YOYSEF FRIDMAN

YOYSEF FRIDMAN (1900-1980)

            He came from Poland.  By profession he was an engineer.  In 1936 he moved to Paris and became active in Jewish life and in the Labor Zionist party.  During the years of Hitler’s occupation, he lived underground, and later he returned to Paris.  He was a cofounder and secretary of the Jewish writers’ and journalists’ association (1946-1950).  He published poems, articles, and translations in: Parizer bleter (Parisian sheets), Parizer vokhnshrift (Parisian weekly writing), Arbeter tsaytung (Workers’ newspaper) of which he was also editor, and Arbeter vort (Workers’ word) in Paris; among others.  He served as editor (1946-1948) of Yidish (Yiddish), the monthly for literature, art, and Jewish scholarship (Paris).  From French he translated Émile Zola’s novel, Mikhome, roman fun di daytsh-frantsoyzishe krig (War, a novel of the Franco-Prussian War [original: La Débâcle]) (Warsaw, 1928), 2 vols. (409 pp.).  He also published using such pen names as Y. Marek.  In his last years he was employed in a Parisian publishing house as a translator from Yiddish to French.  He died in Paris.

Sources: Biblyografishe yorbikher fun yivo (Bibliographic yearbooks from YIVO) (Warsaw, 1928), see index; Yidish (Paris) 2 (1947); Biblyografye fun yidishe bikher vegn khurbn un gvure (Bibliography of Yiddish books concerning the Holocaust and heroism) (New York, 1962), see index.

Khayim Leyb Fuks