KHAYIM KHAYES

KHAYIM KHAYES (d. May 8, 1942)

            He was a scholarly collaborator with YIVO.  He published: “Gleybungen un minhogim in farbindung mitn toyt” (Beliefs and customs related to death), Filologishe shriftn (Philological writings) (Vilna) 2 (1928), cols. 281-344; and “Di oygabn fun der yidisher etnografye” (The tasks of Jewish ethnography), Literarishe bleter (Literary leaves) (Warsaw) 89 (1926), pp. 47-48.  In 1939 he left Vilna with the Red Army.  For a certain period of time he worked as a teacher in Oshmene (Oszmiana).  In 1940 he returned to Vilna and became one of the managers of YIVO.  In late July 1941 he was removed from his position by the Gestapo, and with his wife’s father (Kemakh) escaped to Lide (Lida), where they were murdered at the time of the local massacre of Jews on May 8, 1942.

Sources: Biblyografishe yorbikher fun yivo (Bibliographic yearbooks from YIVO), vol. 1 (Warsaw, 1928); Sh. Katsherginski, in Khurbn vilne (The Holocaust in Vilna) (New York, 1947), p. 195; Dr. P. Fridman, in Yivo-bleter (New York) 34 (1950), p. 232.

Zaynvl Diamant