Dan Pagis (1930-1986) was born in Bukovina, in a community today included in Rumania. As a young child before World War II he was separated from his mother who died young and his father who left Europe for mandatory Palestine in the nineteenthirties. Pagis who was raised by his maternal grandparents, was imprisoned in1944 in a concentration camp in Ukraine from where he escaped and lived on the run until the end of the war. He came as a survivor and a refugee to Palestine in 1946. Pagis’ poetry echoes his biography as well as in subtle ways also his academic work as a prominent scholar of medieval and baroque Hebrew poetry, especially in Spain (Andalusia and beyond) and in Italy. His poems are often characterized by a deep irony towards life, humans and fate and his restrained almost enigmatic style seldom allows for an explicit outpour of strong emotions, exerting a powerful effect for the readers. A short poem titled “Written in Pencil in the Sealed Railway Car,” memorializes the victims on site at the Death Camp Belzec in Poland. Pagis published six volumes of poetry, another one was published posthumously as was a volume of his collected poetry. His poetry was translated into English, German, Spanish and Swedish. He also published an immensely popular children’s book and several works of scholarship.