Newerly, Igor

(pseudonym of I. Abramov). Born Mar. 24, 1903, in Bialowieza. Polish writer.

Newerly grew up in Russia and studied at the law faculty of the University of Kiev from 1921 to 1923. In 1926, he began working for J. Korczak, who is the subject of his novella Living Ties (1966). From 1943 to 1945 he was a prisoner at Majdanek, Oświęcim, and other concentration camps.

Newerly’s first book—the novella A Lad From the Sal Steppes (1947; Russian translation, 1958)—portrays the heroism of Soviet people in the Nazi death camps. His most famous novel is Under the Phrygian Star (1952; State Prize of the Polish People’s Republic, 1952; Russian translation, 1955), the story of the intellectual and moral growth of a young revolutionary. Among his other better-known works are the novella The Archipelago of Returned People (1950; State Prize of the Polish People’s Republic, 1950) and his novel Forest Sea (1960; Russian translation, 1963).