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Haiti History: During the Holocaust Haiti Issued Passports To Jewish Families to Leave Germany
February 19, 2016
7 Comments
25,331 Views

Pictures Courtesy of Wiki

I bet you didnt know that during the Holocaust, Haiti issued out passports (sold them) to Jewish families so that they
could leave Germany?

As much as I love posting about the beauty of Haiti, my second favorite thing to do is read about our History and how
instrumental we were in helping so many people and different countries. The sad thing is most people dont know about it
so we dont talk about it and I dont think Ive ever seen most of the information in history books.

Thanks to my Haitian sister site Kreyolicious, we can read, comment and share these important historical facts with the
world.

According to an article titled Haiti History 101: Haitis Role in Saving Jewish Families During the Holocaust

Most people, arent aware of it, and even today only a handful of historians may know this, but Haiti was indeed
responsible for saving about 70 Jewish families (an estimated total of up to 300 lives) during the horrendous Holocaust
that occurred in the 1930s, in which Jewish families were hunted down in Europe and placed in concentration camps,
some starved to death. Some were Austrian Jews, others were Polish Jews, still others German Jews, and a trickle of
Romanian-Jew and Czech-Jewish descent.

300 livesThat number is certainly not as high as the number of Jewish families that Schindler helped saved, but a
human life is a human life.

According to documents furnished to Kreyolicious.com by the Jewish dating from December 5, 1939, it was estimated that
anywhere from 250-300 individuals fleeing Nazi Germany had come to Haiti. There were others other than this bunch who
never came to Haiti at all, but from Germany were given Haitian passports by the Haitian government that allowed them to
flee Germany to other countries.
https://books.google.com/books?id=qoQyCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT106&lpg=PT106&dq=haiti+visas+german+jews+world+war+
II&source=bl&ots=xEfYDqd0mG&sig=x_acT1UNVBjUOFTHgj9hxNpyI20&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjHr4yXx8bOAhVLJ
8AKHe7KA7YQ6AEIPjAF#v=onepage&q=haiti%20visas%20german%20jews%20world%20war%20II&f=false

Did You Know?: Over One Hundred Facts about Haiti and Her Children
By Marjorie Charlot 2015
iUniverse
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, Indiana 47403
www.iuniverse.com
1-800-authors (288.4677)

<snip>

2. From 1830, when the revolt against Russian occupation of Poland started, some Jewish families fled to Haiti, where
they generally joined the upper classes.

3. World War II

In 1937, the Haitian government began issuing passports and visas to approximately 100 Eastern European Jews
escaping Nazi persecution. According to the Joint Distribution Company, Haiti played a small, yet critical, role in saving
Jewish lives during the darkest chapter in the Jewish story. The JDCs organizational records show that up to 150
Jewish refugees managed to escape Europe to come to Haiti. Unfortunately, though, it sees that more Jews were unable
to acquire visas to Haiti due to the cost. Prof. David Bankier, of the Institute of Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem, said that after 1938, the cost [of a visa] was outrageous; If you wanted to go to Haiti, you had to
pay $5,000.

4. During World War II Haiti was one of the few countries in the world to open its doors to Jewish refugees, but most
Jews emigrated after the war ended.

<snip>
https://prezi.com/c2pbnetf_ymj/jews-of-haiti-and-the-dominican-republic/

Jews of Haiti and the Dominican Republic

by Ellen Friedman
on 11 February 2015

Transcript of Jews of Haiti and the Dominican Republic

Jews of Haiti and the Dominican Republic
Remnants of Historic Communities

Jew(s) in Haiti

What is the future of Jews in the Dominican Republic? What can we do to help?

History

The first Jew on Hispaniola was Luis de Torres, Christopher Columbus's interpreter. In the 1600's, after the French took
over Haiti, Dutch Jews fleeing the Inquisition in the Portuguese colony of Brazil came to Haiti to be merchants or to
manage sugar cane plantations.

