Yehiel Dinur
Yehiel Dinur, born in 1917 in Sosnowiec, Poland, and later residing in Tel Aviv, Israel, is a significant literary figure known for his harrowing accounts of the Holocaust. Using the pen name "Ka-Tzeknik 135633," which reflects his prisoner number at Auschwitz, Dinur's writings provide a graphic portrayal of the horrors he witnessed during his imprisonment from 1943 to 1945. His most notable work, *House of Dolls*, published in 1955, addresses the sexual exploitation of Jewish girls and has achieved remarkable success, selling over five million copies and being translated into more than twenty languages. Dinur's novels, characterized by their explicit depictions of violence and trauma, have sparked considerable debate regarding their content but have also become essential reading in Israeli education.
In addition to his literary contributions, Dinur played a pivotal role as a witness during the trial of Adolf Eichmann in 1961, significantly aiding in the prosecution of this key figure in the Holocaust. Throughout his later years, he advocated for peace and understanding between Israelis and Palestinians, co-founding the Israeli Movement for Arab-Jewish Cooperation. Dinur's legacy endures as one of the most poignant voices capturing the experiences of Jews during World War II.
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Yehiel Dinur
Writer
- Born: May 16, 1909
- Birthplace: Sosnowiec, Poland
- Died: July 17, 2001
- Place of death: Tel Aviv, Israel
Biography
Yehiel Dinur was born in Sosnowiec, Poland, in 1917, and died in Tel Aviv, Israel, on July 17, 2001. Known by his pen name, “Ka-Tzeknik 135633” (his prison number), Dinur was kept in the largest Nazi concentration camp in Poland, Auschwitz, from 1943 to 1945. He wrote a series of graphic and compelling novels about the whole Holocaust experience.
Bet habubot (1953; House of Dolls, 1955), which depicted the Nazi sexual exploitation of Jewish girls, was his most famous work, sold over five million copies, and was translated into more than twenty languages. He also composedSalamandrah, 1946 (Sunrise over Hell, 1977), Qaru lo piepel, 1961 (Piepel, 1961), Kakhol me-efer, 1966 (Phoenix over the Galilee, 1969), and Tsofen E.D.M.A.: Masa hagar’in shel aushvits, 1987 (Shivitti: A Vision, 1989). Many of these works have been criticized for their explicit depictions of rape and sadism.
His novels became required reading in Israeli schools, and were bestsellers in Europe during the 1950’s and 1960’s, and it was his testimony at Adolf Eichmann’s trial in 1961 that helped to convict the mastermind of the Nazi Holocaust. At the end of his life, he was working actively to bring Israelis and Palestinians together, and to end the violence in the Middle East. He and his wife, the author and translator Nina De-Nur, founded the Israeli Movement for Arab-Jewish Cooperation in 1965. He will always be known as one of the writers who most powerfully exposed the Nazi treatment of the Jews during World War II.