A Contract

Ojzer Warszawski

1943

Things were looking pretty bleak, when my wife’s prewar acquaintance brought a ray of hope into our small room.

If you too were an artist, you might be able to appreciate how impatiently my wife and I awaited our jewel of a contract. [ . . . ]

A well-dressed guy with his hair carefully parted on the side introduced himself in a pleasant voice: B…

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Creator Bio

Ojzer Warszawski

1898–1944

Ojzer (Oyzer; Oser Warshawsky) Warszawski was born in Sochaczew, Poland. He received a traditional Jewish education and settled in Warsaw in 1912. His first novel, Shmuglars (Smugglers, 1920), set during the German occupation of World War I, was an exemplar of Yiddish naturalism, and was published in multiple editions. Briefly aligned with the Di Khalyastre (The Gang) group of Yiddish modernists, Warszawski moved to Paris in 1924, where he joined the Montparnasse artistic community, and published avant-garde periodicals. In addition to his painting and literature, Warszawski published art and literary criticism. After the German occupation of Paris, he fled to different parts of France and was eventually evacuated to Rome, where he was captured and sent to Auschwitz.

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