Yosef Ḳerler

Born in Haysin (Gaisin, Ukraine), at seven his family moved to a Jewish kolkhoz (Mayfeld, Crimea). He studied at a technical school in Odessa (1934-7), began to study Yiddish literature, debuted with a poem in the "Odeser Arbeter "(1935), and studied at the Yiddish Drama School of the Moscow State Yiddish Theater (GOSET, 1937-41). At the outbreak of WWII he enlisted in the Red Army and was wounded three times. His war poems constituted his first book, "Far Mayn Erd" …