In 1683, Jews were expelled from all French colonies, including Haiti. Many returned during the 1700's, but the slave
revolt in 1804 resulted in the death or emigration of most of the Jews.

Prior to the 2010 earthquake, there were about 25 Jewish families left in Haiti. Because their homes were damaged or
destroyed, most left the island for the U.S. Now there is just one Jew left!

In the late 1800's, Sephardic Jews began to settle in Haiti. About 150 Eastern European Jews were allowed to immigrate
during
WWII to escape the Holocaust. Jews in the Dominican Republic

World War II

A year before the start of WWII, President Roosevelt convened a conference at Evian, France to discuss the growing
refugee crisis among German Jews. Many German Jews wanted to emigrate, but no countries would grant them visas. Of
the 32 countries represented at the Evian Conference, only the Dominican Republic offered to take in a significant number
of Jews. The tiny DR offered to grant visas to 100,000 Jews! The motives for the offer were not entirely humanitarian. The
dictator of the DR, Rafael Trujillo, was a racist. He wanted to "lighten the complexion" of his country by increasing the
percentage of white people.

Sosua

In the end, the DR took in about 700 Jews. They were settled at a place called Sosua, an abandoned banana plantation
on
the north coast of the island.

Questionable Motives

Jews in the DR Today

Although there are only a few Jews left in Sosua, the once barren area is now a thriving town. Jews in the DR face many
challenges.
Dominican Jews really appreciate their Judaism. Jewish identity is very important to Dominican Jews.

The first Jews on Hispaniola were Spanish. When the French and Spanish divided the island, most Jews went to the
Spanish side. Over the years, Jews from different countries found their way to the Dominican Republic.

History

Most of the Sosua settlers left after the war ended, but some of those original settlers and their descendents remain.
There are only a few Jews in the DR. Here are some of them: What do you think about Sosua? Was it fair to expect the
refugees to do manual labor?
Do you think that you take your Judaism for granted? If you lived in a small Jewish community, do you think you would
feel more Jewish or less Jewish?

How much of your life revolves around being Jewish?

When do you feel most Jewish?

Do you feel American first, or Jewish first?

If you lived in the Dominican Republic, would you want to stay and try to build the Jewish community or would you want to
move to the U.S. or Israel?

Picture courtesy of Kreyolicious

https://books.google.com/books?id=nvOInjiJxjQC&dq=haiti+visas+german+jews+world+war+II&source=gbs_navlinks_s

POPE PIUS XII AND WORLD WAR II: THE DOCUMENTED TRUTH: A Compilation of International Evidence
Revealing the Wartime Acts of the Vatican

Gary L. Krupp
Xlibris Corporation, Oct 15, 2012 - Religion - 348 pages
0 Reviews
Outlines the activities of anti-Catholic organizations and political forces that served to obscure the many works of the
Church to combat Nazism, even before it came to power. Then Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, later Pope Pius XII, was at the
vanguard of that fight. The anti-Church propaganda campaign consisted of such publications as John Cornwall's book
"Hitler's Pope" and Rolf Hochhuth's fictitious play, "The Deputy". Both are thoroughly examined within. The activities of the
KGB's "Disinformation Network" with regard to the anti-Catholic sentiments are also taken up. In effect, the reader will be
enlightened by this revelatory work, in which the true details of the Church's heroic involvement during the horrors of
World War II are fully examined.

https://books.google.com/books?id=nvOInjiJxjQC&pg=PA95&lpg=PA95&dq=haiti+visas+german+jews+world+war+II&sou
rce=bl&ots=pe7tWuRrVc&sig=5OtXDEMbmutS6blCjfssFo3-
vTU&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwijyKyd8sbOAhWH9h4KHelmCqM4ChDoAQgwMAQ#v=onepage&q=haiti%20visas%20
german%20jews%20world%20war%20II&f=false

<snip>

Msgr. Giavanni Ferrofino worked directly with Pope Pius XII and was personally sent to Portugal to request visas for
Jews.

