# Herman Kruk

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{{Infobox writer
| name        = Herman Kruk
| image       = Herman Kruk low res.tif
| imagesize   = 
| caption     = 
| birth_name  = 
| birth_date  = {{birth date|1897|05|19|df=y}}<ref>Herman Kruk. ''Tagebukh fun Vilner Ghetto''. YIVO, 1961. p. 8.</ref>
| birth_place =[Płock](/source/P%C5%82ock), [Poland](/source/Poland)<ref name=Kassow>{{cite web|last=Kassow|first=Samuel D.|title=Vilna Stories|url=http://www.eilatgordinlevitan.com/vilna/vilna_pages/vilna_stories_kruk.html|accessdate=31 December 2012}}</ref> 
| death_date  = {{death date and age|1944|09|18|1897|05|19|df=y}}<ref name=Friedlander/>
| death_place = KZ [Lagedi](/source/Lagedi), [Estonia](/source/Estonia)<ref name=Friedlander/>
| nationality =
| notableworks = The Last Days of the Jerusalem of Lithuania: Chronicles from the Vilna Ghetto and the Camps 1939-1944<ref name=Kassow/>
| signature = 
}}
{{The Holocaust sidebar}}

'''Herman Kruk''' ({{langx|yi|הערשל קרוק}}) (19 May 1897-18 September 1944) was a Polish-Jewish librarian and [Bundist](/source/Bundism) activist who kept a diary recording his experiences in the [Vilna Ghetto](/source/Vilna_Ghetto) during [World War II](/source/World_War_II).<ref name="kuznitz">{{cite news|url=http://www.forward.com/articles/7576/|title= Chronicling Life and Death in the Ghetto of the Jerusalem of Lithuania|last=Kuznitz|first=Cecile E.|date=2003-06-27|work=[The Forward](/source/The_Forward)|accessdate=2009-11-08}}</ref>

==Life==
Kruk fled Warsaw and relocated to [Vilna](/source/Vilna) at the outbreak of the [Invasion of Poland](/source/Invasion_of_Poland).<ref name=Yivo>{{cite web|title=The Last Days of the Jerusalem of Lithuania: Artifacts of the Vilna Ghetto |url=http://www.yivoinstitute.org/digital_exhibitions/index.php?mcid=73&oid=10 |publisher=[YIVO Institute for Jewish Research](/source/YIVO_Institute_for_Jewish_Research) |accessdate=31 December 2012 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120805222831/http://www.yivoinstitute.org/digital_exhibitions/index.php?mcid=73&oid=10 |archivedate=5 August 2012 }}</ref> While confined to the Vilna Ghetto, he organized and oversaw the creation and operation of a library in the Ghetto.<ref name=Yivo/> He also played an active role in several of the ghetto's social welfare and cultural organizations.<ref name=Yivo/>

Kruk continued chronicling his experiences after he was transferred to the [Klooga concentration camp](/source/Klooga_concentration_camp).<ref name=Friedlander/>  The last entry was made on September 17, 1944, when he buried his diaries inside the camp at KZ [Lagedi](/source/Lagedi) in [Estonia](/source/Estonia). The following day, he and almost all the other prisoners were forced to carry logs to a pile, spread them in a layer, lie down naked on them so they could be executed and burned in a massive pyre.<ref name=Friedlander/> The [Red Army](/source/Red_Army) arrived the following day to find the aftermath.<ref name=Friedlander>{{cite book|last=Friedländer|first=Saul|authorlink=Saul Friedländer|title=Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1933-1945: Abridged Edition|year=2009|publisher=[HarperCollins](/source/HarperCollins)|location=[New York](/source/New_York_City)|isbn=9780061350276|pages=409–410|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EY2npqn0J8UC&q=Lagedi%20nazi%20camp&pg=PA409}}</ref>

His diary was published posthumously in 1961 by [YIVO](/source/YIVO) in original Yiddish ({{langx|yi|טאָגבוך פֿון ווילנער געטאָ}}). An expanded English translation, ''The Last Days of the Jerusalem of Lithuania: Chronicles from the Vilna Ghetto and the Camps 1939-1944'', was published in 2002 ({{ISBN|0300044941}}).

He is one of the main characters in [Joshua Sobol](/source/Joshua_Sobol)'s play ''[Ghetto](/source/Ghetto_(play))''.

==See also==
* [List of Holocaust diarists](/source/List_of_Holocaust_diarists)
* [List of diarists](/source/List_of_diarists)
* [List of posthumous publications of Holocaust victims](/source/List_of_posthumous_publications_of_Holocaust_victims)
*[The Holocaust in Estonia](/source/The_Holocaust_in_Estonia)

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kruk, Herman}}
Category:1944 deaths
Category:1897 births
Category:People from Płock
Category:Polish Jews who died in the Holocaust
Category:Jewish Polish writers
Category:Vilna Ghetto inmates
Category:Polish people executed in Nazi concentration camps
Category:Executed people from Masovian Voivodeship
Category:Holocaust diarists
Category:20th-century Polish diarists
Category:People who died in Vaivara concentration camp
Category:People executed by Nazi Germany occupation forces

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Herman Kruk](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Kruk) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Kruk?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.