AUERBAKH, ROKHL (Rachel; 1903–1976), prolific Yiddish and Polish author, historian, and essayist. Born in Lanovtsy (Galicia), in the prewar period Auerbakh founded and edited the literary journal Tsushtayer in Lemberg (Lvov). In Warsaw from 1933, she published in the central Yiddish and Polish Jewish press on literature, education, psychology, folklore, art, linguistics, and theater. Under German occupation, she was active in the underground archives of the Warsaw ghetto and served in Jewish self-help organizations. In postwar Poland, she worked to document and collect testimonial accounts and materials and was co-founder of the Central Jewish Historical Commission in Lodz. In Israel from 1950, she collected testimony from survivors and published her Holocaust period writings and testimonial memoirs in various forms. She was founder and director of the Department for the Collection of Witness Testimony at *Yad Vashem ; her personal archives are classified as Inventory no. P-16, Yad Vashem. Her publications include Oyf di Felder fun Treblinke (1947); Der Yidisher Oyfshtand: Varshe 1943 (1948); Undzer Kheshbn mitn Daytshn Folk (1952); Behutsot Varsha 1939–1943 (1954); Varshever Tsavoes (1974); Baym Letsten Veg: In Geto Varshe un oyf der Arisher Zayt (1977).

[Carrie Friedman-Cohen (2^nd ed.)]

Source: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2007 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved.

Rokhl Auerbakh