Monsignor Ferrofino stated in a video interview that the Pope sent him to meet with the President of Portugal to request
entrance visas for Jews. Msgr. Ferrofino commented that he could make the verbal request but could not express Pius
XIIs frustration, where he would slam his hand on the table, saying the best thing is to save as many people from this
vibrant community as possible he lost patience. In other words, everything possible was to be done. He would get the
requested visas.

Monsignor Ferrofino was then posted to Haiti and the Dominican Republic as the Secretary to the
Nuncio Archbishop Silvani. Msgr. Ferrofino states that he would physically receive two double-
encrypted telegrams per year directly from Pope Pius XII requesting at least eight hundred visas per
telegram. He would personally decipher these telegrams and, together with Archibishop Silvani,
travel one and a half days from Port au Prince to the Dominican Republic to meet with General Rafael
Trujillo. The Popes direct representative asked in the name of Pope Pius XII for at least 1600 visas
for Jews per year between 1939 and 1945. Monsignor Ferrofino, who arrived in 1940, would then
further route the refugees to the United States, Canada, Mexico and Cuba. He saved over eleven
thousand Jews.
June 2012
[translation] EXHIBITION "FOR ONE ANOTHER"

This exhibition on the relationship between Haitians and Jews is foremost an act of solidarity between two
peoples who are victims of racism and persecution. It is also a tribute to the two people who gave proof of
humanity "FOR ONE ANOTHER."

This exhibition it is essentially about brotherhood but especially justice. At the Congress for the Defence of
Culture in Paris in July 1937, Haitian writer Jacques Roumain denounced the persecution of Blacks and Jews in
Germany. Indeed, one of the first victims of Nazism, black artist Hilarius Gilges, was assassinated in 1933 by the
SS. After the German invasion of the Rhineland, more than four hundred mulattoes were sterilized and another
four hundred sent to concentration camps. In 1937 the Nazis organized an exhibition of degenerate art in
Dsseldorf. One poster portrays a a black monkey with the Star of David.

There were at most a hundred Haitians in Europe at the time of the outbreak of war. Many, such as Charles
Duchatellier and Dr. Maurice Couba, were interned in camps. Interned in Buchenwald, the Haitian Jean-Marcel
Nicholas was freed on 11 April 1945. Other Haitians such as the medical student Tony Bloncourt returned to the
Resistance but was

shot by the Germans. A Franco-Haitien, the famous Commander Kieffer, was one of the first to join De Gaulles
resistance.

The exhibition has four parts. The first concerns the Jewish presence in Haiti. Although never numerous, many
such as Joseph Frankael and his daughter Maria, were patrons in the world of arts and culture.

The second part refers to the decision of the Government of Haiti

to grant Haitian nationality and refugee status to hundreds of
persecuted Jews. Exhibition documents reveal the active presence of Jewish refugees who contributed to the
economic and cultural life of Haiti, such as Otto Salzmannn and Kurt Fisher who, with Jacques Roumain,
founded Haitis Bureau and the Museum of Ethnology. Emphasis is also placed on the reaction of the Haitian
intellectuals who never ceased to condmn anti-Semitism. One was Dantes Bellegarde in 1933; another was
Hrard Roy C. in 1941 whose article on anti-Judaism and anti-Semitism denounced the massacres of Jews in
Germany .

The third component is a vibrant witness of brotherhood and friendship between individuals of good will of the
Haitian and Jewish communities. Among all these people of good will were mile Ollivier, Ghila Sroka of the
Tribune Juive, Daniel Amar, Alix Laurent, Dany Laferrire, Maurice Shalom and Natania Etienne. There was also
the writer and academic Grard tienne, converted to Judaism, who contributed to strengthening ties between
the two communities.

