ARN (ARON) BEKERMAN

ARN (ARON) BEKERMAN (1897-1943)

He was born in Biała Podlaska, Poland, to poor parents.  He attended religious primary school and began working when he was still a child.  During WWI, he was dragooned into forced labor in Germany.  He lived in Warsaw between 1922 and 1926.  He served on the editorial board and contributed to Shprotsungen (Sprouts) in Warsaw (1925-1926).  In 1926 he arrived in Paris and worked in the field of women’s handbags.  He was a correspondent for Di prese (The press) in Buenos Aires.  He contributed to Naye prese (New Press) in Paris; served on the editorial board of the literary artistic journal, Bleter (Leaves) in Paris (1930); and contributed to Parizer zhurnal (Paris journal).  Among his books: Goylem als velt-derleyzer (The golem as world-redeemer) (Warsaw, 1926), 36 pp.; Dostoyevski, zayn lebn un shafn (Dostoyevsky, his life and work) (Warsaw, 1930), 291 pp.; Anatol frans, zayn lebn un shafn (Anatole France, his life and work) (Paris, 1939), 263 pp.; Borekh glazman, a monografye mit a biblyografye fun zayne ṿerk (Borekh Glasman, a monograph with a bibliography of his works) (New York, 1944), 160 pp.; Fishl bimko, der dramaturg un realist (Fishl Bimko, the playwright and realist) (New York, 1944), 96 pp.  During the German occupation of Paris, Bekerman was active in the underground movement and press, and he kept a diary.  He was interned in the camps of Gurs and Drancy.  He was arrested in a town in southern France and deported from there [to Auschwitz] in 1943.

Bekerman is seated second from left

Sources: P. Druri, in Kidesh-hashem (Martryrdom), ed. Shmuel Niger (New York, 1946/1947); H. Fenster, Undzere farpaynikte kinstler (Our suffering artists) (Paris, 1951); B. Shlevin, in Yizker-bukh (Memorial book) (Paris, 1946); G. Kenig, “Arn bekermans tog-bukh beysn krig” (Arn Bekerman’s diary during the war), in ibid.; Sh. L. Shneyderman, in Di vokh (Paris, 1940).