Yehiel Dinur

Yehiel Dinur (or De-Nur, 1909-2001), known as Ka-Tzetnik, was born Yehiel Feiner in Sosnowiec, Poland. He studied in a yeshiva in Lublin and published his first book, a collection of Yiddish poetry, in 1931. His novels, which he published in Hebrew under the pen name Ka-Tzetnik, were inspired by his time as a prisoner in the Auschwitz concentration camp during the Holocaust. Ka-Tzetnik 135633 (Konzetrazionslager or KZ) was born in Auschwitz, in 1943. The kappo that burned the number 135633 on his left arm told him: Here you are born, this number is your name from now on. In February, 1945 Ka-Tzetnik survived the Auschwitz Death March. When a Red Army soldier asked him for his name, Ka-Tzetnik answered: My name was burned with everybody else at the crematoria in Auschwitz. He wandered through the ruins of Europe on his way to pre-state Israel. He arrived in Italy and was hospitalized by Jewish soldiers from the British Brigade. Feeling that he was going to die he asked for pen and paper “to keep my promise.” After a few days the refugee gave the written pages to the brigade soldier. When asked about the author’s name, he insisted it was Ka-Tzetnik, and so it was. Dinur revealed his identity in 1961, when he testified in Jerusalem in the Eichmann Trial.