![Itzik Fefer from Geklibene Verk](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/14/Itzik_Fefer_from_Geklibene_Verk.jpg)
Itzik Feffer (10 September 1900 – 12 August 1952), also Fefer (
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 ...
איציק פֿעפֿער,
Russian Ицик Фефер, Исаàк Соломòнович Фèфер) was a
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
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 ...
poet executed on the
Night of the Murdered Poets during
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...
's
purges
In history, religion and political science, a purge is a position removal or execution of people who are considered undesirable by those in power from a government, another organization, their team leaders, or society as a whole. A group undertak ...
.
Early life
Itzik Feffer was born in
Shpola
Shpola ( uk, Шпола, ; yi, שפּאָלע, Shpole) is a city located in Zvenyhorodka Raion of Cherkasy Oblast (province) in central Ukraine. It hosts the administration of Shpola urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. It had a popu ...
, a town in
Zvenigorod
Zvenigorod (russian: Звени́город) is an old town in Moscow Oblast, Russia. Population:
History
The town's name is based either on a personal name (cf. Zvenislav, Zvenimir) or on a hydronym (cf. the Zvinech, Zvinyaka, Zveniga Rivers) ...
''
uyezd'' (district) of
Kiev Governorate, in what was then part of the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
and is now part of
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
.
Career
World War II
During 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 ...
, he was a military
reporter
A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...
with the rank of
colonel
Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations.
In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge of ...
and was vice chairman of the Soviet
Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (JAC). He and
Solomon Mikhoels
Solomon (Shloyme) Mikhoels ( yi, שלמה מיכאעלס lso spelled שלוימע מיכאעלס during the Soviet era russian: Cоломон (Шлойме) Михоэлс, – 13 January 1948) was a Latvian born Soviet Jewish actor and the art ...
travelled to the United States in 1943 in a well-documented fund-raising trip.
Arrest and death
In 1948, after the assassination of the JAC Chairman
Solomon Mikhoels
Solomon (Shloyme) Mikhoels ( yi, שלמה מיכאעלס lso spelled שלוימע מיכאעלס during the Soviet era russian: Cоломон (Шлойме) Михоэлс, – 13 January 1948) was a Latvian born Soviet Jewish actor and the art ...
, Feffer, along with other JAC members, was arrested and accused of
treason
Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...
. Feffer had been an informer for the
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union.
...
(predecessor of the
KGB
The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...
) since 1943. Feffer reportedly cooperated with the investigation, providing false information that would lead to the arrest and indictment of over a hundred people, but at the trial, he made openly nationalistic statements and expressed pride in his
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
identity. Feffer had also allegedly been one of the "most loyal and conformist Yiddish poets", who had helped to enforce strict ideological control over other Yiddish writers, and had a history of denouncing colleagues for their "nationalistic hysteria". However, in 1952, Feffer, along with other defendants, was tried at a closed trial of JAC members, ostensibly due to their American-backed proposal to establish
Jewish autonomy in Crimea
Jewish autonomy in Crimea was a project in the Soviet Union to create an autonomous region for Jews in the Crimea, Crimean peninsula carried out during the 1920s and 1930s. Following the WWII and the creation of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast i ...
, and executed on 12 August 1952, at the
Lubyanka Building
The Lubyanka ( rus, Лубянка, p=lʊˈbʲankə) is the popular name for the building which contains the headquarters of the FSB, and its affiliated prison, on Lubyanka Square in the Meshchansky District of Moscow, Russia. It is a large Ne ...
.
![Itzik Feffer, Albert Einstein and Solomon Mikhoels 1943](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/Itzik_Feffer%2C_Albert_Einstein_and_Solomon_Mikhoels_1943.jpg)
Feffer was rehabilitated posthumously in 1955, after Stalin's death.
Paul Robeson
The American concert singer and actor
Paul Robeson met Feffer on 8 July 1943, in New York during a
Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee event chaired by
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...
