Born in Lodz in 1914, Zisman began writing poetry and plays at a young age, and was known as a poet in Lodz. In 1943 he was sent to the work camp Hasag-Pelcery in Czestochowa and later to the concentration camp Buchenwald. His poetry written before, during, and after his experiences in the Holocaust maps his experiences in the ghettos and camps, as well as the oppression and hardships experienced after liberation
In 1947, Zisman married Helen (Chaya) Helfgot, who had survived 6 years in the camps (Leipzig-Mansfeld and Skarzysko-Kamienna) from age 12-19. Together, Helen, Dovid, and their first daughter briefly lived in Palestine Israel with Dovid’s sisters. They moved to Toronto in the early 1950s where they had their second daughter. In Toronto, Zisman continued to write poetry, plays, and music, and perform in Yiddish theatre groups, while he work at a fur factory.
His later poetry charts their experiences as Jews in Toronto, finding their place in their community and experiencing the impact of gentrification downtown. Zisman died of cancer in 1960. Several of his poems were archived in the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, but relatively little of his work is published or translated in English.
Dovid Zisman 