SHAYE TRUNK (ISAIAH TRUNK)

SHAYE TRUNK (ISAIAH TRUNK) (July 21, 1905-March 28, 1981)

            He was born in Kutne (Kutno), Poland, the son of the Kutno rabbi, Yitskhok-Yude Trunk.  Until age fifteen he studied in religious primary schools and with private tutors.  In 1923 he graduated from the Polish-Hebrew humanities high school in Lodz.  Over the years 1924-1929, he studied history at Warsaw University.  He graduated with a master’s degree and turned his attention to research on the Jewish past in Poland.  He was active in student circles of the Bund.  He worked as a teacher of history and Latin in the Tsisho (Central Jewish School Organization) schools and in other Jewish middle schools in Bialystok and Warsaw.  He was a member of the historians’ circle at YIVO in Warsaw.  At the start of the German occupation of Warsaw in 1939, he escaped to Bialystok.  In 1946 he returned to Poland, where until 1950 he was active in Jewish community life in Warsaw.  He was a member of the executive of the Jewish Historical Institute in Poland.  He lived in Israel, 1951-1953, where he worked in Kibbutz Lohamei Hagetaot (Ghetto fighters) named for Yitskhok Katsenelson.  In 1953 he moved to Canada and served as director of the Peretz School in Calgary.  From 1954 he was living in New York.  He was a scholarly affiliate of YIVO.  He debuted in print in 1931 in Yivo-bleter (Pages from YIVO) with a review of R. Mahler’s and E. Ringelblum’s Geklibene mekoyrim tsu der geshikhte fun di yidn in poyln un mizrekh-eyrope, mitlalter biz tsum yor 1506 (Selected sources for the history of Jews in Poland and Eastern Europe, Middle Ages until the year 1506), and from that point he published historical and pedagogical research work and reviews in Yivo-bleter (Vilna), as well as: “Shtudye tsu der geshikhte fun di yidn in mazovye in 15tn yorhundert” (A study of the history of Jews in Mazovia in the fifteenth century), Historishe shriftn (Historical writings) 2 (1937), Bleter far geshikhte (Pages of history) (1934-1937), Landkentnish (Geography), Literarishe bleter (Literary leaves), Vokhnshrift (Weekly writing), Shul-vegn (School ways), Folkstsaytung (People’s newspaper), Yidishe shriftn (Yiddish writings), and a series of articles on Jews in the Revolution of 1848 for Dos naye lebn (The new life)—all in Warsaw; “Geshikhte fun yidn in Lublin fun di eltste tsaytn biz sof 18tn yorhundert” (History of Jews in Lublin from antiquity until the end of the eighteenth century), in Dos bukh fun lublin, zikhroynes, gvies-eydes un materyaln ibern lebn, kamf un martirertum fun lubliner yidishn yishev (The Lublin book, memoirs, testimony, and materials on the life, struggle, and martyrdom of the Lublin Jewish community) (Paris, 1952); “Lublin” (vol. 5) and “Warsaw” (vol. 6) in Entsiklopediya shel galuyot (Encyclopedia of the Diaspora) (Jerusalem-Tel Aviv, 1957, 1959, respectively); Dapim leḥeker hashoah vehamered (Pages in the examination of the Holocaust and the revolt), vol. 2, from Bet Lohamei Hagetaot (Ghetto fighters house), Lebns-fragn (Life issues), and Goldene keyt (Golden chain)—in Israel; Tsukunft (Future) and Unzer tsayt (Our time) in New York; and Keneder odler (Canadian eagle) in Montreal; among others.  