Chava Rosenfarb (1923‒2011) was born in Lodz, Poland on 9 February. Rosenfarb received her early education in Yiddish, but completed secondary school in Polish, graduating from high school in the Lodz ghetto where she and her family ‒ along with the rest of the city’s Jewish population ‒ had been incarcerated. It was in the ghetto where Rosenfarb began writing poetry, which gained the attention of Simkha-Bunim Shayevtich, whom she soon became the protegee of. In August of 1944, the Lodz ghetto was liquidated, and Rosenfarb and her family were sent to Auschwitz. Rosenfarb, her mother, and her sister were sent from Auschwitz to a labour camp at Sasel, and then later were sent to Bergen Belson. The British army liberated this camp in 1945, and the three women illegally crossed into Belgium; here, Rosenfarb began writing Der Boim Fun Lebn [The Tree of Life]. In 1949, Rosenfarb married Heniek (Henry) Morgentaler, and together they emigrated to Canada. Rosenfarb began to publish several works, including Di balade fun nekhtikn vald [The ballad of yesterday’s forest], Dos lid fun yidishn kelner Abram [The song of the Jewish waiter Abram], the poetry collections Geto un andere lider [Ghetto and other poems] and Aroys fun gan-eydn [Out of Paradise], a play entitled Der google fun geto [The bird of the ghetto], and in 1972, she published Der boim fun lebh [The Tree of Life] in Yiddish. The Tree of Life won many awards. Rosenfarb is one of the few Holocaust survivors who, rather than writing memoirs or reminiscences, transmuted her experiences into fiction. Rosenfarb followed The Tree of Life with Bociany in 1982, and Briv tsu Abrashn [Letters to Abrasha], which remains unpublished in English. Rosenfarb died on 30 January 2011, at the age of 87.
Sources:
“Biography: About Chava Rosenfarb.” Chava Rosenfarb. chavarosenfarb.com/biography.
Martens, Debra. “Chava Rosenfarb.” Canadian Writers Abroad. canadianwritersabroad.com/2014/02/12/chava-rosenfarb/.
Morgentaler, Goldie. “Chava Rosenfarb.” Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia. Jewish Women’s Archive, 27 February 2009, jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/rosenfarb-chava.