AVROM MLAVEK

AVROM MLAVEK (1902-late June 1941)

            He was born in Warsaw, Poland.  He received both a Jewish and a general education.  For a time, he lived in Paris and studied literature at the Sorbonne.  He returned to Poland in 1925 and worked as a linotypist for Yiddish newspapers.  He was later a member of the editorial cooperative for Unzer ekspres (Our express) in Warsaw, in which he also published translations from French fiction.  He also contributed work to: Literarishe bleter (Literary leaves), Globus (Globe), and Foroys (Onward)—in Warsaw.  He placed here his translation of chapters from the autobiography of Henri Bergson, Dos gelekhter (The laughter [original: Le rire]).  When the Nazis attacked Warsaw, he fled to Soviet-held Bialystok.  He worked there for a while as a typesetter for the Russian railway newspaper.  On June 22, 1941, he was evacuated with the last train of the civil officials of Soviet institutions with the intention of traveling to Russia.  The train was bombed by Nazi aircraft near Baranovich.  Mlavek got down from the train and was murdered by Nazi gunfire.

Sources: M. Flakser, “Unzer ekspres” (Our express), in Fun noentn over (New York) 3 (1957), pp. 380, 395; information from Shloyme Halter in Paris.

Khayim Leyb Fuks