He excelled at research on the era of the Holocaust, such as: “Shtudye tsu der geshikhte fun yidn in varteland in der tkufe fun umkum” (A study of the history of Jews in Varteland in the era of the destruction), Bleter far geshikhte (Pages of history) (Warsaw) 2 (1949); “Yidishe arbet-lagern in varteland” (Jewish labor camps in Varteland), Bleter far geshikhte 1 (1948); “Mayrev-eyropeyishe yidn in mizrekh-eyropeyishe getos” (Western European Jews in Eastern European ghettos), Goldene keyt (January-April 1953); “Milkhome kegn yidn durkh farshpraytn krankeytn” (War against the Jews through the spread of diseases), Yivo-bleter (New York) 37 (1953); “Di problem vidershtand in unzer khurbn-literatur” (The issue of resistance in our Holocaust literature), Tsukunft (May-June 1953); “Farvos hobn di natsis umgebrakht zeks milyon yidn?” (Why did the Nazis murder six million Jews?), Tsukunft (April 1955); “Problemen fun ineveynikstn geto-lebn” (Problems of internal ghetto life), Tsukunft (April 1960).  In book form: A yidishe kehile in poyln baym sof XVIII yorhundert, kutno, monografishe studye (A Jewish community in Poland at the end of the eighteenth century, Kutno, monographic study) (Warsaw, 1934), 50 pp.; Di geshikhte fun yidn in plotsk, 1237-1567 (The history of Jews in Płock, 1237-1567) (Warsaw: YIVO, 1939), 174 pp.; Lernbukh fun yidisher geshikhte, sistemisher kurs, zekster klas (Textbook for Jewish history, systemic course, sixth class) (Warsaw, 1947), 116 pp.; Lodzher geto, a historishe un sotsyologishe shtudye mit dokumentn, tabeles un mape (The Lodz ghetto, a historical and sociological study with documents, tables, and maps) (New York: YIVO, 1962), 528 pp.; Geshtaltn un gesheenishn, historishe eseyen (Figures and events, historical essays) (Buenos Aires: Association of Polish Jewry, 1962), 286 pp., enlarged edition (Tel Aviv: Perets Publ., 1983); Shtudyes in yidisher geshikhte in poyln (Studies in Jewish history in Poland) (Buenos Aires: Yidbukh, 1963), 328 pp.; Ineveynikste farheltenishn in di getos in mizrekh-eyrope unter natsisher hershafṭ (Internal relations in the ghettos in Eastern Europe under Nazi rule) (New York, 1967), 277 pp.; Judenrat: The Jewish Councils in Eastern Europe under Nazi Occupation (New York: Macmillan, 1972), 664 pp.  He also co-edited the journals Bleter far geshikhte and Dapim leḥeker hashoah vehamered.  He contributed work to the collections: on uprisings in the death camps, in Sefer milḥamot hagetaot (The fighting ghettos) (Tel Aviv, 1954); “Geshikhte fun yidn in vitebsk” (History of Jews in Vitebsk [14^th-16^th centuries]), in Vitebsk amol (Vitebsk past) (New York, 1956); “Di onheyb fun der yidisher arbeter-bavegung” (The beginning of the Jewish labor movement), in Geshikhte fun bund (History of the Bund), vol. 1 (New York, 1960); on Russian Jewish historiography, in Kniga o russkom evreistve, ot 1860-kh godov do revoliutsii 1917 g. (Volume of Russian Jewry, from the 1860s until the revolution of 1917) (New York, 1960); and on Vlotslavek (Włocławek) and Pyetrikov (Pyotrków), in Yizker-pinkasim (Memory records).  He contributed as well to the joint Holocaust projects between YIVO and Yad Vashem.  He died in New York.

Sources: Dr. Y. Shiper, “Per Aspera” (Through hardship), Opinia (Warsaw) (1934); Y. Valdman, in Haynt (Warsaw) (March 8, 1939); Valdman, in Unzer ekspres (Warsaw) (March 10, 1939); Dr. R. Mahler, in Yidishe kultur (New York) (February 1949); Sh. Shemen, in Idisher zhurnal (Toronto) (May 28, 1954); Dr. F. Fridman, in Yivo-bleter (New York) 34 (1950); M. Bernshteyn, in Di idishe tsaytung (Buenos Aires) (August 28, 1957); D. Shub, in Forverts (New York) (June 12, 1960); Elye Shulman, in Der veker (New York) (July 1, 1960).

Khayim Leyb Fuks

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), cols. 287-88.]