McGill Library
McLennan Library Building3459 rue McTavish
Montreal, Quebec
H3A 0C9
Identity area
Type of entity
Person
Authorized form of name
Rogel, Joseph, 1911-1989
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
1911-1989
History
Joseph (Josef or Ywsep) Rogel was born on August 8, 1911, in Tarnów, Poland.
He was a Jewish Canadian poet, lyricist, and translator. In January 1941, an SS patrol caught him on the streets of Tarnów and sent him to a labour camp in Auschwitz. This experience dominates the theme of his work. He published several collections of poems in English and Yiddish, e.g., "Oyshṿits: lider" (1951), "Confessions of an Auschwitz number: (A-18260)" (1972), "Poems for My Mother" (1975) and "Soliloquy of a shadow: poems" (1979). His poem appears in Gershon Kingsley's “Voices from the Shadow / Jazz Psalms / Shabbat for Today” (2005), a musical setting of poetry written by concentration camp prisoners.
He was married to Clara (Klara, Connie, Konny) Schachter (1911-2002). He died on July 26, 1989, in Montreal, Quebec.