YOYSEF-BER POPAVSKI

YOYSEF-BER POPAVSKI (August 28, 1906-July 11, 1959)

            He was born in Lodz, Poland.  He lived in Mińsk Mazowiecki and Warsaw.  He was active in the Communist movement.  He had to flee Poland due a trial.  He lived in Germany for a time.  From 1931 he was in Paris.  He was a soldier (1939-1940) in the French-Polish army which fought against the Nazis in France.  In July 1940 he was interned in Switzerland, as an invalid, and there he remained until 1949.  From 1952 until his death, he lived in Buenos Aires.  He debuted in print in 1934 with artistic reportage pieces in Di naye prese (The new press) in Paris.  Thereafter, he published stories, chapters of a novel, and theater and music reviews in: Di naye prese, Arbeter vort (Workers’ word), Dos vort (The word), and Unzer vort (Our word) in Paris; Dos naye lebn (The new life) in Warsaw; Bafrayung (Liberation) in Munich; Di prese (The press), Di naye tsayt (The new times), Ilustrirte literarishe bleter (Illustrated literary leaves), and Shmerke katsherginski ondenk-bukh (Memorial volume for Shmerke Katsherginski) in Buenos Aires.  He also wrote under the pen name Y. B. Rotman.

Sources: F. Mints, in Ilustrirte literarishe bleter (Buenos Aires) (1959); Y. Botoshanski, in Shtriker zamlbukh (Knitters’ collection) (Buenos Aires, 1961), p. 208; M. V. Bernsheytn, in Folk un velt (New York) (June 1962).

Khayim Leyb Fuks