Paul Trepman Fonds

Paul Trepman (1916-1987) was born in Warsaw, Poland and received both a traditional and modern education. Starting in his youth he was a strong Zionist supporter and also began to publish. He began studies at the Stefan Batory University in Vilna but his studies were interrupted by the spread of war. Trepman survived the war using false Aryan identity papers. In 1943 he was arrested and accused of being a Soviet Spy. Trepman spent the remainder of the war in various camps before being liberated from Bergen-Belsen in 1945. Trepman was highly involved in the political and cultural spheres of life in the Bergen-Belsen displaced persons camp. He was the founding coeditor of the Unzer Sztyme newspaper and helped to edit two other books - "Anthology of Songs and Poems from the Ghettos and Concentration Camps" by Zamy Feder and "Unzer Churbn in Bild", an album of the Holocaust coedited by Rafael Olewsky and David Rosenthal. Trepman met his wife Bebe, who was involved with the Yiddish theatre in the camp, through a journalist friend and they were married shortly after. In 1948, with the help of Hirsch Wolofsky, editor of the Keneder Adler, Babey and Paul Trepman immigrated to Montreal. Trepman taught at the Jewish People's School for 23 years, was involved with Camp Unzer and Camp Kindervelt, and was Executive Director of the Jewish Public Library between 1971 and 1981. He also helped to established the Montreal chapter of the Bergen-Belsen Survivors' Association, founded in 1961. He was a frequent lecturer and authored numerous articles and books including, "Among Men and Beasts" (1978), "A Traumatic Return to Poland" (1980), and "A Gesl in Varshe" (1949).