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Lives in the Yiddish Theatre

SHORT BIOGRAPHIES OF THOSE INVOLVED IN THE YIDDISH THEATRE
AS DESCRIBED IN ZALMEN ZYLBERCWEIG'S "LEXICON OF THE YIDDISH THEATRE"

1931-1969



 

Kalmen Gutman
 


  

G. was born in 1901 in Lodz, Poland.

His parents were petty merchants.

He graduated from a folkshul. Due to his love of the theatre he became a prompter in Shlomo Kutner's itinerant troupe.

In 1919 he acted in Brisk, directed by Kutner, afterwards in the members troupe in Lodz's Skala Theatre. In 1925 he participated as an actor in "Vikt", afterwards becoming a prompter for various troupes in Poland.

During the Second World War, suffering from depression, G. escaped to Bialystok. There he found work in the Yiddish State Theatre. Sheftel Zak reported that from the theatre he left with guest stars to Mohilev on the Dnieper, and there on 22 June 1941 they came upon the Hitler assault. A number of the members of the troupe ran away to Central Asia, and G. was with them. There they organized work brigades, where G. had worked during sporadically in a number

of Yiddish productions and he almost starved there. When Wanda Vashilevska organized the Kosciusko Military Division, G. volunteered and was sent away to the Front against the Nazis, where he was killed.
 

Sh. E. from Meir Melman and Sheftel Zak.

  • "Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre", New York, 1931, Vol. I, p. 496.


 

 

 




 

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