SHAME LAUFER

SHAME LAUFER (1915-1942)

            He was born in the Kovel (Kovle) region of Volhynia, from whence he would later move to Warsaw where he studied philosophy in university and received a master’s degree.  From his earliest youth he was involved in the Labor Zionist movement.  He was active in Warsaw in the Zionist socialist academic association and in the cultural work of the trade unions, which were linked to the Labor Zionists.  Before the start of WWII, he was traveling around (on assignment from the central committee of the party) to report on the province.  He was a popular speaker.  He contributed work to Dos vort (The word) in Warsaw, a daily newspaper of the movement for a laboring Israel, as well as a translator from the Polish press.  He was active in the fight against the restricted seating assigned to Jewish students in universities.  During the Nazi occupation he remained in Warsaw, participated in the underground work of the ghetto, and took part in the Polish publication of the Labor Zionists, Nowy Tory (New tracks).  He died amid the great expulsion of July-September 1942.

Sources: M. Nayshtadt, Khurbn un oyfshtand fun di yidn in varshe (Destruction and resistance of the Jews in Warsaw), part 2 (Tel Aviv, 1948), pp. 483-84; Pinkes kovel (Records of Kovel) (Buenos Aires, 1951), p. 248.