1956; May 11, 1959).

Khayim Leyb Fuks