Dina Abramowicz

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Dina Abramowicz (born 1909 in Vilnius , Russian Empire ; died 2000 in New York City ) was a Jewish librarian , partisan in World War II , historian of Jewish history and specialist in Yiddish language and its research.

Abramowicz worked as a librarian in Vilnius and worked in the ghetto library in collaboration with Herman Kruk after the invasion of the German Reich in the Vilna ghetto . After the war she worked in the library of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research until old age . She has published several books, wrote journal articles and translated texts from Yiddish.

Life

Dina Abramowicz was born in Vilnius in 1909 as the daughter of Hirsz Abramowicz . At home the family spoke Russian and had close ties to the Havrah Mefitsei Haskalah (Society for the Proclamation of Enlightenment) and the Bundists . Abramowicz attended Polish-speaking and Yiddish schools in Vilnius. She studied Polish literature and philosophy at the University of Vilnius , where she obtained a master's degree.

From 1931 to 1941 Abramowicz worked in the Central Jewish Children's Library in Vilnius. After the occupation by the Germans, Abramowicz came to the Vilnius ghetto . There she found a job in the ghetto library through Herman Kruk, whom she knew as a user of the Jewish Children's Library . Her uncle registered Abramowicz as his daughter on his “yellow job ticket”. All people who could not produce such a certificate were murdered. She reports on her work in the ghetto library:

"For the ghetto children, the books were perhaps the only access to the realm of imagination that they wanted to conquer at any cost."

Before the ghetto was liquidated, Abramowicz was lucky enough to escape: the door of a wagon opened unexpectedly and she was able to escape. She joined a Jewish partisan unit as an auxiliary nurse and survived the war. She reports about it in the film Partisans of Wilna. In 1946 she emigrated to the USA in New York where her father, the historian and writer Hirsz Abramowicz , had lived since 1939.

In New York she worked from 1947 for the library of the YIVO Institute. She was a reference librarian there and finally managed the library from 1962 to 1987. She remained active as a journalist throughout her life and was committed to Yiddish tradition and culture. Even in retirement, she remained active as a scientific librarian. She was known and valued for her tremendous historical knowledge and accuracy.

Works

  • Ethnic Survival in the New World: Yiddish Juvenilia . Wilson Library Bulletin, 50, pp. 138-45 (1975)
  • The Yivo Library . New York 1968
  • Yiddish Literature in English Translation: List of Books in Print . Yivo Institute, New York 1976
  • National Foundation for Jewish Culture (US), and Council of Archives and Research Libraries in Jewish Studies (US), Guardians of a Tragic Heritage: Reminiscences and Observations of an Eyewitness . National Foundation for Jewish Culture / Council of Archives and Research Libraries in Jewish Studies, New York 1999
  • with Abramowicz, Hirsz, Eva Zeitlin Dobkin, Jeffrey Shandler, David E Fishman: Profiles of a Lost World: Memoirs of East European Jewish Life before World War II Wayne State University Press, Detroit 1999
  • Daubert, Hannelore, Lexikon der Kinder- und Jugendliteratur Vol. 3. (Weinheim; Basel: Beltz, 1984) u. Collaboration v. Dina Abramowicz

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Abramowicz, Dina, 'Die Bibliothek im Wilnaer Ghetto In: Bücher und Bibliotheken in Ghettos und Lager: (1991), p. 124
  2. ↑ Kramer et al. Resistance untold stories of Jewish partisans [United States]: PBS Home Video, 2008
  3. ↑ Working With Dina Abramowicz, 2015 < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKY3scPIMd8&feature=youtube_gdata_player >
  4. ↑ Berger, Joseph, 'Dina Abramowicz, 90, Librarian and Yiddish Expert, Dies', The New York Times, April 9, 2000, section NY / Region < http://www.nytimes.com/2000/04/09/nyregion /dina-abramowicz-90-librarian-and-yiddish-expert-dies.html >
personal data
SURNAME Abramowicz, Dina
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Jewish librarian, partisan in World War II and historian of Jewish history and specialist in Yiddish language and its research
DATE OF BIRTH 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Vilna
DATE OF DEATH 2000
Place of death New York City