MISHA TROYANOV (MISZA TROJANOW)

MISHA TROYANOV (MISZA TROJANOW) (1906-August 19, 1942)

            The pen name of Moyshe Troyanovski, he was born in Dąbrowa Górnicza, near Bendin (Będzin), Poland.  He studied in religious primary school, synagogue study hall, and yeshivas in Bendin and Lodz, later becoming a private tutor and later still a business agent and an employee in a storehouse.  He contracted tuberculosis in 1926 and was forced to give up work and supported himself with occasional odd jobs and by selling his own books.  He debuted in print in Nayer folksblat (New people’s newspaper) in Lodz (1926), later contributing work to: Lodzer tageblat (Lodz daily newspaper) in Lodz; Literarishe bleter (Literary leaves), Haynt (Today), Moment (Moment), Dos vort (The word), Vokhnshrift far literatur (Weekly writing for literature), Foroys (Onward), Arbeter-tsaytung (Workers’ newspaper), and Naye folkstsaytung (New people’s newspaper)—in Warsaw; Os (Letter) in Lodz-Warsaw; Tsvishn moyern (Between walls), Grine bleter (Green leaves), and Vokhnshrift (Weekly writing) in Lodz; Tsukunft (Future) in New York (1936); and in the anthology Naye yidishe dikhtung (New Yiddish poetry), in Romanization (Iași, 1945), among others.  In the years leading up to WWII, he published a cycle of innovative stories entitled “Shotns af der vant” (Shadows on the wall) in which one senses a premonition of the coming destruction; one of these stories, In karahod (In a round) was published as a booklet (Lodz: Yungvald, 1933), 25 pp.  Some of his poetry appeared in book-length publications: Umetike horitontn, lider (Lonesome horizons, poems) (Warsaw, 1936), 78 pp.; Der nakht antkegn, lider (Night before us, poems), with drawings by M. Rayf (Warsaw, 1938), 61 pp.  Troyanov expresses in his poems the inner revolt of a lonely person in the great city and simultaneously his profound faith in people generally.  When the Germans were approaching Lodz, he left for Warsaw, later making his way to Otwock where he was killed by the Nazis.  Some of his poetry is included in Binem Heller’s anthology of murdered poets, Dos lid iz geblibn (The poem remains) (Warsaw, 1951).

Sources: Y. Pat, in Vokhnshrift far literatur (Warsaw) (January 7, 1932); H. Tsaytlin, in Der moment (Warsaw) (July 28, 1936); B. Shnaper, in Literarishe bleter (Warsaw) (August 21, 1936); Shnaper, in Foroys (Warsaw) (February 18, 1938; August 5, 1938); K. Lis, in Literarishe bleter (August 5, 1938); D. Tsharni (Daniel Charney), in Literarishe bleter (September 16, 1938); Y. Bernshteyn, in Heftn (Warsaw) 5 (April 1939); V. H. Ivan, in Yidishe shriftn (Lodz) 10 (1947); M. Gelbert, in Arbeter-tsaytung (Lodz) 13 (1949); B. Mark, Umgekumene shrayber fun di getos un lagern (Murdered writers from the ghettos and camps) (Warsaw, 1954), p. 49; M. Valdman, in Ksovim fun khayim krul (Writings of Khayim Krul) (New York, 1954), p. 183; Khayim Leyb Fuks, in Fun noentn over (New York) 3 (1957), p. 263; B. Shusterman-Stup, in Folks-shtime (Warsaw) (August 18, 1960).

Khayim Leyb Fuks