MIRIAM ULINOVER (ULYANOVER)

MIRIAM ULINOVER (MIRYEM ULYANOVER) (1890-August 1944)

Born in Lodz.  She received a traditional education, graduating from a public school.  She was orphaned early in life.  From 1916 she published songs in Gezangen (Songs) (Lodz, 1919-1920), Lodzher folksblat (Lodz people’s news), and Lodzher tageblat (Lodz daily).  Among her books: Der bobes oytser (Grandmother’s treasure), poems (Warsaw, 1922), 115 pp., with an introduction by Dovid Frishman; rpt., Der bobes oytser, Haotsar shel hasavta (Grandmother’s treasure), Hebrew translation by Yehoshua Tan Pai (Jerusalem: Mosad harav Kook, 1975), 11, 116 pp. She prepared a second volume with the title Shabes (Sabbath) (a small part of these poems were published in Ezra Korman’s Yidishe dikhterins (Jewish women poets).  One of the few folk poetesses, she hit the mark in poetry with something in her use of Yiddish language and speech.  With the refined naturalness of her folk tone, she had no equal in the realm of Yiddish poetry.  According to one statement of testimony, she was extremely creative in the Lodz ghetto and wrote a great deal.  She was murdered by the Nazis in a crematorium, it appears, in Auschwitz.

Sources: Dr. Y. Shatski, in Nasz Kurier (Warsaw) (January 31, 1922); Kh. L. Fuks, in Folksblat (May 31, 1923); Sh. Niger, in Tsukunft (November 1928); Yoysef Turko, in Literarishe bleter, no. 48 (1934); Rikudah Potash, in Nayvelt (Tel Aviv), no. 46 (1946); Y. Y. Sigal, in Keneder odler (June 8, 1953); Y. Y. Trunk, in Poylishe yidn (Polish Jews), yearbook (1942); Z. Segalovitsh (Segalowicz), Tlomatske 13 (Tlomatskie 13) (Buenos Aires, 1946); Ber Mark, Umgekumene shrayber fur di getos in lagern (Murdered writers from the ghettos and camps) (Warsaw, 1954).