Y. L. KOHN

Y. L. KOHN (1905-mid-1940)

            He was a metal worker, born in Warsaw.  He published poetry mainly in literary publications of the Bund.  During WWII he roamed into Soviet Russia.  The motifs of his poetry were: poverty and struggle.  He also composed children’s poetry.  In book form: Tog ayn, tog oys (Day in, day out) (Warsaw, 1936), 96 pp.; Hintele shvarts un ketsele vays, maysele (Puppy black and kitten white, a short story) (Warsaw: Kinder-fraynd, 1937), 30 pp.  Several of his poems appear in Binem Heler’s Dos lid iz geblibn, lider fun yidishe dikhter in poyln, umgekumene beys der hitlerisher okupatsye, antologye (The poem remains, poetry of Jewish poets in Poland murdered during the Hitlerian occupation, an anthology) (Warsaw, 1951).  He died in Russia.

Sources: Kh. Sh. Kazdan, in Foroys (Warsaw) 2 (1938); Yizker (Remembrance) (Lodz, 1946); Yeshurin archive, YIVO (New York).

Yekhezkl Lifshits