Pati Kremer (1867–1943) was a Russian revolutionary socialist and pioneer of the
General Jewish Workers' Union in Lithuania, Poland and Russia (Bund). She was the wife of
Arkadi Kremer.
Biography
Pati Kremer was born Matla Srednicki on 2 January 1867 in
Vilna
Vilnius ( , ; see also #Etymology and other names, other names) is the capital and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the munic ...
. She was the daughter of a wealthy merchant. In the 1880s she moved to St. Petersburg to study dentistry and there became involved with revolutionary political circles. She was also active in educational and literacy projects for workers. In 1889 she was arrested for the first time. Upon her release, she returned to Vilna, where she became a leading member and organizer of the Jewish Social-Democratic circle known as the '
Vilna Group', together with John Mill (1870–1952) and
Arkadi Kremer (1865–1935). Pati and
Arkadi
Arkadi ( el, Αρκάδι) is a former municipality in the Rethymno regional unit, Crete, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Rethymno, of which it is a municipal unit. The municipal unit has an area of . ...
were subsequently married.
The Vilna Group was one of the precursors of the Bund and of the
Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party
The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP; in , ''Rossiyskaya sotsial-demokraticheskaya rabochaya partiya (RSDRP)''), also known as the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party or the Russian Social Democratic Party, was a socialist pol ...
(RSDRP). Pati Kremer was arrested again in September 1897 and banished to Mogilev. There she resumed her activities on behalf of the Bund, working with other political exiles and local workers. In 1898 she secretly attended the second congress of the Bund in Kovno. In 1902, she and Arkadi (who had been arrested in 1898) escaped abroad, making their way to Britain, the USA, Switzerland and France. They mostly remained in France until 1921, becoming French citizens and working with the
French Socialist Party as well as the Bund.
In 1921, the Kremers returned to Vilna, where Arkadi became chairman of the local branch of the Bund. Pati Kremer worked as editor and translator in the publishing house of
Boris Kletskin (1875–1937), a Bundist. In 1935, her husband died, and she began work on a commemorative volume eventually published in New York in 1942. During the German occupation of Vilna in 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 opposi ...
she became a leading figure in
the city's Jewish ghetto, organizing and maintaining secret Yiddish libraries and clandestine meetings of the Bund. When the Ghetto was razed by the Germans in September 1943, Pati Kremer was among the many victims who were rounded up, transported to the
Sobibor extermination camp
Sobibor (, Polish: ) was an extermination camp built and operated by Nazi Germany as part of Operation Reinhard. It was located in the forest near the village of Żłobek Duży in the General Government region of German-occupied Poland.
As an ...
and murdered.
Sources
* Pickhan, G., 'Pati Kremer.' In: Hyman, P.E. (ed.), ''Jewish Women. A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia.'' Jerusalem, 2006. Online at: http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/kremer-pati.
* Jacobs, J., 'Bund.' In: Hypan, P.E. ''op. cit.'' Online at: http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/bund.
* Frankel, J., ''Prophecy and Politics: Socialism, Nationalism, and the Russian Jews, 1862–1917.'' Cambridge, 1981.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kremer, Pati
1867 births
1943 deaths
Bundists
Mensheviks
Russian Social Democratic Labour Party members
Russian revolutionaries
Russian Jews
Russian socialists
Jewish socialists
Politicians from Vilnius
Emigrants from the Russian Empire to France
Soviet people who died in Sobibor extermination camp
Soviet civilians killed in World War II
Vilna Ghetto inmates
Politicians who died in Nazi concentration camps
Female revolutionaries