Papers of Julian (Yehiel) Hirszhaut (1908-1983)

Julian (Yehiel) Hirszhaut was born on September 2, 1908 in Drohobycz, Poland, near Lwow. He graduated from LwowUniversity with a Master’s degree in jurisprudence and political economics and simultaneously graduated from the Hebrew Pedagogical Institute, also in Lwow, in 1933. Following his graduation, Hirszhaut worked as the legal advisor to a large bank, first at the Lwowbranch and later at the main office in Warsaw. He was also involved in Zionist activities in Western Galicia, and wrote about Zionist problems in both Polish and Yiddish periodicals. He first published his work in the Polish monthly Narod (Nation, Warsaw) in 1929 and continued to publish in Polish and Yiddish until the beginning of World War II. Among the publications he wrote for were Der emes (The Truth, Warsaw), Der nayer veg (The New Way, Paris, later London), Haynt (Today, Warsaw), Der kampf (The Struggle, Lwow), and Di naye velt (The New World, German, Vienna). He also contributed to the Polish daily Chwilie (Moment, Lwow).

From 1939-1942 Hirszhaut was in hiding in Warsaw before he went to live with his brother and sister-in-law who were living with Aryan identity papers. Hirszhaut obtained false identity papers and even got a job working for a local hardware wholesaler for several months. He was arrested and sent to Pawiak Prison in Warsaw on July 8, 1943 where he stayed for a year before escaping on May 30, 1944. Hirszhaut’s brother was also sent to Pawiak Prison, where he died in November 1943. After escaping, Hirszhaut went into hiding, where he was able to survive until the end of the war. His wife, daughter and entire family perished in the Holocaust.

Hirszhaut helped to build the postwar Yiddish press in Poland, founding and editing the periodicals Ichud (Union, Lodz, 1945, Polish and Yiddish), Opinia (Opinion, Lodz, 1945) and Życie Warszawy (Life of Warsaw, 1945), for which he used the name Michal Dobiecki. He was also the honorary President of the Jewish Committee in Warsaw after the war and, as part of this office, he was instrumental in organizing local Jewish historical committees in Bialystok, Katowice, Krakow, Lublin, Lodz, and Warsaw to collect eyewitness Holocaust testimonies. Hirszhaut also wrote extensively on the Holocaust period in Poland and bought and collected historical documents and photographs on this topic, many of which he later sent to Yad Vashem. Hirszhaut married Hanka Hirszhaut, another survivor, in Lodz in July 1945.

The Hirszhauts moved to France in June 1946 on the invitation of the French Zionist Organization. There they helped ensure that illegally arriving Jews got temporary visas to stay in France and provided help and clothing. As an emissary of the French government, Julian Hirszhaut went to Poland to distribute 500 visas for Jewish survivors. He also continued to be involved in publishing while in France. He was the editor of Di tsionistishe shtime (The Zionist Voice, 1946), Videroyfboy (Reconstruction, 1946-1947), which was published through the Union of Polish Jews in France, Undzer veg (Our Way, 1946-1951), and Undzer vort (Our Word, 1946). He also wrote a series of essays for Kiyum (Existence) in Paris: on the history of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (1948-1949), about Holocaust literature among the Germans (April 1950), and about politics and Jews (1950-1951).

In February 1951 the Hirszhauts settled in New York, where once again Julian Hirszhaut involved himself in publishing and writing about the Holocaust. He edited Amerikaner (The American, 1951-1952), YIVO bleter (YIVO Pages, 1954) and Di Zukunft (Future, 1976-1983). He also served as the President of the Yiddish PEN Club and the executive director of the Congress for Jewish Culture in New York.

Among his books and writings are Finstere nekht in Pawiak (Dark Nights in Pawiak), published by the Central Union of Polish Jews in Argentina in 1948, later published as Jewish Martyrs of Pawiak in 1982; Yidishe Naft Magnatn (Jewish Oil Magnates, 1954); “Dr. Ignacy Schipper – His Life and Works” in Fun noentn ever (From the Recent Past), published by the World Jewish Culture Congress in 1955; and “Meir Balaban” in Dortn (There, 1959), among others.

Julian Hirszhaut died in New York on March 20, 1983. He was survived by his wife, Hanka, and two daughters, Betty Lee Hirszhaut and Dr. Vivian Hirszhaut Swartz.