Jakob Altaras papers

Jakob Altaras (1918-2001) was born in Split, Croatia and was the youngest of six sons of Leon Altaras. His medical studies in Zagreb were interrupted by the war, and he joined the Partisan resistance movement in Croatia. He saved Torah portions and other sacred objects from the Split Synagogue when it was set on fire; he smuggled a group of 33 Jewish children from Croatia to safety in Villa Emma near Modena, Italy; he illegally entered the Rab (Arbe) concentration camp to smuggled out photographs which were later used by the Commission for War Crimes in Yugoslavia; and he served as a surgeon in hospitals for Jewish partisans in Bari, Italy. After the war, he completed his medical studies and practiced and taught medicine in Zagreb. Altaras was politically persecuted and forced to leave Croatia in 1964 when he began investigating the 1945 death of his brother Silvio Altaras at the hands of the communist regime of Yugoslavia. He worked in Zurich, Switzerland for two years before settling in Giessen, Germany, where he served as the president of the Jewish Community of Giessen.