YISROEL
LEVENTAL (1918-September 1944)
His correct name was Yisroel Levintin. He was born in Lodz, Poland, the son of a
tailor. He attended religious primary
school and Polish public school, and he later studied music and the cantorial
arts. Until WWII he was a commercial
agent, while at the same time writing popular couplets and songs for
entertainment, for which he wrote the music himself. In the Lodz ghetto he wrote poetry, some of
which were found after the war in the archives of the ghetto. The anthology Dos lid fun geto (The song of the ghetto) (Warsaw, 1962) contains
Levental’s poems “Fun oshvyentshim” (From Auschwitz) and also “Feld-fleysh”
(Horse meat) and “Dos troyerike geto” (The sad ghetto), which are presented as
works by unknown authors, but judging from their language and style they are
identical with others of his works. He
was murdered in Auschwitz.
Sources:
Dos lid fun geto (The song of the
ghetto) (Warsaw, 1962); information from Yirakhmiel Briks and Y. Lederman in
New York.
Khayim Leyb Fuks
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