Henryka Łazowertówna
Henryka Łazowertówna | |
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| Born | 19 June 1909 Warsaw, Poland |
| Died | August 1942 (aged 33) Treblinka |
| Pen name | Henryka H. Łaz. |
| Occupation | Poet and writer |
| Period | Interbellum Second World War |
| Genre | Lyric poetry |
| Literary movement | Skamander |
| Notable works | Zamknięty pokój (1930) Imiona świata (1934) |
Henryka Łazowertówna (pronounced ['xɛnˈrɨka waˌzɔvɛrˈtuvna]; in full Henryka Wanda Łazowertówna); also Henryka Lazowert, or incorrectly Lazawert, (19 June 1909 – August 1942) was a Polish lyric poet. While in general deeply personal in nature and of great emotive intensity, her poetry is not devoid of social concerns and patriotic overtones. She is considered one of the eminent Polish authors of Jewish descent.
To the reading public she is known as the author of the poem "Mały szmugler" (The Little Smuggler), written in the Warsaw Ghetto c.1941 and first published posthumously in 1947. The poem deals with the subject of a child struggling single-handedly to keep his family alive in the Ghetto by smuggling provisions from the "Aryan" side at the risk of his own life. A poem begins with the stanza also known from an adaptive translation provided by Richard C. Lukas. It reads as follows:
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The original text of the poem, together with translations in English and in Hebrew, is today inscribed on the Memorial to the Child Victims of the Holocaust (Pomnik Pamięci Dzieci in Warsaw), serving as the epitaph for the million children murdered in the Holocaust.