The last part focuses on the campaign of solidarity within Montreals Jewish community to the people of Haiti
after the devastating earthquake of 12 January 2010. It also highlights the integral action young writers and
artists of the College of Canap Vert and Lyce Henri Christophe in Haiti , as well as the Jewish high school who
Herzliah established trade after the earthquake , claiming their refusal will double the order of things and the fate
and contributing in their own way to Tikkun Olam , repairing our world.

The exhibition " FOR EACH OTHER" was supported by the City of Montreal, the Canada Council for the Arts,
Unibank , the FOKAL
and Citizenship and Immigration Canada. Our special thanks to the families Mohr, Salzmann , the Jewish school
Herzliah College of Canap-Vert , at the Lyce Henri Christophe , Joseph Bernard Jr., Mauritius Shalom , ditions
du Marais and Natania Etienne.
Exhibition design : Frantz Voltaire Design: Manuel Salgado
Searches: Natania Etienne Morel Claudette Infographic: Peddy Multidor Writing texts: Maurice Shalom ,
Emmanuel Amar, Joseph Bernard Jr, Frantz Voltaire
http://www.cjnews.com/?q=node/90223

Google-translation

Solidarity between Jews and Haitians students

Elias Levy, Reporter, Friday, June 8, 2012

Herzliah School's students read their texts published in the book "The One for the Other" at the launch party of
the book. From left to right: Maurice Shalom, coordinator of this literary project, Benjamin Wolff, Eyal Derhy,
Lauren Elkeslassy Helen Asseraf and Frantz Voltaire, Director of Publishing CIDIHCA.

Secondary 4 and 5 students from Herzliah School of Montreal and First Class students -l'quivalent Quebec
First year Cgep- two High Schools of Port-au-Prince, Haiti the College Canap Vert and Henri-Christophe
College, participated in a remarkable common literary project: the publication of a collection of texts, beautifully
illustrated, referring to the cooperation and solidarity that has long unissent the Jewish Community of Montreal
and the Haitian people.

The One for the Other, published by Editions du CIDIHCA, is the title of this beautiful and poignant ode to
friendship between the Jewish community and the Haitian people, the fruit of a reflection and a commitment
undertaken by youth Montreal Jewish students at the School Herzliah, and young Haitians, students from two
high schools in Port-au-Prince. Maurice Shalom, a specialist in intercultural issues and migration
problmatiques, was the initiator and coordinator of this literary and educational project.

The project to design this book of testimonies on cooperation and friendship between the Montreal Jewish
community and the Haitian people, was born in the wake of two demonstrations highlighting two significant
events: the exhibition recalling a page forgotten history, the actions of the government of Haiti to save Germans
and Austrians Jews of Nazi barbarism during World War II, organized in March 2009 by the Documentation Centre
International and Haiti and the Caribbean on Information (CIDIHCA ) and Congress Qubcois Jew, and the
unprecedented momentum mobilisa solidarit of the Montreal Jewish community to bring relief to the Haitian
people after the devastating earthquake in January 2010 destroyed almost all the infrastructure and Haiti's
homes.

"By focusing on coopration, solidarity and peace between the Montreal Jewish community and the people of
Haiti, we wanted our turn to honor these two Communities who, each in its so, did show humanity towards each
other. This book is above all a vibrant witness of brotherhood between people of good will. Just as a collection of
texts a fine book, The One for the Other is the youth tmoignage Jewish Montrealers and young Haitians eager
to build a better world full of espoir, promising Projects to brotherhood and solidarity. Professors of Literature
and French of the three schools who took part in this literary adventure initiated their students to the basic texts
relating to cooperation, solidarity and peace from international organizations such as the UN and the UNESCO,
as well as national charters and statements of policies addressing these issues. Quelque 80 students
participated in this project. A quarantine texts and about twenty visual works were selected to constitute this
book, "said Maurice Shalom.
The launch of the book took place on 23 May, World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development, at
the Gelber Centre FEDERATION CJA in Montreal. Some 150 people attended the event.

