Timeline of Events

Pre-War

  • April 12 1912 - Born in Skarżysko-Kamienna, Poland to Tevye and Serl Bryks nee Kogan, the third of eight siblings

  • 1926 - Moved with his family to Łódź, Poland. At the age of 14, he began to work as a hat maker, later a house painter to help his family

  • 1929 - Bryks remained in Łódź although his family moved back to Skarżysko-Kamienna

  • 1935 - Resided at Zawadzka 23 (now Prochnika) with Regina Zajac nee Silberberg according to the official Registration book in the official Lodz State Archives

  • February 1937 - His first poem "Aleyen" (Avenues) printed in the Yiddish literary journal "Inzel" (Island)

  • September 1939 - His first book of poetry Yung Grin May (Young Green May) was published in Lodz.

  • September 6 1939 - Ran away from Lodz to reach Warsaw. Behind Radom was caught and sent to Zentrof lager

  • September 12 1939 - Was in Gerlitz. Then train ride 6 days and nights to Krakow without food or water. Pretended to have a toothache and was freed from work. 

  • November 1939 - Visited the poet Mordechai Gebirtig at his home in Krakow, from where he wanted to return to Lodz.

  • December 1939 - On way he stopped in Skarżysko-Kamienna. Saw his parents, his sister Esther and her husband Simkhe and their children visiting from Lodz.

Holocaust

  • May 1940 - Hermetically sealed inside the Lodz ghetto. Resided at Blechgasse 13 (now Towianskiego) Flat No. 12 with Regina Zajac nee Silberberg, a manicurist, according to the official Registration Book of the Lodz State Archives

  • May 1940 - August 1944 - Locked inside the Lodz (Litzmannstadt) Ghetto. Suffered from starvation, cold, searching for food. Worked as a guard at Resort 76 Chemical Waste Conversion for a certain period

  • September 1942 (Simchat Torah) - The residents of Skarżysko-Kamienna were taken from the village and were murdered in Treblinka including Bryks's father Tevye, his mother Serl, his sister Esther and her husband Yehiel with their two small children, Moishele and Ruchele; another sister Tobtche and her husband Yidl and their small child; and a third sister Leah and her husband and small child.

  • June 1944 - Read his ballad Geto Betrieb 76 (Ghetto Factory 76) at the banquet celebrating three years of his Chemical Utilization factory and subsequently his name was placed on the Deportation list

  • June 30 1944 - Bryks's name was included as one of the Group of Yiddish writers from the Writers' Group to be deported. As it appears in the Chronicles of the Lodz Ghetto, June 30, 1944, page 396, due to an appeal from the attorney Henryk Neftalin to Rumkowski, the writers' names including Bryks were removed from the list.

  • 1944 - His brother Yitzhak was murdered in Auschwitz

  • August 29 1944 - deported from Lodz Ghetto on last transport to Auschwitz

  • August 30 - September 1944  - Two weeks in "C" lager in KZ Auschwitz

  • Sept 1944 - March 21 1945 - Zal Vechelde

  • March 1945 - KZ Wattestadt a few weeks (30 km from Braunschweig)

  • March 1945 - April 1945 - KZ Ravensbruck

  • April 1945 - May 2, 1945 - Liberated at KZ Werbelin

Post-War (Pre US Immigration)

  • July 1945 - the Red Cross brings Bryks to Oreryd Lager Hospital in Sweden after a few months in different local hospitals

  • December 21 1945 - Several of Bryks's poems are printed in the Israeli Yiddish periodical "Nayvelt" (New World), Tel Aviv

  • January 1946 - Two of Bryks's poems "Vuhin" (page 9) and "Katzetn" (page 35) are included in Sami Feder's collection "Zamlung fun Katzet un Geto Lider" (A Collection of Poems from Concentration Camps and Ghettoes), Bergen-Belsen

  • November 1946 - His story "Berele in Geto" is published in the Yiddish children's magazine "Kinder Zhurnal" in New York

  • 1946-1949 - Appointed the Correspondent for YIVO NYC via mail correspondence with the Executive Director of the YIVO Max Weinreich

