MOTL TIKOTSHINSKI

MOTL TIKOTSHINSKI (1904-late 1942 or early 1943)

            He was the younger brother of the painter Yisroel Tikotshinski.  He began writing humorous poetry and jokes for Der mashkhes (The destroyer), edited by Sh. Y. Goldshteyn in Lodz (1924).  Later, he contributed humorous sketches and jokes to: Lodzer tageblat (Lodz daily newspaper) and Nayer folksblat (New people’s newspaper) in Lodz; Velt-shpigl (World mirror), Haynt (Today), Hayntige nayes (Today’s news), Letste nayes (latest news), Der moment (The moment), and Radyo (Radio) in Warsaw; among others.  In the Hitler era, he was confined in the Warsaw Ghetto, and for a short time he contributed writings to Gazeta Żydowska (Jewish gazette), organ of the Jewish Council.  Among the extant materials from the Ringelblum Archive, there was a work entitled Voluvke (Junk): “Old wares, the sole business among Jews in Warsaw in the ghetto period, 1940 and 1941”—“an extraordinary, living description of the junk with all the people who would show up there in those tragic years.”  This piece was published in the quarterly Bleter far geshikhte (Pages for history) (Warsaw) 1.3-4 (1948), pp. 203-10, under two different initials: the first name of the author (T.) in one place and elsewhere with an F.—with a note from the editors to the effect that, sadly, they “did not know anything about the author.”  Perhaps this was the very same Motl Tikotshinski?

Sources: D. Tsharni (Daniel Charney), in Tsukunft (New York) (January 1943); M. Mozes, in Der poylisher id (The Polish Jew) yearbook (New York, 1944); “Yizker” (Remembrance), in Yidish shriftn yearbook (Lodz, 1946); V. H. Ivan, in Yidish shriftn 10 (1946); B. Mark, Umgekumene shrayber fun di getos un lagern (Murdered writers from the ghettos and camps) (Warsaw, 1954), pp. 42, 68; Sefer radzin (Radzin volume) (Tel Aviv, 1957), p. 350.