DOVID PLISKIN

DOVID PLISKIN (1889-late July 1942)

            He was born in Plisi (Plise), Minsk district, Byelorussia.  He studied in religious elementary school.  At age ten he was orphaned and was raised by relatives who brought him in 1910 to London.  There he mastered tailoring.  Until 1917 he was active in the Labor Zionist movement in London, and at the time of the revolution he returned to Russia and participated in the Civil War in Ukraine.  In 1919 he came to Poland and lived in Warsaw until 1924.  Thereafter, until the Nazi occupation of France, he lived in Paris.  He debuted in print with a poem in Di tsayt (The times) in London in 1910.  From that point in time, he published poems, children’s stories, and verse (mainly children’s poems) in: Di tsayt, Der idisher ekspres (The Jewish express), and Abend-nayes (Evening news) in London; Arbeter-tsaytung (Workers’ newspaper), Fraye yugnt (Free youth), Literarishe bleter (Literary leaves), Ringen (Links), and Der fraynd (The friend), among others, in Warsaw; Arbeter-shtime (Workers’ voice), Parizer-bleter (Parisian leaves), Parizer shriftn (Parisian writings), Parizer zhurnal (Parisian journal), and Naye prese (New press), among others, in Paris; Yidishe kultur (Jewish culture) and Morgn-frayhayt (Morning freedom) in New York; and Kultur (Culture) in Chicago; and other serials.  In book form: In gang (In progress), poetry (Warsaw, 1936), 96 pp.; A kinderishe melukhe (A children’s country), children’s poems (Paris, 1937), 78 pp.; Vunderland, lider un mayselekh (Wonderland, poems and stories) (Paris, 1938), 75 pp.  On July 16, 1942, the Gestapo seized him and sent him to the Drancy camp.  He was then deported to Auschwitz, and there he was murdered.

Sources: B. Shlevin, in Literarishe bleter (Warsaw) (December 24, 1937); Meylekh Ravitsh, Mayn leksikon (My lexicon), vol. 1 (Montreal, 1945), pp. 165-67; A. Bern et al., in Yizker-bukh tsum ondenk fun 14 umgekumene parizer yidishe shrayber (Remembrance volume to the memory of fourteen murdered Parisian Yiddish writers) (Paris, 1946); Z. Diamont, in Loshn un lebn (London) (June 1947); Shmuel Niger, Kidesh hashem (Sanctification of the name) (New York, 1947), pp. 462-68; Y. Kornhendler, A gast fun yener velt (A guest from the other world) (Paris, 1955), pp. 11-18; A gast fun yener velt (A guest from the other world) (Paris, 1955), pp. 11-18; Y. Papyernikov, Heymishe un noente, demonungen (Familiar and close at hand, remembrances) (Tel Aviv: Perets Publ., 1958), pp. 242-43; Y. Leftvitsh (Joseph Leftwich), in Almanakh yidish (Yiddish almanac) (New York, 1961), p. 205

Khayim Leyb Fuks