DOVID (TSODEK) ZAKALIK

DOVID (TSODEK) ZAKALIK (b. December 23, 1905)

            He was born in Lukeve (Łuków), Shedlets (Siedlce) district, Poland.  From 1918 he was living in Warsaw.  When the Germans at the beginning of WWII occupied the city, he escaped to Bialystok.  In July 1940 he was deported by the Soviet authorities to a labor camp in Komi, and from there in September 1941, at the time of the amnesty for Polish citizens, he was freed and thereafter lived in southern Russia; just after the war, he moved back to Poland and for a time lived in Lublin, was a cofounder of the central historical commission in Poland, and director of its local division in Lodz.  In May 1945 he left Poland for the German [D. P.] camps, later living in Rome; he organized a cultural meeting of survivor organizations in Italy and later settled in Israel.  He debuted in print with a story, entitled “Bagegenishn” (Encounters), in the weekly newspaper Velt-shpigl (World mirror) in Warsaw (1928), and from that point he published stories and reportage pieces in: Folkstsaytung (People’s newspaper), Foroys (Onward), and Fraynd (Friend) in Warsaw; Dos naye lebn (The new life) in Lodz; Di prese (The press) and Penemer un penemlekh (Appearances, big and small) in Buenos Aires; Baderekh (On the road) and In gang (In progress) in Rome; and Nayvelt (New world), Lebnsfragn (Life issues), and Heymish (Familiar) in Tel Aviv; among others.  His books include: Ibergang, roman (Passage, a novel) (Warsaw, 1931), 150 pp.; Khaver yoze braf, roman (Comrade Yoze Braf, a novel) (Warsaw, 1934), 275 pp.; Gerangl, geshribn in lublin un roym 1944-1946 (Struggle, written in Lublin and Rome, 1944-1946), a short book on the Holocaust in Lublin and the camps, with a foreword by Nakhmen Blumental (Tel Aviv, 1958), 156 pp.; In shturem (In the storm) (Buenos Aires: Farband fun poylishe yidn, 1963), 255 pp.; In der fremd (Away from home) (Tel Aviv: Perets Publ., 1969), 202 pp.; In veg af tsurik, roman (En route back, a novel) (Tel Aviv: Hamenorah, 1975), 247 pp.

Sources: M. Taykhman, in Vokhnshrift far literatur (Warsaw) (January 3, 1934); Y. Rapaport, in Shikago (Chicago) (August-September 1934); M. Grosman, in Haynt (Warsaw) (October 12, 1934); M. Kitay, in Literarishe bleter (Warsaw) (July 8, 1937); M. Ravitsh, Mayn Leksikon (My lexicon), vol. 3 (Montreal, 1958), p. 476; Der Lebediker, in Tog-morgn-zhurnal (New York) (December 14, 1958).

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 257.]