Herz Bergner (1907–1970) was a novelist who was born in Radymno,

Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria The Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria,, ; pl, Królestwo Galicji i Lodomerii, ; uk, Королівство Галичини та Володимирії, Korolivstvo Halychyny ta Volodymyrii; la, Rēgnum Galiciae et Lodomeriae also known as ...

in 1907. His family moved to

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, Austria, at the start of World War I, and returned to Poland at the end of the war. Bergner's brother,

Melech Ravitch Zechariah Choneh Bergner () (27 November 1893 – 20 August 1976), better known by his pen name Melech Ravitch (), was a Canadian Yiddish poet and essayist. Ravitch was one of the world's leading Yiddish literary figures after the Holocaust. Hi ...

, a Yiddish writer, emigrated to Australia in 1933. Herz Bergner followed him in 1938, originally to raise funds for Jewish secular schools in Poland. Once in Australia Bergner met Pinchus Goldhar and other Yiddish writers and, together with Abraham Schulman and Goldhar, began the literary publication ''Oyfboy'' which was published in Melbourne.Austlit – Herz Bergner
/ref> In 1948 Bergner was awarded the

ALS Gold Medal The Australian Literature Society Gold Medal (ALS Gold Medal) is awarded annually by the Association for the Study of Australian Literature for "an outstanding literary work in the preceding calendar year." From 1928 to 1974 it was awarded by the ...

for his novel '' Between Sky and Sea''. Herz Bergner died in 1970.

Bibliography

Novels

* '' Between Sky and Sea'' (1946) * ''A shtot in poyln'' (A City in Poland, 1950) * ''Light and Shadow'' (1963)

Short story collections

* ''Shtubn un gasn'' (Homes and Streets, 1935) * ''The New House'' (1941) * ''Dos hoyz fun dzheykob ayziks'' (The House of Jacob Isaacs, 1955) * ''Where the Truth Lies'' (1966) * ''M’darf zayn a mentsh, dertseylungen'' (One must be a good person, 1971)

Awards

* 1948 winner

– ''Between Sky and Sea''"Melbourne Author Wins Gold Medal" ''The Argus'', 10 December 1948, p10
/ref>

References

Australian male novelists Australian people of Polish-Jewish descent ALS Gold Medal winners Jewish Australian writers Polish emigrants to Australia Writers from Melbourne Yiddish-language writers 1907 births 1970 deaths People from Radymno People from the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria Austro-Hungarian Jews Jews from Galicia (Eastern Europe) {{Australia-writer-stub