Hinde Bergner () (10 October 1870 – 1942) was a

Yiddish Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...

-language writer from Galicia.

Biography

She was born October 10, 1870, in

Radymno Radymno ( uk, Ради́мно ''Radymno'', yi, רעדעם ''Redem'') is a town in south-eastern Poland with 5,543 inhabitants (02.06.2009). It has been part of the Podkarpackie Voivodeship since its creation in 1999. Radymno was previously in t ...

, Galicia (then part of the

Austro-Hungarian Empire Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

), one of six children of Joseph and Bluma Rosenblatt. Her father owned a local granary, and Hinde was expected to help with the accounting of the family business growing up. She grew up in a

Hasidic Hasidism, sometimes spelled Chassidism, and also known as Hasidic Judaism (Ashkenazi Hebrew: חסידות ''Ḥăsīdus'', ; originally, "piety"), is a Jewish religious group that arose as a spiritual revival movement in the territory of contem ...

family, though her father was somewhat open to modern and secular innovations, paying for Hinde to learn Polish, German, and secular subjects. As a young girl, Hinde ran away to Jaroslaw to stay with an aunt when she thought her parents would forbid her from continuing her education. In 1891, she married Efrayim Bergner, with whom she had three sons. Moshe Bergner (later Harari) was born in 1892, and later immigrated to

Mandatory Palestine Mandatory Palestine ( ar, فلسطين الانتدابية '; he, פָּלֶשְׂתִּינָה (א״י) ', where "E.Y." indicates ''’Eretz Yiśrā’ēl'', the Land of Israel) was a geopolitical entity established between 1920 and 1948 ...

, where he attended the Bezalel art school before committing suicide at age 21. Zechariah Bergner (1893-1976), moved to

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

, and later

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

, where he became a prominent Yiddish writer and poet under the pen name Melech Ravitch. His son Yosl Bergner (1920-2017), was a well-known Israeli painter. Her youngest son,

Herz Bergner Herz Bergner (1907–1970) was a novelist who was born in Radymno, Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria in 1907. His family moved to Vienna, Austria, at the start of World War I, and returned to Poland at the end of the war. Bergner's brother, Melech ...

(1907-1970) was a Yiddish prose writer who immigrated to Australia prior to World War II. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, the family spent three years in Vienna as refugees. Her husband Efrayim tried several different occupations to remain financially stable, including liquor distillation and typesetting, before his death in 1939. With the onset of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Hinde fled to the Soviet Union, first to Rawa Ruska ( Rava-Ruska), Przemyśl, and then to Przemyślany ( Peremyshliany), near Lemberg (Lwów/Lviv). She is believed to have died in 1942 in Belzec extermination camp. Before her death she desperately sent a message to her son, through

Red Cross The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million Volunteering, volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure re ...

, “I am very weak … it will soon be too late.”

Writing

Hinde began writing a family memoir in 1937, which she mailed to her sons in installments. Her last correspondence was in 1941. Her memoir, ''In di lange vinternekht, mishpokhe-zikhroynes fun a shtetl in galitsye, 1870-1900'' (In the long winter nights, family memoirs from a town in Galicia, 1870-1900) describes the experience of modernization and secularization, and the tensions that followed, in her childhood shtetl. It is significant for its female perspective on cultural change and modernization within the Jewish community. It was published posthumously in 1946, with a foreword by her sons. The book was later translated from

by Justin Cammy. A

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

translation by Arye Aharoni, titled ''Belelot haḥoref haarukim, zikhronot mishpaḥa meayara begalitsya'', was published in 1982. Otto Müller published a German translation in 1995. An English translation, with an introduction by Justin Cammy, was published by

Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retirem ...

in 2005.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bergner, Hinde 1942 deaths Yiddish-language writers People who died in Belzec extermination camp People from Radymno Jews from Austria-Hungary Writers from the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria 1870 births Jewish women writers Polish Jews who died in the Holocaust Jews from Galicia (Eastern Europe) 20th-century Polish women writers Writers from Austria-Hungary