KATSETNIK (KA-TSENIK 135633)

KATSETNIK (KA-TSENIK 135633) (May 16, 1917-July 17, 2001)

            Katsetnik (lit., concentration camp inmate) was the pen name of Yekhiel Fayner, born in Sosnovits (Sosnowiec).  He studied in religious elementary school and in the Yeshivat Ḥokhme Lublin (Yeshiva of the sages of Lublin).  During WWII he was in Tshenstokhov (Częstochowa).  He participated in the underground movement, was captured by the Gestapo while smuggling weapons for the ghetto and was deported to Auschwitz.  In 1945 he settled in the land of Israel, where he came with the name Karol Tsetinski, later adopting the name Yekhiel De-Nur [“De-Nur” meaning “of fire”].  He appeared as a witness at the Eichmann trial in Jerusalem in 1961, and he collapsed while speaking about the destruction of the Jews.  He began writing poetry in his youth.  After the war he switched to prose, in which he mainly described the era of the Nazi massacres of the Jews, in particular the horrors at Auschwitz.  His writings include: Tsveyuntsvantsik lider (Twenty-two poems), as Yekhiel Fayner (Warsaw: Kultur-lige, 1931), 62 pp.; Dos hoyz fun lyalkes (The house of dolls) (Buenos Aires, 1955), 363 pp., second edition (Tel Aviv, 1958); Der zeyger vos ibern kop (The clock overhead) (Tel Aviv, 1961), 131 pp.; Ash-shtern (Star of ashes) (Tel Aviv, 1967), 215 pp.  In Almanakh yidish (Yiddish almanac), he published “Teater af yener velt” (Theater in the other world).  In Hebrew: Salamandra, khronika shel mishpaḥa yehudit bamea haesrim (Salamandra, the chronicle of a Jewish family in the twentieth century), trans. Y. L. Barukh (Tel Aviv, 1946/1947); Bet habubot, khronika shel mishpaḥa yehudit bamea haesrim (The house of dolls, the chronicle of a Jewish family in the twentieth century) (Tel Aviv, 1952/1953); Hashaon asher meal larosh (The clock overhead) (Tel Aviv, 1960), 102 pp.; Karu lo pipl (They called him Pipil) (Tel Aviv, 1961), 256 pp.; Keḥol meefer (Phoenix from ashes) (Tel Aviv, 1966); and many others in Hebrew as well.  Katsetnik’s books have been translated into many other languages.  He died in Tel Aviv.  As Elie Wiesel noted, “Katsetnik is no ordinary writer, and many of his books are not ordinary novels.  Katsetnik’s words encompass the ruins of past worlds.  His images are figures in shattered mirrors.  What he has to say about people no one has as yet said and no one will say.  He was a witness in the highest sense of the word, a witness who took with him a bit of the flames from the Holocaust….  His heroes were purified in fire, before they appeared before the reader who feared suddenly to stare them in the face.  If they ever met, they would never depart.”

Testifying at the Eichmann trial

Sources: Getzel Kressel, Leksikon hasifrut haivrit (Handbook of Hebrew literature), vol. 2 (Merḥavya, 1967); Meylekh Ravitsh, Mayn leksikon (My lexicon), vol. 3 (Montreal, 1958); A. Lis, Heym un doyer, vegn shrayber un verk (Home and duration, on writers and work) (Tel Aviv: Y. L. Perets Library, 1960); E. Vizel (Elie Wiesel), in Forverts (New York) (November 6, 1960; April 23, 1967); L. Salomon, in Tog-morgn-zhurnal (New York) (June 10, 1961); Y. Shmulevitsh, in Forverts (June 12, 1961); D. Flinker, in Tog-morgn-zhurnal (June 13, 1961); Sh. Belis, Portretn un problemen (Portraits and problems) (Warsaw, 1964), pp. 153-61; Y. Klorman, in Algemeyne zhurnal (New York) March 28, 1980); Yeshurin archive, YIVO (New York).

Dr. Tuvye Boyrd