Halina Birenbaum
Halina Birenbaum (Hebrew: הלינה בירנבאום; nee Grynsztajn, born 15 September 1929) is a Polish-born Israeli Holocaust survivor, writer, poet, translator and activist.
Halina Birenbaum
Mariusz Kubik · CC BY 4.0
- Name
- Halina Birenbaum הלינה בירנבאום
- Birth Name
- Halina Grynsztajn
- Born
- 15 September 1929
- Birthplace
- Warsaw, Poland
- Field
- writing, poetry
- Awards
- Officer of Polonia Restituta
- Spouse
- Chaim Birenbaum
- Nationality
- Israel and Poland.
- Occupation
- writer, translator and poet.
- Fields
- poetry.
- Known for
- Hope is the Last to Die.
- Honours
- Badge Well-deserved for Warsaw and Officer of the Order of Polonia Restituta.
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Halina Birenbaum (Hebrew: הלינה בירנבאום; nee Grynsztajn, born 15 September 1929) is a Polish-born Israeli Holocaust survivor, writer, poet, translator and activist.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Note VALÉORINE
Halina Birenbaum (born 1929) is a poet, translator and writer, of Israeli and Polish nationality. The poet was born in Warsaw.
Halina Birenbaum is a member of Stowarzyszenie Pisarzy Polskich. Activity centred on poetry.
Languages used include Polish. Honours include Officer of the Order of Polonia Restituta.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 26 September 2026
VALÉORINE
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Halina Birenbaum. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Evidence Panel
not yet certified
- Identity
- resolved
- Independent source families
- 0
- Admitted assertions
- 0
- Open conflicts
- 0
Authority files
wikidata · Q325714 · wikipedia · Halina Birenbaum
In this article
Biography
Biography
The recorded working language is Polish. The field of work recorded is poetry. Works named in the authority record are Hope is the Last to Die. Distinctions recorded are Badge "Well-deserved for Warsaw" and Officer of the Order of Polonia Restituta.
Halina Birenbaum (Hebrew: הלינה בירנבאום; born Warsaw, 15 September 1929) is a Holocaust survivor, writer, poet, translator and activist.
Mariusz Kubik
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Halina Birenbaum הלינה בירנבאום • Birth Name — Halina Grynsztajn • Born — 15 September 1929 • Birthplace — Warsaw, Poland • Field — writing, poetry • Works — Hope is the last to die (Nadzieja umiera ostatnia) • Awards — Officer of Polonia Restituta • Spouse — Chaim Birenbaum • Children — 2
Life
Life
Born in Warsaw, to Jakub Grynsztajn and Pola formerly Perl, née Kijewska, she was the youngest of three and the only daughter. After the occupation of Poland by Germany, the family's home was in area that was part of the Warsaw Ghetto. After its destruction in July 1943 they were briefly transferred to Majdanek, then on to Auschwitz. She survived forced evacuation of the camp, the Death March of January 1945, from Auschwitz to Wodzisław Śląski, from which she was transported to Ravensbrück and in February on to Neustadt-Glewe, from where she was liberated by the Red Army in May 1945. Her mother was murdered in Majdanek while her father and brothers were murdered in the Treblinka extermination camp. In 1947, due to antisemitism, she emigrated to Israel, where she married Chaim Birenbaum and had two sons. Until the end of 1950 she worked on a kibbutz. She spends much of her time talking about her early experiences with Israeli, Polish and German youth.
Writing
Writing
Life and death during the German occupation of Poland and the martyrdom of Polish Jewry in ghettos and extermination camps are the salient themes of her prose and poetic output. Her works, which are partly written in Polish and partly in Hebrew, have been translated into many languages, including, English French, German, Japanese and Spanish.
Poems
Poems
• Even when I laugh (Nawet gdy się śmieję) • Not about flowers (Nie o Kwiatach) • Words cannot convey (Jak można w słowach)
Origins
Origins
Halina Birenbaum was born on 15 September 1929 in Warsaw. Birenbaum held the nationality of Israel and Poland.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 1 entries
1929
Halina Birenbaum was born on 15 September 1929.
