HINDE
GRIN-NAYMAN (1916-1944)
She was born in Lodz, Poland, into a
prominent Zionist family. Her father, V.
Nayman, a brother of the Yiddish writer Yekhezkiel-Moyshe Nayman, was a
long-time leader and councilor in the Lodz Jewish community, selected by the
Mizrachi Party. She graduated from a
Polish Jewish high school in Lodz. She
studied literature and chemistry at Warsaw University. In 1937 she married the Yiddish writer
Yerakhmiel Grin and settled in Warsaw, where they lived until WWII. During the German seizure of Poland, she left
for the Russian-occupied zone of Poland, lived for a time in Kuty (Kitev) and
later in Lemberg, where she worked as a teacher until the German invasion of
Russia. She began publishing Yiddish and
Polish poetry in 1934, initially in Nayer folksblat (New people’s newspaper) in Lodz.
She contributed to Haynt
(Today), Literarishe bleter (Literary
leaves), Foroys (Onward), and Vokhnshrift (Weekly writings) in Warsaw,
as well as in the Polish Jewish Nasz
Przeglad (Our overview) and Opinia
(Opinion) in Warsaw. She wrote a novel
about Jewish student life, which was set to appear in 1939, but remained in manuscript
throughout the war. From 1942 she and
her husband were in the Nazi concentration camp at Janów, near Lemberg, where she
wrote a number of ghetto songs that were sung in various camps. Her song “Mir zitsn bam zamdbreg tsufusns un
trinken lekhayim mitn toyt” (We’re sitting by the edge of the sand and drinking
“to life” with the dead) was one of the most popular songs, sung a many death
camps. The full text was published in Idisher kemfer (Jewish fighter) in New
York (May 16, 1946) and was reprinted in the anthology Kidesh hashem (Sanctification of the name) (New York, 1947) and in
Sh. Katsherginski’s Lider fun getos un
lagern (Songs from ghettos and camps) (New York, 1948), p. 252. She died with her husband in Janów
Concentration Camp. She also published
under the pen names: Hinde Nayman, Hele Grin, and Helene.
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