Wladyslaw Szlengel became known as the 'Poet of the Ghetto'. Already a popular satiric poet before the War, he consciously took on the roles of keeping up morale among his fellow-condemned and of creating a verse-history of the ghetto. He and his wife were shot by the Nazis on 5 May 1943. To the end he preserved remarkable detachment, a great sense of humour and astute artistic self-criticism.
