Abel Jacob Herzberg (17 September 1893 â€" 19 May 1989) was a Dutch
Jewish lawyer and writer, whose parents were Russian Jews who had come
to the Netherlands from Lithuania. Herzberg was trained as a lawyer
and began a legal practice in Amsterdam, and became known as a legal
scholar also. He was a Zionist from an early age, and around the time
of the outbreak of World War II he attempted to emigrate with his
family to Palestine. During the war he remained active in Jewish
organizations until he was interned, with his wife, in Bergen-Belsen
concentration camp, where his legal background and status as a legal
scholar (which made him desirable to the Nazis in a possible exchange
for Germans abroad[1]) earned him a seat on a prisoners' court. After
their captors moved them from Bergen-Belsen, he and his wife were
later liberated by the Soviets and made it back to the Netherlands,
where they were reunited also with their children. He continued his
legal practice in Amsterdam, though he traveled to Palestine and was
offered an administrative position in newly-founded Israel.Herzberg
had written a play before the war, and in Bergen-Belsen he began
keeping a diary. After the war he began a career as a writer, his
first publication, Amor fati, being a collection of essays on life in
Bergen-Belsen. In 1950, he published a history of the persecution of
the Jews as well as his diary of the camp; he is one of the earliest
historians of the Holocaust.[2] His published works include historical
texts, journalism, diaries and autobiography, novellas, and
plays.Herzberg was born in Amsterdam into a family of Russian Jews.
His parents migrated from Lithuania, having been part of the exodus of
Eastern European Jews of 1882â€"1914. Herzberg's father, a Zionist who
traded in diamonds, was active in aiding Jewish migrants on their
travels to the United States; the history of the Jews as well as the
contemporaneous diaspora were frequently discussed in the family.
Herzberg's father took the family to the Eighth Congress of the World
Zionist Organization in The Hague, an important moment for young Abel,
who later wrote about the experience of seeing the Zionist flag:
"There, for the first time in my life, I saw a Jewish flag and I knew
we weren't dreaming. All we had to do was wait forty years, forty
bitter years".[2]Herzberg attended public (non-denominational) school
since his parents valued integration, but he experienced hostility
from the other children; upon his introduction, his classmates sang an
antisemitic song and he experienced further prejudice at the Barlaeus
Gymnasium. Religious education was provided by his parents, though he
admitted to being very unobservant when it came to dietary law. His
maternal grandparents were hasidic, and described their mysticism in
Brieven aan mijn kleinzoon. After his final exams he traveled to
Russia where he visited his grandfather. He witnessed first hand the
poverty experienced by the Eastern European Jewry and the virulent
antisemitism with which they lived. He was sensitive to misery, and
subject to bouts of world-weariness; his religiosity, though, became
mostly rationalised and abstract, especially since, contrary to his
childhood expectations, the Messiah had not come: in 1915 he wrote
Victor E. van Vriesland, "God is dead". Still, he had a religious
consciousness, which he expressed ethically and morally.[2]
Jewish lawyer and writer, whose parents were Russian Jews who had come
to the Netherlands from Lithuania. Herzberg was trained as a lawyer
and began a legal practice in Amsterdam, and became known as a legal
scholar also. He was a Zionist from an early age, and around the time
of the outbreak of World War II he attempted to emigrate with his
family to Palestine. During the war he remained active in Jewish
organizations until he was interned, with his wife, in Bergen-Belsen
concentration camp, where his legal background and status as a legal
scholar (which made him desirable to the Nazis in a possible exchange
for Germans abroad[1]) earned him a seat on a prisoners' court. After
their captors moved them from Bergen-Belsen, he and his wife were
later liberated by the Soviets and made it back to the Netherlands,
where they were reunited also with their children. He continued his
legal practice in Amsterdam, though he traveled to Palestine and was
offered an administrative position in newly-founded Israel.Herzberg
had written a play before the war, and in Bergen-Belsen he began
keeping a diary. After the war he began a career as a writer, his
first publication, Amor fati, being a collection of essays on life in
Bergen-Belsen. In 1950, he published a history of the persecution of
the Jews as well as his diary of the camp; he is one of the earliest
historians of the Holocaust.[2] His published works include historical
texts, journalism, diaries and autobiography, novellas, and
plays.Herzberg was born in Amsterdam into a family of Russian Jews.
His parents migrated from Lithuania, having been part of the exodus of
Eastern European Jews of 1882â€"1914. Herzberg's father, a Zionist who
traded in diamonds, was active in aiding Jewish migrants on their
travels to the United States; the history of the Jews as well as the
contemporaneous diaspora were frequently discussed in the family.
Herzberg's father took the family to the Eighth Congress of the World
Zionist Organization in The Hague, an important moment for young Abel,
who later wrote about the experience of seeing the Zionist flag:
"There, for the first time in my life, I saw a Jewish flag and I knew
we weren't dreaming. All we had to do was wait forty years, forty
bitter years".[2]Herzberg attended public (non-denominational) school
since his parents valued integration, but he experienced hostility
from the other children; upon his introduction, his classmates sang an
antisemitic song and he experienced further prejudice at the Barlaeus
Gymnasium. Religious education was provided by his parents, though he
admitted to being very unobservant when it came to dietary law. His
maternal grandparents were hasidic, and described their mysticism in
Brieven aan mijn kleinzoon. After his final exams he traveled to
Russia where he visited his grandfather. He witnessed first hand the
poverty experienced by the Eastern European Jewry and the virulent
antisemitism with which they lived. He was sensitive to misery, and
subject to bouts of world-weariness; his religiosity, though, became
mostly rationalised and abstract, especially since, contrary to his
childhood expectations, the Messiah had not come: in 1915 he wrote
Victor E. van Vriesland, "God is dead". Still, he had a religious
consciousness, which he expressed ethically and morally.[2]
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