Hidden Partisan Poems of Holocaust Survivor Mordechai Dunitz Discovered and Restored at Yad Vashem

Despite their poor condition, Yad Vashem restored the papers to a readable state.

By Shula Rosen

Holocaust survivor Mordechai Dunitz’s wartime poems, written while fighting as a Jewish partisan in Belarus forests, have been recovered and preserved after his son, Roni Dunitz, discovered the fragile papers following his father’s death, Ynet reported.

The writings, composed during World War II, were found among deteriorating documents and later restored at Yad Vashem after months of conservation work, allowing the material to be read and archived.

Mordechai Dunitz, born in 1922 in the town of Zhetel, now in Belarus, survived the Holocaust with his sister Pania.

The two escaped the Novogrudok ghetto and joined partisan fighters in the Naliboki Forest.

During this period, Dunitz documented his experiences by writing poetry, using scraps of paper he was able to find.

The poems remained hidden for decades, unknown even to his family, and were only uncovered in 2019 after his death. His son, Roni, said he initially did not understand what he had found.

“I found the pieces of paper and the folder after his death, and I couldn’t understand the context or the story behind them,” Roni Dunitz told Ynet.

He brought the materials to Yad Vashem, where conservation efforts revealed recurring themes and structure within the collection.

Despite their poor condition, the papers were restored to a readable state.

“My father never shared these poems with us, even though he shared many other things through articles and photographs,” his son said.

“Even his sister, who lived to 100, did not know about them. It’s very moving to see these poems being preserved so professionally. Who would have believed these documents would survive like this.”

The collection provides a firsthand account of life among Jewish partisan fighters in Eastern Europe.

According to available information, roughly 20,000 to 30,000 Jewish fighters operated in the region, with some groups, including the Bielski partisans, focusing on rescuing Jews in addition to combat operations.