MENDL TERKELTOYB

MENDL TERKELTOYB (June 1, 1906-1942)

            He was born in Lodz, Poland.  He studied in a Mizrachi school, later graduating from the Schweitzer Realschule in Lodz.  He studied the humanities at Warsaw University (1926-1927), from which he was expelled for political activities.  In 1929 he studied engineering in Brussels.  He was active in the Bund’s youth organization Tsukunft (Future) and later in the Bund itself.  In 1934 he left for Paris where he became a typesetter and worked in a Yiddish-language print shop; he was a member of the committee of the Bund and of the Workmen’s Circle there.  When Hitler invaded France in 1939, he volunteered to join the French army.  In May 1941 he was interned by the Germans in a camp in France, and in June 1942 he was deported to Auschwitz.  Over the years 1929-1939, he corresponded from Berlin and from France for Folkstsaytung (People’s newspaper) in Warsaw, in which he also published articles on a host of topics.  He also wrote pieces for: Vokhnshrift (Weekly writing), Foroys (Onward), and Yugnt-veker (Youth alarm) in Warsaw; Parizer veker (Parisian alarm) and Unzer shtime (Our voice) in Paris; and in the French, Spanish, and Italian socialist press.  He also wrote under such pen names as: Mendl T. and A Funk.

Sources: M. Borvin-Frenkel, in Unzer shtime (Paris) (November 20, 1955); Khayim Leyb Fuks, in Doyres bundistin (Generations of Bundists), vol. 2 (New York, 1956); Fuks, in Fun noentn over (New York) 3 (1957), p. 267.

Khayim Leyb Fuks