Abraham Plotkin (1892–1988)

(eng) Abraham Plotkin was born to a Jewish family in Ukraine. Around 1900, the family emigrated to the USA, living first in Philadelphia before settling in New York City. Plotkin attended public school until the age of 15, but then had to go to work to help support the family. He was employed in a small sweatshop and held a series of odd jobs while attending night classes, though he did not obtain a degree. He grew interested in socialism, labor, and trade unions. As a young man, he joined the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) as an organizer and became a prominent figure in the organization. From November 1932 to May 1933, he was stationed in Berlin, Germany as the ILGWU representative, and witnessed firsthand the end of the Weimar Republic and the rise of the Nazi regime to power. He kept a diary that focused on the German working class, the labor movement, and the plight of German Jews. He recorded the analyses of German Social-Democratic leaders alongside his own at a time when the outcome of events was not a foregone conclusion. The diary was published in 2008 as An American in Hitler's Berlin: Abraham Plotkin's Diary, 1932-33.