  • January 19-August 15, 1948 - At the urgent request of Max Weinreich, Executive Director of YIVO in New York City, Bryks entered into intense negotiations with Nahum Zonabend. Bryks persuaded Zonabend to forego his request for US$ 10,000 for his collection of Lodz ghetto documents and physically supplied YIVO with what is now the Nachman Zonabend Archive of the Lodz ghetto in YIVO.  Bryks filled envelopes and airmailed them to YIVO

  • July 21 1946 - In his hometown Skarżysko -Kamienna, his 25-year-old brother Simkha Bryks and his fiance Sonia Milstein were gunned down in the street and murdered by Polish Nationalists 3 days before their wedding

  • September 15 1946 - Married Hinda Ettia Wolf from Transylvania in the Great Shule of Stockholm

  • April 14 1947 - First daughter Myriam Serla was born in Stockholm

  • October 1948 - February 1949 - Resided at Jarnvargsgaten 76, in Sundbyberg, Stockholm, Sweden

  • November 2 1948 - Second daughter Bella Svea was born in Stockholm

  • December 1948 - Affidavit to immigrate to the United States of America was granted, sponsored jointly by the YIVO and the HIAS

  • February-March 1949 - Rachmil, Irene, Miriam and Bella Bryks boarded the SS Stockholm immigrating to the United States of America, Arriving on March 23rd 1949 at Pier 57 New York City

“I tried in my book Kiddush Hashem to picture Auschwitz in 70 pages... I didn’t sleep night after night. I was back in Auschwitz.”

— Rachmil Bryks, “My Credo”

Life in the US

  • March 24 1949 - October 1974 -Resident of the Upper West Side of Manhattan, New York City at 73 West 105th Street Apt. 6C, then 860 Columbus Avenue Apt. 13H, then 240 West 102nd Street Apt. 63

  • 1952 - First publication of "Oyf Kiddush Hashem"

  • 1953 - Second edition of "Oyf Kiddush Hashem"

  • 1954 - Third edition of "Oyf Kiddush Hashem"

  • 1956 - Fourth edition of "Oyf Kiddush Hashem"

  • 1956 - Bryks, together with other prominent Yiddish writers including Isaac Bashevis-Singer, refused to be included in the Lexicon of Yiddish Writers published by the World Jewish Congress because monies from Germany were being used in its publication

  • 1959 - First edition in English of "A Cat in the Ghetto", Bloch Publishing Company, 1959

  • 1960-1962 - Bryks worked as a messenger at the Development Corp. for Israel (Israel Bonds). Y.Y. Shwartz, a prominent leader in the Joint arranged the job for Bryks as a Mitzvah since he knew that he had no way to support himself. A co-worker of his in the stockroom was a nephew of Shwartz's who lives in Jerusalem today: Prof. Chaim Waxman. This gave Bryks a sense of security.

  • 1961 - First trip to Israel during the Eichmann trial

  • 1961 - Publication of "Der 'Keyser' in Geto"

  • 1966 - Publication of the Hebrew translation "חתול בגטו" ("A Cat in the Ghetto")

  • 1967 - Publication of the ballad "Geto Fabrik 76" with English translation

  • 1969 - Publication of "Di Papirene Kroyn" (The Paper Crown”)

  • 1970 - Publication of the Hebrew translation "Al Kiddush Hashem" ("Sanctification")

  • October 2 1974 - Rachmil passes away on Chol Hamoed Sukkot, 17th day of Tishrei, in Roosevelt Hospital, New York City after suffering a major stroke

Post Death

  • October 3 1974 - His widow Irene Bryks decides to bring his body for burial in Jerusalem, Israel on the holy Mount of Olives

  • 1977 - Second edition in English of "Kiddush Hashem" including "A Cat in the Ghetto"

  • 1986 - Rachmil Bryks is included in the new edition of the Lexicon of Yiddish Writers, edited by Berl Cahan (page 120-121)

  • 2008 - Third edition in English of "A Cat in the Ghetto" including "Kiddush Hashem"