Shpungin Abram (1921-1995)

Shpungin Abram (Mitya) (1921, Jēkabpils, Latvia–1995, Israel) – public figure, memoirist. In 1939 he graduated from secondary school in Jēkabpils, and took part in the Zionist youth movement “Hashomer Hatzair.” He moved to Riga and enrolled at the Riga Commercial School. The war interrupted his studies and turned his whole life upside down. Sh.A.'s entire family perished in Jēkabpils.

Sh.A. was confined to the Riga ghetto, then to the Kaiserwald concentration camp and a work camp in Dundaga. In June 1944 he escaped from this camp and hid until 8 May 1945 with the help of the Latvian Vanags family. Immediately after the war Sh.A. began working on a book about his experiences, which became the work of his lifetime. In 1991 the book “So It Really Was!” was published in Israel in Yiddish, and in 1994 in Hebrew. It is not only a documentary testimony to the destruction of Riga's Jews, but also a deeply emotional, distinguished literary work.

In Riga Sh.A. worked in the “Soyuzreaktiv” system. In the 1960s he completed the Riga Industrial Polytechnic College, qualifying in “Chemical Technology.” From 1962 to 1969 he worked at the Institute of Organic Synthesis of the Academy of Sciences of the Latvian SSR. In 1971 Sh.A. and his family repatriated to Israel, having endured a difficult struggle for the right to leave the USSR.

In Israel Sh.A. worked for 16 years, until his retirement, at the Weizmann Institute, and enjoyed the well-earned respect of his colleagues; he was deputy chairman of the Association of Émigrés from Latvia and Estonia in Israel.

Sh.A.'s wife, Shelley, née Berzs (1928–2001), was the daughter of the well-known educator and public figure Isaac Berzs. The family of I. Berzs was deported to Siberia in 1941, and Shelley left behind notes of considerable interest on the fate of the Jews deported from Latvia.

Sh.A.'s children – Alexander and Reuven – live in Israel and maintain ties with Latvia and with the Vanags-Zavalnevs family that saved their father. Reuven Shpungin is an active participant in the work of the “Shamir” society.

Works: Shpungin Abraham. So it was indeed! Israel, 1991 (in Yiddish); Shpungin Abraham. So it was indeed! Israel, 1994 (in Hebrew); Shpungin Abraham, The Terrors of Dundaga, in The Unfinished Road. Collected and Edited by Gertrude Schneider. – New York, 1991, pp. 151–166.

Lit.:

Rachel Spungin's Memoirs. – Rehovot, Israel, 2001.