LEYZER LEVIN

LEYZER LEVIN (December 2, 1891-1967)

            He was born in Lodz, Poland.  In 1906 he joined the Labor Zionist party, was later active in the left wing of the party, and from 1922 was part of the right Labor Zionists.  From 1926 he was a member of the Labor Zionists-Zionist Socialists in Poland and chairman of their Lodz committee.  He was one of the builders of the Borokhov School and the Borokhov Collective in Lodz.  Until 1939 he lived in Lodz, and thereafter he was one of the leaders of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising and one of the group that was rescued by using the underground canals to make it to the Aryan side.  He published in: Lodzer folksblat (Lodz people’s newspaper) (1909-1939); Arbeter-tsaytung (Labor newspaper), Bafrayung (Liberation), and Dos vort (The word)—in Warsaw.  He contributed to the underground Labor Zionist-Zionist Socialist press in the Warsaw Ghetto.  After liberation he placed work in: Bafrayung and Der morgn (The morning) in Munich (1947-1950).  In the collection Varshever geto-oyfshtand (Warsaw Ghetto uprising) (Landsberg, 1947, pp. 29-36), he published portions of his memoirs under the title “In di teg fun oyfshtand” (In the days of the uprising), which was reprinted in the Yiddish press throughout the world.  He lived in Israel from 1945 until his death in Kibbutz Yagur.  He was blind during his last years.

Sources: M. Nayshtat, Khurbn un oyfshtand fun di yidn in varshe (Holocaust and uprising of the Jews in Warsaw) (Tel Aviv, 1948), p. 326; L. Tarnopoler, in Al hamishmar (Tel Aviv) (December 12, 1961); M. A., in Davar (Tel Aviv) (January 19, 1962).

Khayim Leyb Fuks