FELIKS FRIDMAN

FELIKS FRIDMAN (May 14, 1897-June 1942)

            He was born in Warsaw, Poland.  In 1919 he graduated from the Warsaw Art Academy.  He was the founder of “Jewish Society for the Spread of Art.”  He was a painter and art critic.  He contributed work to: Haynt (Today) and Literarishe bleter (Literary leaves) in Warsaw; Vilner tog (Vilna day); Nayer folksblat (New people’s newspaper) in Lodz; Lemberger togblat (Lemberg daily newspaper); and to the Polish Jewish Nasz Przegląd (Our overview) and Nowe życie (New life), among others.  His volume of memoirs concerning Jewish painters and actors, Hinter-kulisn maskes (Masks behind the curtains), with a preface by N. Vaynig (Warsaw, 1925), 61 pp., was warmly received by the critics.  When the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939, he fled from Warsaw and was severely wounded on the road during a Nazi air attack.  After recovering he became active in the Warsaw Ghetto underground.  During the “second action,” a Jewish nurse in the hospital injected him with morphine, so that he would not fall into Nazi hands.  He died there in the hospital.

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 3; Yidishe shriftn, Literarishe zamlbukh (Yiddish writings, literary anthology) (Lodz, 1946); N. Mayzil, Geven amol a lebn, dos yidishe kultur-lebn in poyln tsvishn beyde velt-milkhomes (There was once a life, Jewish cultural life in Poland between the two world wars) (Buenos Aires, 1951); Yoysef Sandel, Umgekumene yidishe kinstler in poyln (Murdered Jewish artists in Poland), vol. 2 (Warsaw: Yidish bukh, 1954), pp. 5-11; B. Kutsher, Geven amol varshe (As Warsaw once was) (Paris, 1955), see index; Emanuel Ringelblum, Ksovim fun geto (Writings from the ghetto), vol. 1 (Vilna, 1961), see index; M. Vaykhert, Varshe (Warsaw) (Tel Aviv, 1961), see index.

Khayim Leyb Fuks