NOTE GOLDKRANTS

NOTE GOLDKRANTS (1904-1944)

            He was born in Tomashov (Tomaszów Mazowiecki), Poland, into a poor Hassidic family.  He studied in religious primary school and on his own in the synagogue study hall.  Over the years 1919-1924 he was living in Lodz, where he worked as an employee in a business and in the evening continued his education.  He was back in Tomaczów, 1924-1934, and in 1935 or 1936 he was in Belgium, France, and Palestine, later returning to Poland.  He began writing poems and short literary essays in Lodz publications: S’feld (The field), Vegn (Ways), Shveln (Thresholds), Oyfkum (Arise) (1920-1924), and Zeglen (Sails) in Paterson, New Jersey.  He contributed as well to: Lodzher folksblat (Lodz people newspaper) and Nayer folks-blat (New people’s newspaper).  He edited (from 1924 until 1930, together with Moyshe Dluzhnovski, later by himself) Tomashover vokhnblat (Tomaczów weekly newspaper), in which he published feature pieces and articles about community problems, and also about Jewish literature.  He wrote the play Balut (1939) which should have been included his typeset book of poems, but it never appeared because of the outbreak of war.  He was in the Tomaczów ghetto, from which in 1944, together with the 12,000 Jews of Tomaczów, he was deported to Auschwitz and murdered.

Sources: Kh. L. Fuks, in Fun noentn over 3 (1957); Biblyografish yorbukh fun yivo (Bibliographic annual from YIVO) (Warsaw, 1927).