, one of the largest pro-Soviet rallies ever held in the United States. After the rally, Paul Robeson and his wife
Eslanda Robeson
Eslanda "Essie" Cardozo Goode Robeson (December 15, 1895 – December 13, 1965) was an American anthropologist, author, actress, and civil rights activist. She was the wife and business manager of performer Paul Robeson.
Biography
Early y ...
, befriended Feffer and Mikhoels.
Six years later, in June 1949, during the 150th-anniversary celebration of the birth of
Alexander Pushkin
Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (; rus, links=no, Александр Сергеевич ПушкинIn pre-Revolutionary script, his name was written ., r=Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈpuʂkʲɪn, ...
, Robeson visited the Soviet Union to sing in concert. According to
David Horowitz
During his concert in Tchaikovsky Hall on 14 June - which was broadcast across the entire country - Robeson publicly paid tribute to Feffer and the late Mikhoels, singing the
Vilna Partisan song "
Zog Nit Keynmol
"Zog nit keyn mol" (''Never Say''; yi, זאָג ניט קיין מאָל, ) sometimes "Zog nit keynmol" or "Partizaner lid" 'Partisan Song'' is a Yiddish song considered one of the chief anthems of Holocaust survivors and is sung in memorial ...
" in both Russian and Yiddish. Recordings of the concert survived, but Robeson's spoken words are lost.
Robeson's son,
Paul Robeson Jr., tells about this episode of his father's biography in the documentary film ''His Name was Robeson'' (1998) by
Nikolay Milovidov.
Literary work
Feffer was a prolific poet who wrote almost exclusively in
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 ...
, and his poems were widely translated into
Russian and
Ukrainian
Ukrainian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Ukraine
* Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe
* Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine
* So ...
. He is considered one of the greatest Soviet poets in the Yiddish language and his poems were widely admired inside and outside Russia.
Di Shotns fun Varshever Geto
His epic poem ("The Shadows of the Warsaw Ghetto" is a tribute to the 750 Jews who
rebelled against the Nazi liquidation of the ghetto and gave their lives fighting tyranny during World War II.
Books of poetry
* (Splinters), 1922;
* (About Me and Others Like Me), 1924;
* (A Stone to a Stone), 1925;
* (Simple Words), 1925;
* (Blossoming Garbage), 1926, a paradoxical title about the revival of a ''
shtetl'' in Soviet times;
* (Found Sparkles), 1928;
* (Competition), 1930;
* (Posters in Bronze), 1932;
* (Force), 1937;
* 1943;
* (Anew), 1948.
References
Further reading
* Rappaport, Louis. ''Stalin's War Against the Jews: The Doctors Plot & The Soviet Solution'' (Free Press: 1990)
* Stewart, Jeffrey C. (editor). ''Paul Robeson: Artist and Citizen''. Hardcover (Rutgers Univ Pr, April 1, 1998) , Paperback (Rutgers Univ Pr, April 1, 1998)
* Duberman, Martin. Paul Robeson: A Biography, (New Press; Reissue edition (May 1, 1995). .
External links
Itzik Fefer books and audio recordingsin the
Yiddish Book Center digital library (in Yiddish)
*https://web.archive.org/web/20060523070618/http://www.midstreamthf.com/200207/feature.html
* http://lib.ru/PROZA/LEWASHOW/mihoels.txt A novel in Russian detailing Mihoels and Feffer's trip to the U.S. and other countries during World War II and Mihoels' subsequent murder.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Feffer, Itzik
1900 births
1952 deaths
People from Shpola
Ukrainian Jews
Communist Party of the Soviet Union members
Yiddish-language poets
Soviet poets
Russian male poets
Soviet male writers
20th-century male writers
Executed writers
Antisemitism in Russia
Jews executed by the Soviet Union
Executed Soviet people from Ukraine
Soviet show trials
Soviet rehabilitations
Jewish anti-fascists
Ukrainian anti-fascists