Adolf Berman

Adolf Avraham Berman (Hebrew: אדולף אברהם ברמן‎‎, 17 October 1906 – 3 February 1978) was a Polish-Israeli activist and communist politician.

Not to be confused with Adolf Behrman.
Adolf Berman
Date of birth(1906-10-17)17 October 1906
Place of birthWarsaw, Congress Poland, Russian Empire
Year of aliyah1950
Date of death3 February 1978(1978-02-03) (aged 71)
Place of deathTel Aviv, Israel
Knessets2
Faction represented in Knesset
1951–1952Mapam
1952–1954Left Faction
1954–1955Maki

Biography

Born in Warsaw in the Russian Empire (today in Poland), Berman attended the University of Warsaw, where he earned a PhD in psychology.[1] Whilst a student, he joined Poale Zion Left and edited its two newspapers (one in Polish and one in Yiddish).

During World War II he was one of the leaders of the Jewish underground in the Warsaw Ghetto, and a member of the presidium of the Underground National Committee. He also served as general secretary of Żegota, the Polish underground Council for Jewish Aid whose aim was to rescue Jews from the Holocaust, and CENTOS, a children's aid society in the Warsaw ghetto.[2]

After the war ended, he became a representative of the communist-dominated Sejm, and in 1947 became chairman of the Central Committee of Polish Jews. Berman was removed from this position in April 1949 because he was a Zionist.[3]

In 1950, he immigrated to Israel, where he joined Mapam (United Workers Party). Berman was elected to the Second Knesset on the party's list in the 1951 elections, but on 20 February 1952 left the party and formed the Left Faction together with Rostam Bastuni and Moshe Sneh.[4] On 1 November 1954 Berman joined the Communist Party of Israel (Maki), and became a member of its Central Committee.[3] He lost his Knesset seat in the 1955 elections.

In 1961, Berman testified at Adolf Eichmann's trial in Israel. He served as chairman of the Israel's Organization of Anti-Nazi Fighters, and a member of the presidium of the World Organization of Jewish Partisans and former Nazi Prisoners. Berman died in 1978 at the age of 71. His older brother, Jakub Berman – was a leading Stalinist politician in post-war Poland.[5]

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References
  1. Israel Gutman, Adolf Berman, Encyclopedia of the Holocaust v.1, p.202
  2. Avraham Berman: Public Activities Knesset website
  3. Aleksiun, Natalia (2010), Berman, Adolf Abraham, New York: YIVO, retrieved 30 December 2010
  4. Mergers and Splits Among Parliamentary Groups Knesset website
  5. Jakub Berman’s Papers Received at the Hoover Institution Archives, Board of Trustees of Leland Stanford Junior University Library and Archives Recent Acquisitions: Stanford University Hoover Institution, August 11, 2008, archived from the original on 30 November 2010, retrieved 30 December 2010
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