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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



 

Moshe Hermelin

H. was a member of the Warsaw Yiddish Artists' Union. He acted in small roles and also used to participate in the administration of the theatre.

In 1939 he came to Bialystok with his second wife, who also had acted in the theatre, and a daughter of twelve years. In order to give the child a possibility to live, and to find the income for the family, he had the actor Zalmen Kaleshnikov take her into the ensemble of the Bialystok State Yiddish Theatre and she was given the role of "Tevye the Mikman's" youngest daughter.

H. acted in the theatre in Bialystok and also assisted in the administration. Several weeks before the outbreak of the Soviet-German war, the troupe traveled to perform in Mogilev. The actors, however, had left their families in Bialystok. H. was sent by the actors back to Bialystok for their personal matters and also for certain theatrical necessities. To H. this proposal came willingly, having received an opportunity again to see his family. He arrived in Bialystok precisely at the time of the outbreak of the Soviet-German war and could no longer leave the city. A month later he, during the introduction of the ghetto, was put into it. There, H. worked in a shoe factory for the German Wehrmacht, and later was killed by the Nazis.

According to Meir Melman and Sheftel Zak, he was killed in Warsaw.
 

Sh. E. from Zalmen Kaleshnikov, Sheftel Zak, Meir Melman and M. E. from Grisha Rotshteyn.


 

 


 




 

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