Hinde Bergner

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Hinde Bergner , actually Hindsia Bergner (born October 10, 1870 in Redim , Austria-Hungary ; died probably in the second half of 1942 in an unknown location, possibly in an extermination camp ) was a Polish writer of Jewish faith from Galicia .

Life

Hinde Bergner (actually: Hindsia Bergner) was the daughter of Bluma and Josef Rosenblatt in Redim, today Radymno in Poland. At that time, Redim had about 4,000 inhabitants, half of whom were Jews . Hinde Bergner was married to Ephrajim Ben Selig Bergner, who died on July 23, 1939. In 1939 the Radymno town hall was occupied by the National Socialists . The area around Radymno became the catchment area of Aktion Reinhardt of the NS. Hinde Bergner managed to escape to the Soviet side. She stayed in Rawa-Ruska , in Przemyśl and most recently in Przemyslany . In 1942, Hinde Bergner was still living in Przemyslany near Lemberg , according to a message from the “ Red Cross ” . In August 1942, the sons received one last message from their mother, which was transmitted through relatives from Switzerland. In this message, Hinde Bergner urgently asked for help. Then the trace of Hinde Bergner was lost. Presumably she was murdered in 1942 in the Belzec extermination camp , the first extermination camp of "Aktion Reinhardt". The hygienist and SS-Standartenführer Wilhelm Pfannenstiel was personally present at the gassing of Jews in Belzec in August 1942.

Hinde Bergner spoke three languages, Yiddish , Polish and German. For them, Yiddish was more than just a German- Moravian dialect. In 1937 the three sons of Hinde Bergner had the idea that their mother, who had hardly left Radymno until the beginning of the Second World War , should write down her memories of the “Städtel”, Yiddish “ shtetl ”. They knew about her talent as a writer through her mother's letters. In the course of a year and a half, Hinde Bergner described individual sheets and sent them to her sons. This is how the book In the long winter nights ... Family memories from a town in Galicia (1870–1900) came about, the first Yiddish edition of which was published in Montreal in 1946. The three sons Mosche Harari (1892–1921), who was represented by his two brothers who were still alive, Melech Rawitsch (1893–1976) and Herz Bergner (1907–1970) took care of this edition. In 1982 the book was translated into Hebrew. In 1995 Otto Müller Verlag Salzburg / Vienna ensured that the book was published in German. The Yiddish Library opened at Otto Müller Verlag. Isaac Bashevis Singer wrote the foreword for this edition, which is one of the few memories of Jewish life in Galicia written from a female perspective. In this preface, Singer referred to the rich Yiddish of Hinde Bergner and expressed his great regret that Hinde Bergner was not allowed to continue her work. The epilogue of the little book (1995) comes from Armin Eidherr.

The children and descendants

Hinde Bergner's eldest son, Mosche Harari, was born on October 12, 1892. It was a forceps delivery that lasted four days. Moshe Harari later joined Theodor Herzl's Zionist idea , emigrated to Eretz Israel in 1910 and became a pioneer in this country. In 1921, Moshe Harari passed away voluntarily. The second son, Melech Rawitsch (Sacharja), fell ill with an intestinal catarrh at the age of seven months and Hinde Bergner believed he had already been lost. Both local doctors had gone to a medical congress in Lviv , so the military doctor was called in. Hinde Bergner described the military doctor as a " good messenger ". As a remedy, he prescribed a glass of boiled water with a crushed egg white and a teaspoon of cognac. The child should take a spoonful of this remedy every hour. Then an attempt should be made to breastfeed the child. The third son, Herts (Herz), was a straggler. Hinde Bergner referred to his wet nurse as Sturmwindin (Yiddish). Melech Rawitsch (Zechariah) later emigrated to Montreal, Canada. The youngest son Herts (Herz) Bergner went to Melbourne, Australia.

A grandson of Hinde Bergner is the painter Jossel Bergner (Yosl Bergner), a friend of Isaac Bashevis Singer . Jossel Bergner, who lived in Tel-Aviv , was born in Vienna as the son of Melech Rawitsch. Jossel Bergner supported the translation of Hinde Bergner's memoirs from Yiddish.

Zechariah Chana Bergner (Melech Rawitsch)

The second-born son, Zechariah Chana Bergner (Yiddish: Zekharye-Khone) (1893-1976), became a Yiddish-writing poet in Montreal , Canada. He took the pseudonym Melech Rawitsch as early as 1908 and began to write in Yiddish. He wrote a three-volume autobiography, which was also included in the Yiddish library as its second volume. The three volumes of the autobiography “dos mayse-bukh fun mayn lebn” (“The history book of my life”) appeared in 1962, 1964 and 1975.

Publications

  • Hinde Bergner: In the long winter nights ... family memories from a town in Galicia (1870–1900) . Experience report. With a preface by Isaac Bashevis Singer , translation of the Yiddish original into German and afterword by Armin Eidherr, drawings by Jossel Bergner, Otto Müller Verlag, Salzburg 1995 (opening volume of the Yiddish Library). ISBN 3-7013-0901-9
  • Hinde Bergner: belayot ​​hakhoref haarukim , translation of In the long winter nights into Hebrew by Aria Aharoni. Am Oved, Tel-Aviv 1982

See also

literature

  • Susanne Blumesberger, Michael Doppelhofer, Gabriele Mauthe: Handbook of Austrian authors of Jewish origin from the 18th to the 20th century. Volume 1: A-I. Edited by the Austrian National Library. Saur, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-598-11545-8 , p. 105.
  • Monika Rüthers: Women's lives are changing. In: Heiko Haumann (ed.): Air people and rebellious daughters. On the change in Eastern Jewish life in the 19th century . Series: Lebenswelten Osturopäischer Juden, 7. Böhlau, Cologne 2003 ISBN 3-412-06699-0 , pp. 223-266

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Wolfgang U. Eckart : Medicine in the Nazi dictatorship. Ideology, Practice, Consequences, Böhlau Verlag Wien, Cologne, Weimar 2012, Chapter 3: Biodictatory practice after 1933, here 3.3.6: The "Reinhardt Action", p. 145.
  2. ↑ Armin Eidherr : Motives in the Yiddish autobiographies of the Bergner family, p. 1. Motive autobiographies of the Bergner family , accessed on March 19, 2017.
  3. ^ Yiddishkayt: Hinde Bergner , accessed December 31, 2018.
  4. ↑ Wet nurses were entitled to "wrap up" children, i.e. to be allowed to wrap them up (information from Zvi Lothane )
  5. ^ The painter Yosl Bergner
  6. ^ The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe : Ravitch, Melech
  7. ↑ The Yiddish title of the first edition published in Montreal in 1946 is: In de long vinternekht: mishpokhe zikhroynes fun a shtetl in Galitsye, 1870–1900. In de long vinternekht
  8. ↑ Hinde Bergner, Herz Bergner, Sacharija Bergner (Melech Ravitch), Yosl (Jossif) Bergner
  9. ↑ to Hinde Bergner p. 226
personal data
SURNAME Bergner, Hinde
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bergner, Hindsia (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Polish writer of the Jewish faith
DATE OF BIRTH October 10, 1870
PLACE OF BIRTH Redim
DATE OF DEATH uncertain: between July 1942 and December 1942