Lekh-lekho

Simkhe-Bunem Shayevitsh

1942

And now Blimele, dear child,
Stop—stop playing now.
No time for that.
We can be called at any minute
To leave our poor home
—A lonely boat on an island of sand—
And be hurled into the midst
Of a naked furious sea.
Outside the first groups already
Are dragging themselves on the trek
Women, men, old people; on their backs
Heavy burdens, in their…
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Creator Bio

Simkhe-Bunem Shayevitsh

1907–1944

Simkhe-Bunem Shayevitsh was born in 1907 in Leczyca, Poland, into a Hasidic family. He relocated to Łódź, where he worked in textiles; a volume of his short stories was scheduled to appear when the war began. Shayevitsh lived with his wife and daughter in abject poverty in the Łódź ghetto, where he emerged as a major poet. Two of his epic poems were discovered after the liberation and published by Nachman Blumental. In August 1944, Shayevitsh was deported in one of the last transports to Auschwitz. He is immortalized as the poet Berkovitch in Chava Rosenfarb’s The Tree of Life.

Related Guide

Holocaust and Post-Holocaust Fiction and Poetry

1939–1973

Jewish literature developed individual rather than collective voices, as postwar Jewish identity was transformed by the forces of modernism and assimilation.

Related Guide

The Holocaust: Years of Catastrophe

1939–1945

Jewish writing in Nazi-occupied areas documented ghetto life, moral questions, and Jewish identity, while writers in free zones grappled with the unfolding tragedy.

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