Blokh, A.
The poet Rivka Basman recounts: “While I was in the women’s [concentration] camp in Riga, by chance I was able to communicate with a Jewish [Yiddish?] writer from a second camp [probably Kaiserwald] by the name of A. Blokh…. Until this day, I have heard nothing further from him. Our entire communication was expressed in covert letters in the form of poems. In those horrific times, his poem-letters enabled me to breathe with hope, faith, and much consolation. Our literary contact was abruptly cut off, and the unknown author has remained for me until today a sad and warm remembrance.”
Source: From a letter address to us by R. Basman referring to the years 1943-1944.
I assume that she is referring to a poet Andre (Grigorievich?) Blokh who was born in Russia on January 2, 1897. In 1914, he entered the St.-Petersburg Imperial University to study law and emigrated after the Russian Revolution. Served in the French Foreign Legion. It is known that from 1926-1930 he widely published his poetry in Russian periodicals in France and Latvia. After 1930 any trace of his whereabouts has been lost. Source: Словарь поэтов русского Зарубежья. Сост. Крейд Вадим. -- Санкт-Петербург: Изд-во Русского Христианского гуманитарного института, 1999. С.32. (Dictionary of Russian Poets Abroad)
I am currently working on his biography and any additional information will be greatly appreciated.
REPLY FROM LEXICON: Thank you for this great information! As we discussed, it seems that the Yiddish writer referred to here is someone different, a different A. Blokh. You advised me that Andre Blokh wrote in Russian, probably not in Yiddish./ SRY