Dovid Knut

A native of Kishinev (Chişinău, in present-day Moldova), Dovid Knut (pseudonym of David Mironovich Fiksman) was a poet, short-story writer, and journalist in the Russian language. Knut spent most of his life in Paris, working as a cultural activist and writer among other odd jobs in that city. There he published five collections of poetry that were well received by critics—including one sympathetic, if critical, review by Vladimir Nabokov—and noted for their biblical imagery and vibrant use of language in the “southern” Russian Jewish idiom. Knut also published numerous short stories about Jewish life in Bessarabia in Russian émigré journals. Increasingly attracted to Zionism and other Jewish affairs, Knut attempted to move to Palestine in the late 1930s but was drafted into the French Army at the beginning of World War II, during which time he also played a leading role in the French Resistance. After the war, Knut was an integral part of the early documentation of the Holocaust in France. Knut moved to Israel in 1949.