Shushan Ha-Bira by Itzhak Katzenelson

שׁוּשַׁן הַבִּירָה / יצחק קצנלסון

Itzhak Katzenelson (born 1 July 1886 in Karelichy near Minsk, Russia) was a Polish Jewish dedicated educator, dramatist, and revered poet who wrote in Yiddish and Hebrew.

As part of his work, Katzenelson published a whole series of books for children, illustrated by German illustrators. Two of Katzenelson's books were illustrated by the well-known German-Austrian illustrator Ernst Kutzer (1880-1965). Kutzer liked to create happy and playful characters, which was an innovation in Hebrew children's books.

Hebrew Illustrations the Illustrated Hebrew Children Book 1900-1925, Ayala Gordon, Tel Aviv: Nahum Gutman Museum of Art, 2005

The above section, "Shushan Ha-Bira", by Katzenelson and Kutzer, is taken from the book "Fresh little ones, a book of nice drawings and rhymes for all children", published by Levine-Epstein, Warsaw, 1920.

Following the German invasion of Poland in 1939, Katzenelson and his family fled to Warsaw, where they got trapped in the Ghetto. There he ran an underground school for Jewish children. Later, Katzenelson participated in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

During World War II, Ernst Kutzer, Katzenelson's partner in creation, drew textbooks and readings that reflected the Nazi ideology.

In late April 1944, Itzhak Katzenelson and his son Zvi were sent on a transport to the Auschwitz concentration camp, where they were murdered on 1 May 1944.

Itzhak Katzenelson was 57 years old when he died.