Isaac Bitton collection

Document | RG Number: RG-19.011.06

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.

SubTitle: articles, letters, and other materials relating to Jewish refugees, the Jewish community of Lisbon, and the emigration attempts of the sisters of Dr. Maximiliano Azancot
Language: English
Portuguese
German
Extent: 1 folder

Expand all

Document 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]
System of Arrangement: Arrangement is thematic
Topical Term: Emigration and immigration.
Refugees.
Jews--Portugal--Lisbon.
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
Geographic Name: Lisbon (Portugal)
Germany.
Portugal.
Personal Name: Ullman, Amalie Wilhelmine.
Azancot, Maximiliano.
Legal Status: Permanent Collection
Provenance: The materials were collected by Isaac Bitton during the years since the Holocaust.
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.
: Record last modified: 2022-07-28 19:54:51
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn503033

Also in This Collection