YISROEL-ITSIK LAZIK

YISROEL-ITSIK LAZIK (1916-1942)

            He was born in Riga, Latvia.  He wrote poetry, humorous sketches, and short impressionistic pieces for Communist underground publications.  He founded drama circles which staged his work, and he also organized secret literary evenings before which he read his writings.  When the Soviet authorities (summer 1940) seized power in Latvia, he became one of the most prominent contributors to the Soviet Yiddish daily newspaper Der kamf (The struggle) in Riga, and together with Herts Aktsin, he edited its humorous supplement, Der royter fefer (The red pepper).  In June 1941 when Hitler began the war against the Soviet Union, Lazik volunteer to join the Red Army and, under the name “Lazik,” published images of soldiers’ lives at the front and poetry in the biweekly Oyfboy (Construction) in Riga (1941).  He fell in battle against the German troops.

Sources: A Riger, in Almanakh fun riger relif (Almanac of Riga assistance) 3 (New York, 1948); and according to his published works in Oyfboy (Riga).