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They were young and talented and used to write poems. Passionate
and sincere poems. Before the war many of them studied at the Literature Institute,
and were expected to become famous. But then the war began.
The young poets destroyed the myth of the Jews staying in the home
front during the war. Many of them were volunteers at the front and perished
there. Samuil Rosin, Josef Utkin, Michail Troitsky, Yury Inge, Jack Alatauzen,
Michail Gershenzen, Eugenie Bereznitsky, Yury Cherkassky, Leonid Shersher, Aharon
Kopstein, Sergey Spirt, Leonid Rosenberg, Elena Shirman - it is not the
complete list of poets who died in the war.
Two literature clubs in Kostanay JCC were dedicated to them, their
lives and creative works. Guests listened to the story told by the librarian
Alla Gafurova, then read their favourite poems and sang songs. The poets' works
struck by their youthful romantic passion and irreconcilability.
They were patriots who strongly believed in victory over fascists.
They worked in front newspapers, went into battles together with soldiers they
wrote about, and perished during military operations. But they never gave up.
Neither in their lives, nor in their poems.
After the war those who escaped with their life gathered to recollect
about their killed friends and read their poems. Unfortunately many of them
were not published during the authors' lives. For example, talented works of
Pavel Kogan who perished in 24, were printed many years after his death.
They spoke much about Pavel Kogan in the literature club. He was
an interpreter, then an assistant of reconnaissance regiment commander. "I
didn't know that I loved life so much," he used to say. "If
it were necessary, I would get them to send me to the front again."
He died the same year near the town of Novorossiysk.
One can not be indifferent to those who did not come back from the
war. Alla Gafurova's story, poems and letters from the front made the guests
shed a tear. Many of us have fathers, grandfathers, and other relatives who
died in the war or in Ghetto. It is a pity those talented youths are gone -
how many unwritten poems were lost!
"May nobody see their children off to the war. May the memory
of the young poets who didn't come back remain in each soul," Alla
Gafurova finished her story.
Lidiya Kazakevitch
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