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Pepi
Urich
(Pearl)
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Born on 3 August 1908 in
Lemberg, Eastern Galicia. Her parents were the Yiddish
actors Shamai and Tsile Urikh.
Pepi completed a
German-Polish school in Krakow.
She began to act in 1927,
together with her parents, in the troupe of Berl Hart.
Later she joined the revue theatre "Azazel," which was
under the leadership of Joseph Strugatch.
In 1928 she married actor
Jacob Mandelblit, and together with him entered into the
"Vilna Troupe" to act in Warsaw, then with Lidia
Pototcka went on tour across the Polish province, later
for a time acting in Lodz's "Ararat" under the
leadership of Moshe Broderzon. From there she was
engaged in Riga's "Meutim Theatre," where she played
with Zygmunt Turkow, Isaac Samberg, Sh. Kutner et al. In
1932 she acted in Warsaw's "Kaminska Theatre," with the
guest-starring Berta Gerstin and Ludwig Satz, then with
other troupes.
Zygmunt Turkow notes that
when he had played in Lemberg, he had met there an
entire range of actors who were new to him, among them Urikh with his wife
'and their] "very pretty daughter Pepi Urikh,
who with time became a good actress and participated,
together with her husband Jacob Mandelblit, during the
last season of "VIKT." And that in 1939, before Turkow
had prepared himself for the "VIKT" season in
Warsaw, organizing his tour across the province with a
dreyferzanendiker play
"Soydes fun der groyser
shtot," adapted by
Yitzhak Turkow, with the |
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participation of Zygmunt Turkow,
Jacob Mandelblit and his beautiful, talented wife Pepi
Urikh."
Jonas Turkow portrays her
last tragic period:
"In the year 1938 Jacob
Mandelblit and Pepi Urikh received a contract for
America and to herewith travel there. However, they did
not receive the American visa, and so they had to remain
in Poland. Pepi Urikh was very much a fine actress. She
acted in the dramas and operettas. She was very
beautiful, had a bright face and possessed a swag with
grace and femininity. She captured affects on the stage,
just as in life. In the year 1938 Pepi Urikh and Jacob
Mandeblit became engaged through Zygmunt Turkow in his "VIKT"
benefit. Pepi Urikh especially excelled in Goldfaden's "Shulamis"
in the role of "Abigail."
When the war broke out,
Jacob Mandeblit and Pepi Urikh fled from Warsaw and
killed in Lemberg. (They were supposed to open, with the
permission of the German might, a Yiddish revue, but at
the last minute the Germans sent their regrets and took
back their permission). Pepi's husband was away working
as a painter in Yanover Forest, in order to be included
in the category of inutslekhe Jews, and after
work he used to return to the ghetto with the workers. (Pepi
was with child, who was desired together with her
parents, the actors Shemai and Tsile Urikh, who had a
paper from the German might, that she was released from
work, on the basis of her husband's 'oysveyzn,'
having had already no "right to life." When the great
August "action" broke out in Lemberg in the year of
1942, she kept herself in a cellar, behind coals.) Pepi
Urikh with child remained in the home. When the Germans
had filled the designated contingent of four hundred
Jews, they were not counted with the outgoing "aroysveyzn"
and took every available Jew. Thus Pepi Urikh was taken
together with child and was sent away to the Belzac
death camp. After the "action", when the old
Urikhs came
out of their hiding spots, they no longer found at home
their daughter and grandchild...."
Sh. E.
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Jonas Turkow --
"Extinguished Stars," Buenos Aires, 1953, Vol. 2, pp. 80-88.
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Zygmunt Turkow --
"Di ibergerisene skufh," Buenos Aires, 1961, pp.
131, 447.
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