"It seems that the wickedness has removed its mask
and it appears in its true, dark form...
To you, the hope, I extend my arms
to my shield that at such a young age put to rest
everything that lied inside me as a human being."
Play, Passover, Saturday April 15, 1944
Uri Orlev (photo: screenshot, here educational)
These lines, taken from the poem "A world without a mask", were read by the author - the 13-year-old boy York Orlovsky to his fellow prisoners who stayed with him in Bergen-Belsen during the Passover holiday of 1944. It was the last Passover holiday for many of them.
This poem is one of 18 poems that the boy Orlowski wrote in a tiny notebook in Polish during his stay in the camp.
Later he changed his name to Uri Orlev and became one of the most prominent writers in Israel.
The diary from the concentration camp, along with a photo album, was recently handed over by his wife, Yara Orlev, to the Yad Vashem Archives as part of a project to collect items from the Holocaust era "Gathering the Fragments".
The notebook includes 18 songs written by Orlev as well as various notes and illustrations.
Some of the songs were published in a collection of songs published by Yad Vashem in collaboration with Orlev and now more songs are revealed in the journal.
A poem written in front of one of the illustrations of the knights in the diary was written separately from the rest of the poems:
"
In severe agony
in my head maddening thoughts
I drip with sweat and the blood
of death pulls out nails
Humanity is disappearing
My chest groans
in the thickness of the earth
restlessly
facing the eternal rest
I have passed, but who remains behind me in the abyss
I turn my head
mother, I can't go on walking
The book of poems of the writer Uri Orlev (photo: official website, Yad Vashem archives)
Orlev, born as Kizhi Henrik (York) in Warsaw in 1929, the eldest son of his parents - Dr. Maximilian and Zofia (Zusia) Orlowski, the eldest brother of Kaczyk. During World War II, his doctor father was sent to the front and was captured by the Russians. York remained with his mother and brother Kaczyk in the Warsaw Ghetto. With their mother's death, their aunt Stefana fled York and his brother to the Polish area of Warsaw, and then they were hidden in a dark cellar in the village for many weeks. In the summer of 1943, they were deported to the Bergen-Belsen camp. Their aunt managed to obtain documents for them to immigrate to the Land of Israel, so they
were Prisoners in the 'special camp' (Sonderlager), where about 2,500 prisoners with foreign nationals were concentrated. Over 2,000 of the camp's prisoners were eventually sent to Auschwitz and murdered. York and Kazik were prisoners in the camp for 22 months, until they were liberated in
April
1945 by the American army.
alone to the Land of Israel and were adopted by Kibbutz Geniger. Their father remained alive and immigrated to Israel in 1954.
The book of poems of the writer Uri Orlev (photo: official website, Yad Vashem archives)
The Holocaust and Heroism Memorial Day events (photo: Walla! system, no)
In the book of poems, Orlev described daily life in the Bergen-Belsen camp with surprising sensitivity and maturity.
the dynamics between the prisoners, the difficult conditions, his experiences and feelings as a boy, and the horrors to which he was exposed in the ghetto before his deportation:
"We are separated from the world by a simple and proper wire fence,
and all our possessions: a bowl, a mug, a blanket and a stench...
many people, So many, scraping boilers, throwing slaps,
everything rolls in the dust, trash, people and luggage."
In his comments, he added, "This refers to the few camp residents who were of 'inferior social status,' meaning they were not doctors, professors, or master engineers; they would shamelessly scrape the sides of the boilers after the distribution, and I would look on with envy, because 'Dr. Orlovsky's son Not good for scraping boilers...'".
Also in the diary, some of whose poems were published in a collection of poems previously published by Yad Vashem in collaboration with Orlev, one can find drawings of knights drawn in the notebook by others at Orlev's request as well as exercises in geometry and algebra;
On the cover of the notebook, between exercises in algebra and the inscription Taschenbuch (notebook), the boy spit out the following lines, as if a dedication in blurred writing: "
That the war is over ,
I truly wish you
until the end of the war (...)
and this is what is included in this book, I believe"
on The importance of the original diary Masha Polk-Rosenberg, director of the archives department at Yad Vashem said: "With the distance in time from the events of the Holocaust, the original documentation becomes of special value and hence the great importance of Uri Orlev's diary. It carries within it the authenticity and represents the connection between the historical event which in the past was left to the tangibility that is rewarded in the physical item. As such, it is expected to continue to arouse interest in the future as well."
The photo album of the writer Uri Orlev (photo: official website, Yad Vashem archive)
Orlev's wife also gave Vashem a photo album that includes photos documenting different stages in Orlev's life: from the comfortable life of an established and well-off family in Warsaw before the war to his immigration and absorption in Israel.
From a toddler playing ball in the streets of Warsaw, through vacations to a photograph of Orlev from the time of the war, in 1942, of his father in Uzbekistan and of his aunt Eva in the uniform of the Red Army, photographs of the liberated and displaced persons after the war, from the train on the way to Israel, from the Atlit camp and Kibbutz Geniger where he was taken in - and ending with the entire journey: The typical photographs that tell the story of the immigration and absorption in those years, in singlets and uniforms, in fields and rugged hills, against the background of monuments, in a boat, in armored vehicles and in fitness training - including a photograph of Orlev as a young man.
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