Books
Books
• Hope is the last to die (Nadzieja umiera ostatnia), 1967. Translated into English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, and Hebrew • Return to ancestors' land (Powrót do ziemi praojców), 1991 • Scream for remembrance (Wołanie o pamięć), 1999 • Far and near echoes. Meetings with young people(Echa dalekie i bliskie. Spotkania z młodzieżą), 2001 • Life is dear to everyone (Życie każdemu drogie), 2005 • My life began from the end. Collected Poems Of A Holocaust Survivor. (Moje życie zaczęło się od końca. Wiersze Zebrane Poetki Ocalałej Z Zagłady), 2010 • They still ask (Wciąż pytają) 2011 • I am looking for life in the dead, Interview with Halina Birenbaum (Szukam życia u umarłych, Wywiad z Haliną Birenbaum), 2013 • It's not the rain, it's people (To nie deszcz, to ludzie. Halina Birenbaum w rozmowie z Moniką Tutak-Goll, Wydawnictwo Agora, Warszawa 2019), 2019 • From history of my life after The Shoah. Memories. (Z historii mojego życia po Zagładzie. Wspomnienia. Wydawnictwo Anna Maria Mickiewicz Literary Waves Publishing, London 2022), 2022
Books and published writings
Catalogued output
Books and published writings
These are catalogued publications carrying the name — editions and printings, distinct from the works they contain and from writing about the subject. The 1990s are the densest part of the run, with 9 titles, and that concentration is a fact about what the registers have catalogued rather than a judgement on the work itself.
19 editions carry dates between 1983 and 2017
The run opens with ha-Ḥayim ke-tiḳṿah and closes with Wspomnienia z Auschwitz
The entries follow Open Library. Ha-Ḥayim ke-tiḳṿah
1983
Nigun penimi
1985
Nawet gdy się śmieję
1990
Shirim li-fene umi-tokh ha-mabul
1990
Powrót do ziemi praojców
1991
Nie o kwiatach
1993
Jetzt wohin?
1993
Nadzieja umiera ostatnia
Wyprawa w przeszłość
1996
Każdy odzyskany dzień
1998
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- “Halina Birenbaum”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
institutional register
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q325714: Halina Birenbaum
Unverified · Wikimedia Foundation
Awards
Awards
• In 1999 the Polish President, Aleksander Kwaśniewski awarded her the Order of Officer of Polonia Restituta • In March 2001 she was named Person of Reconciliation 2001 by the Polish Council of Christians and Jews. • In 2015 she was recognized for her services to Warsaw, Zasłużony dla Warszawy. • In 2018 she was granted the "Freedom of the City of Warsaw", Honorowi Obywatele miasta stołecznego Warszawy.
Honours and awards
Where the work is held
Honours and awards
Badge "Well-deserved for Warsaw".
2 honours stand against the name
Officer of the Order of Polonia Restituta
Authority records
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Halina Birenbaum: Ma jeunesse et le siècle de l'Holocauste, accessed 23 January 2017.
- 2.P. Cywiński, Marsz Śmierci w pamięci ewakuowanych więźniów Auschwitz, Oświęcim 2016, p. 41. in Polish
- 3.Na dnie piekła. Z Haliną Birenbaum, polsko-izraelską pisarką, poetką rozmawia Monika Tutak-Goll. Wysokie Obcasy (Dodatek do Gazety Wyborczej). 8. 21 April 2018.
- 4.P. Cywiński, Marsz Śmierci w pamięci ewakuowanych więźniów Auschwitz, Oświęcim 2016, p. 41.
- 5.Halina Birenbaum: Das Leben als Hoffnung, accessed 23 January 2017.
- 6.onet.pl. Halina Birenbaum wyróżniona tytułem "Zasłużony dla Warszawy". 13 October 2015.
- 7.Biuletyn Informacji Publicznej m.st. Warszawy. Uchwała nr LXII/1663/2018 z 01-03-2018 w sprawie nadania Honorowego Obywatelstwa Miasta Stołecznego Warszawy. 2018-03-01.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Partially resolvedinstitutional register
Wikidata, structured authority record Q325714: Halina BirenbaumWikimedia Foundation
Unverified
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Books
38,960 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Halil Rifat PashaAuthor
- Halima BashirAuthor
- Halima XudoyberdiyevaAuthor
- Halina AuderskaAuthor
- Halina KonopackaAuthor
- Halina PoświatowskaAuthor
- Halina ReijnAuthor
- Halit ShamataAuthor
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Halina Birenbaum?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.