Yakub Zalman Iosifovich (01.04.1919, Dvinsk ― 23.03.2009, Daugavpils) ― local historian. He completed 6 grades of a Jewish school, and qualified as a carpenter at a Jewish trade school. In 1940 he began publishing in the Riga newspapers “Kampf” (“Struggle”) and the journal “Ufboy” (“Construction”). On 21 June 1941 the “Latgalskaya Pravda” published his piece “An Evening in Memory of Sholem Aleichem,” signed “Z. Ya-b.” With the start of the war, part of Ya.'s family managed to evacuate, while another part perished in the Daugavpils ghetto. In 1942―45 Ya. was sent to the front. At the start of the war many Jewish soldiers from Latvia did not understand commands in Russian and spoke among themselves in Yiddish, so Ya. translated the commanders' orders for his fellow soldiers. He fought as a mortar gunner in the Latvian Rifle (later 43rd Guards) Division, and participated in the liberation of Latvia. He published notes on the heroic deeds of his fellow soldiers at the front in the divisional newspaper “Latyshsky Strelok.” He was wounded three times, reached Berlin, and received the Order of the Great Patriotic War 1st Degree, the medal “For Bravery,” and other awards.

After the war he worked in the procurement of raw materials. He worked on local history, on the history of Daugavpils, and on the history of Latvian Jews. He published over 600 articles in Russian, Latvian, Hebrew, and Yiddish in journals and newspapers of Moscow, Riga, Daugavpils, Birobidzhan, Warsaw, Tel Aviv, and also the USA and France. Historical and local-history materials on Daugavpils were collected in the book “Daugavpils in the Past” and others. He was co-author of the first three books “Jews in Daugavpils,” and author of the book “The City of Daugavpils: A Chronological Survey 1275―2001,” which presents 1850 dates of significant events from the city's history. He wrote the article “The Education of the Jews of Daugavpils” and the play “The Uprising at Sobibor” (which was not staged). He was the first researcher of the Holocaust in Daugavpils, on which he began collecting materials immediately after the war. In 1989 he published in the only USSR journal in Yiddish, “Sovetish Heymland,” the work “In Those Days: From the History of the Daugavpils Ghetto” (translated into Russian in 1993). He also published cycles of articles on Dinaburg Castle, on Daugavpils in 1812, and on its construction, development, and famous residents. He occasionally published under the pseudonym Bukyansky.

In connection with the 725th anniversary of Daugavpils he was awarded a special honorary badge by the City Council and the title of Honorary Citizen of the City. Ya.'s achievements are mentioned in the Russian Jewish Encyclopedia. In Daugavpils he was known as “the archivist.”

Works: Jews in Dinaburg ― Dvinsk ― Daugavpils Jews in Daugavpils: Collection. Daugavpils, 1993; In Those Days: From the History of the Daugavpils Ghetto Jews in Daugavpils: Collection. Daugavpils, 1993.

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I. Rochko