YOYSEF KIRMAN

YOYSEF KIRMAN (March 22, 1896-November 3, 1943)

            A poet and author of stories, he was born in Warsaw, into a poor family.  He studied in religious elementary school, and later he became a laborer living in need.  He was arrested on political grounds.  During WWII he concealed his wife and two children, and only he died in the Poniatów concentration camp.[1]  He debuted in print with poetry in Ringen (Links) in Warsaw (1919),  He also wrote for: Arbeter-tsaytung (Workers’ newspaper), Bafrayung (Liberation), Literarishe bleter (Literary leaves), Folkstsaytung (People’s newspaper), Di fraye yugnt (The free youth), Varshever shriftn (Warsaw writings), Varshever almanakh (Warsaw almanac), Yidishe kultur (Jewish culture) in New York, and Opatoshu and Leivick’s Zamlbikher (Anthologies), among others.  His poetry also appeared in: Amol iz a yoyvl (There was once a jubilee), vol. 2 (Warsaw-Vilna, 1931); Paner and Frenkel’s Naye yidishe dikhtung (Modern Yiddish poetry), (Iași, 1947); Binem Heler, Dos lid iz geblibn, lider fun yidishe dikhter in poyln, umgekumene beys der hitlerisher okupatsye, antologye (The poem remains, poems by Jewish poets in Poland, murdered during the Hitler occupation, anthology) (Warsaw, 1951); Joseph Milbauer, comp., Poètes yiddish d’aujourhui (Contemporary Yiddish poets) (Paris, 1936); and Hubert Witt, Der Fiedler vom Getto: Jiddische Dichtung aus Polen (The fiddler of the ghetto, Yiddish poetry from Poland) (Leipzig, 1966).  Kirman wrote many poems and stories in the ghetto.  Some of them were discovered in Ringelblum’s archive.  In B. Mark’s anthology, Tsvishn lebn un toyt, literarishe shafungen in di getos un lagern (Between life and death, literary creations in the ghettos and concentration camps) (Warsaw: Yidish-bukh, 1955), further works by Kirman were published: “Der khesed fun a shtiln toyt” (The grace of a quiet death), “Kh’red tsu dir ofn” (I speak to you frequently), “Mayn kind” (My child), and the short poems in prose, “Fun pleytim-shtetl dzhike un niske” (From the refugees’ town, Dzika and Niska) and “Froy kratshevitshes toyt” (Mrs. Kraszewicz’s death).  In book form: Iber shtok un shteyn, lider un poemen (Over hill and dale, poetry) (Vilna: B. Kletskin, 1930), 150 pp.  Kirman was “a worker-poet,” wrote Zalmen Reyzen, “….  He excelled at simplicity and strength of expression, although he also mastered the modern complex poetic forms.”  “Yoysef Kirman was the singer of the Warsaw Ghetto,” noted Meylekh Ravitsh, “for one and one-half decades before the ghetto….  He neither wrote nor spoke about anything other than the want of the poor Jewish street in Warsaw.”

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 3; Meylekh Ravitsh, Mayn leksikon (My lexicon), vol. 1 (Montreal, 1945); Y. Perle, in Literarishe bleter (Warsaw) (November 21, 1930); Tsushteyer (Lemberg) 3 (1931); B. Mark, Umgekumene shrayber fun di getos un lagern (Murdered writers from the ghettos and camps) (Warsaw, 1954), pp. 54, 58, 62ff; Rokhl Oyerbakh, in Yedies yad vashem (Information from Yad Vashem) (Jerusalem) (Nisan 1956); Y. Papyernikov, Heymishe un noente, demonungen (Familiar and close at hand, remembrances) (Tel Aviv: Perets Publ., 1958), pp. 254-55; Gershon Pomerants, Geshtaltn fun mayn dor (Figures from my generation) (Tel Aviv: Perets Publ., 1971), pp. 54-68; Yeshurin archive, YIVO (New York).

Dr. Noyekh Gris

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[1] Rokhl Oyerbakh claims it was May 3, 1943 in a Warsaw bunker.