Overview
- Description
- Contains 12 gelatin silver copyprints of Jewish refugees in Lisbon, Portugal, from 1939 to 1944. Descriptions by Isaac Bitton [donor] are provided on the reverse side of each photograph.
- Subtitle
- photographs of Jewish refugees in Lisbon, Portugal
- Date
-
inclusive:
1939-1944
- Collection Creator
- Isaac Bitton
- Biography
-
Isaac Bitton was born on March 31, 1926 to Isaac and Simy (Shocrun) in Lisbon, Portugal. In 1943 or 1944, he and his brother, Joseph, immigrated to Palestine where he joined the ranks of the Palestine Police Railroad Division followed by the Jewish Brigade of the British Army where he served in Belgium. At the end of the war, Bitton returned to Palestine where he worked as an undercover agent for the Haganah before joining the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) from 1947 to 1951 as a Sergeant Major. He rejoined the army in 1956 during the Suez Crisis. In 1959, he immigrated to the United States, with his wife, Miriam, and three children, Tamar, Daniel, and Michael, eventually settling down in Woodstock, Illinois. Here he became a successful executive and business community leader. He died on July 14, 2006.
As a young man, Isaac worked in the Lisbon “soup kitchen” to feed the Jewish refugees prior to WWII. While there, he met the disgraced Portuguese diplomat Aristides de Sousa Mendes. Mendes had been dismissed from his post in Bordeaux, France for disobeying orders by granting visas to thousands of Jews fleeing Nazi oppression. Bitton was active in getting "Righteous Among the Nations" recognition for Mendes.
[from Finding Aid of Isaac Bitton Papers at the American Sephardi Federation at the Center for Jewish History]
Physical Details
- Genre/Form
- Photographs.
- Extent
-
1 folder
- System of Arrangement
- Arrangement is thematic
Rights & Restrictions
- Conditions on Access
- There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
- Conditions on Use
- The Museum is in the process of determining the possible use restrictions that may apply to material(s) in this collection.
Keywords & Subjects
- Topical Term
- Jews--Portugal. Refugees. Emigration and immigration. Jews--Italy. Jews--Social life and customs. Children. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
- Geographic Name
- Lisbon (Portugal)
- Corporate Name
- American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
Administrative Notes
- Holder of Originals
-
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- The materials were collected by Isaac Bitton during the years since the Holocaust. They were donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1990.
- Record last modified:
- 2023-08-24 13:46:46
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn503023
Download & Licensing
- Copyright Not Evaluated
- Terms of Use
- This record is not digitized and cannot be downloaded online.
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-
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Contact Us
Also in Isaac Bitton collection
Consist of materials concerning the situation of Portuguese Jews during and after the Holocaust. Among the topics covered are emigration to Palestine, the story of Aristides de Sousa Mendes, and the Nahariya memorial to Jewish refugees. Some of these materials may be combined into a single collection in the future.
Isaac Bitton collection
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Contains six gelatin silver copyprints of Libyan and Tunisian Jews who were exchanged for German POWs in 1944. The photos depict the refugees in preparation for the emigration from Lisbon, Portugal, to Palestine in October 1944.
Isaac Bitton collection
Document
Contains twelve gelatin silver copyprints of Jewish refugees upon arrival in Lisbon, Portugal, and of Jewish refugees at the time of their departure from Lisbon to various destinations.
Isaac Bitton collection
Document
Contains information about Aristides de Sousa Mendes and his activities as a Righteous Among Nations during the Holocaust.
Isaac Bitton collection
Document
Contains: Translation (by Isaac Bitton) of a news article which appeared in the 24 January 1944 issue of "Diario de Noticias" in Lisbon concerning the story of the "Nyassa"; draft account by Isaac Bitton, entitled "Comunidade Israelita de Lisboa"; copy of a letter addressed to Sr. Antonia De Oliveira Salazar, Prime Minister of Portugal from Dr. Maximiliano Azancot (1939); photostat of a document issued by the United States Embassy in Stuttgart, Germany, in Mar 1940, addressed to Amalie Wilhelmine Ullman (sister of Dr. Maximiliano Azancot), advising her of her number on the waiting list for emigration to the United States. She and her two sisters perished in the concentration camps.
Isaac Bitton collection
Document
Contains information about the memorial to Jewish refugees at Nahariya, Israel, and the illegal immigration of Jews aboard the "Aliya" at Nahariya in 1943. The photographs depict scenes of the wreck of the "Aliya" in 1943 and the memorial erected near the wreck site circa 1985 by Hamy Gal.
