Jonas Turkow was born in 1898 in Warsaw

Warsaw

Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...

, Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 and died in 1987 in Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...

, Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

. He was an actor, stage manager, director and writer.

He was the brother of the actor Zygmunt Turkow

Zygmunt Turkow

Zygmunt Turkow was a Polish actor, director, playwright and director of Jewish origin from Warsaw, who became famous for roles in the pre-war Jewish films and stage plays in Yiddish. His brother, Jonas Turkow, was also a noted actor and stage manager.Shortly after German invasion of Poland in 1939...

, the actor and writer Icchak Turkow and the journalist Marek Turkow, and husband of the famous actress Diana Blumenfeld

Diana Blumenfeld

Diana Blumenfeld , folksinger, pianist, actress. Born in Warsaw, Poland. In 1921 she studied piano in the conservatory and thereafter in Khrinivietska's Polish dramatic school. In 1923 she married Jonas Turkow and toured with his company, also with the Kraków Yiddish dramatic theater, and ...

.

In 1916, with his brother Zygmunt, he organized and performed in Dos artistishe vinkele (The artistic corner), then spent some time with David Herman and in the brothers Hernfeld's German comedy theater.. From 1917-1920 he played in Esther-Rukhl Kaminski's troup; in 1921 he organized Dos baveglekhe dramatishe teater touring Poland and Galitsia. Subsequently he toured with Di yunge bine (The young stage). In 1926 he was hired to direct the cultural Yiddish theatre

Yiddish theatre

Yiddish theatre consists of plays written and performed primarily by Jews in Yiddish, the language of the Central European Ashkenazi Jewish community. The range of Yiddish theatre is broad: operetta, musical comedy, and satiric or nostalgic revues; melodrama; naturalist drama; expressionist and...

 in Krakow. He received the first state subsidy given in Poland to any Yiddish theater. During the 1930s he was director for kleynkunst revi-teater in Kaunas

Kaunas

Kaunas is the second-largest city in Lithuania and has historically been a leading centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the biggest city and the center of a powiat in Trakai Voivodeship of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania since 1413. During Russian Empire occupation...

.

He was imprisoned in the Warsaw Ghetto

Warsaw Ghetto

The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest of all Jewish Ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe during World War II. It was established in the Polish capital between October and November 15, 1940, in the territory of General Government of the German-occupied Poland, with over 400,000 Jews from the vicinity...

 during the years 1940-43, and was later a member of the Polish underground AK (National Army). After the war, as a member of the Central Jewish Committee of Poland, he investigated 18 cases of Jewish collaboration with German Gestapo

Gestapo

The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...

. He has lived since 1950 in Israel.

Jonas Turkow performed in the following movies as an actor:

• "Tkies khaf" (1924)
• "Lamedvovnik" (1925)
• "Huragan" (1928)
• "Mlody las" (1934).

Jonas Turkow directed:

• "In die poylishe velder" (1929)

Jonas Turkow wrote:

• Turkow, Jonas. O levante do gueto de Varsovia / Jonas Turkow; tradução, Ayala Ehrlich. – São Paulo: Federação Israelita do Estado de São Paulo, 1975 Mifaley Tarbut ve-Hinukh Tel Awiw 1969 Jonas Turkow
• Jonas Turkow: In Kamf farn Lebn, Buenos Aires, 1949,
• Jonas Turkow: Azoi iz es Geven, Buenos Aires, 1948,
• Jonas Turkow:"Nokh der befrayung – zikhroynes" [Yiddish], Buenos Aires 1959
• Jonas Turkow: "Farloshene shtern" [Yiddish], 1953
• Jonas Turkow: "Teater un Konsertn in die Getos un Konstentratsye Lagern," in Yidisher Teater in Yirope…Poilen. Nowy Jork, (1968). Knight Publishing.
• Jonas Turkow ( Ionas Turkov): C'était ainsi. 1939-1943 la vie dans le ghetto de Varsovie. Paris: Austral, 1995
• Jonas Turkow: "This is How It Was…", published. By the Association of Polish Jews in Argentina, 1948 (529 pages)

External links