Israel Bakon was born in a Hasidic family in 1910 in the town
of Hrzhanov 25 km
from Cracow and 15 km from Auschwitz (Austro-Hungarian Empire, now Poland). His
father, Hersh Leib Bakon was a hereditary cantor, and even his name is an
acronym for the phrase "Bnei Kadosh Venitbahim / Sons of the saints and
martyrs." After gaining independence in its territory, a wave of pogroms against the Jews accured in Poland. To save the family Hirsch Leib Bakon first moved to London and then to Berlin, where in 1919 he received the post of cantor of the synagogue on the street Grenadiers 37 (currently ul Almshtadt) in the area Sheynenfirtel where in eastern Europe have moved many of the Hasidim. Israel studied in the yeshiva of Rabbi Halberstama and assisted his father. However, the fall of 1923 the Bakon family returned back in Hrzhanov. The younger brother of Israel, Isaac, believed that his father had taken such a step, so that his children "were Jews," and not succumb to the temptations of Berlin.
In Poland, Israel Bakon continued his studies of Jewish liturgy from his father, and then from other reputable specialists in Poland.
In 1931, Israel Bakon left Poland. First, spent some time in Kosice (Czechoslovakia, now Slovakia), then moved to Berlin, where he quickly became a popular performer of Jewish songs. Bakon gave concerts in Antwerp, London, Hamburg and other European cities. In 1935, Bakon met with Hirsch Levin, owner of record company «Zemer / Song", whose shop was in Berlin on the street Grenadiers 28. In February 1936 Levin produced the first record Yisrael Bakon.
In 1939, Bakon was able to flee from Berlin to Poland, in the Galician shtetl Kolbuszowa. After the seizure of Poland, in 1941, Bakon was deported to the ghetto of the city Tarnow. In early 1943, Israel Bakon, his wife and their son were killed in a concentration camp Belzec (Poland).
Google translation from
http://yiddishmusic.jewniverse.info/bakonisrael/index.html