"It is not by chance that on the occasion of the World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development,
we celebrate the commitment and philanthropy shown by young authors and artists who have designed this
collective book. For that is indeed what it is. Philanthropy, love and humanity. For, far from being a matter of
charity, philanthropy is primarily a question of Justice. This work of Justice is to repair the world, its Tikun Olam,
humble and glorious word that says the double rejection of the order of things and fatality. It is not unfair to call
these young philanthropists committed Jews and Haitians who work to improve the moral fate of their fellows.
useful work. It must be remembered? "Added Maurice Shalom.

Under the guidance of their teachers, Gustave Lazarus, the Canap Vert College in Port-au-Prince, Jean Joseph,
Henri-Christophe College of Port-au-Prince, Nabil Andraos and Maria Longueira, the Herzliah School of Montreal
these young writers, poets and artists tell their vision of a better world, based on their rejection of chaos and
their ardent desire to contribute to Tikun Olam, that is to say, to repair our world.

"In their texts, Haitians college evoke insight and great modesty very difficult hardships they experienced
following the horrific earthquake that devastated their country: the death of family members, the horror to its
climax , scenes of destruction and looting ... in their texts and illustrations, the Montreal Jewish students have
placed particular emphasis on solidarity capitals notions towards a people in distress, sharing, love, brotherhood
... ", specifies Maurice Shalom.

Herzliah High School students and students from two schools in Haiti Worked together using Their writing and
artwork to publish a book about the ways the Canadian Jewish community and Haiti-have supported Each Other.
https://haitiholocaustsurvivors.wordpress.com/about/

Haiti Holocaust Survivors

Harriet Bill

Judaism has always attached intense significance to remembrance; in multiple passages the Hebrew Bible even
makes it an explicit religious obligation.
From Jeff Jacoby, Boston Globe article, 5/1/16

Contact Info: HaitiHolocaust@aol.com Tel: (650) 322-7103 Fax: (650) 322-7146

To read Bills story and learn about the project in our local paper, The Almanac, click One More Step Toward Never
Again

Visit Bill and Harriet Mohrs Pinterest Boards

Click to see Worldwide Readership of Blog

Welcome to the HAITI JEWISH REFUGEE LEGACY PROJECT. We are Harriet and Bill Mohr, a San Francisco Bay
Area-based married couple embarking on a journey to discover more about the Haiti Jewish refugee experience, via
connecting with people, who fled Europe and found safe haven in Haiti, and/or their descendants.

Our back story is, we are the founders and publisher of the HAITI JEWISH REFUGEE LEGACY PROJECT blog which
began on March 31st, 2010 and has already had over 85,881 views. Click HERE to see our Tikkun Olam Award winners
and HERE for news articles covering our endeavors. Also significant is our Pinterest section which spotlights issues we
care deeply about. Viewers from 172 countries have connected to our blog, with the most international readers coming
from Canada, Germany, Israel, UK, France, Australia, Switzerland and Haiti.

Bill is a retired Hewlett-Packard manager who spent ten months in Haiti when he was four years old, prior to immigrating
to the United States. He visited Germany twice, once in 1960 and again in 1999 with his daughter Tara. His interest in his
family history was sparked when he joined Frank Harris Frth-Nuremberg reunion planning committee. Further peaking of
his desire to reconnect with his past occurred after the Haiti earthquake, especially when viewing TV images of Israelis, in
Haiti, setting up make-shift hospitals to aid the injured. What struck him was how 70 years earlier, Haitians had opened
the door to between 100 and 300 European Jews fleeing the Holocaust, thus was born a new sense of historical
attachment to Haiti. A circle of giving and giving back was being completed. Wanting to do something to raise awareness
of Haitis life-saving activity during World War II, he began to explore ways to personally give back to Haiti at her time of
dire need

. Harriet is a writer with a degree in psychology and the author of a spiritual trilogy. She and Bill co-authored a college
sociology text and business book, Quality Circles: Changing Images of People at Work (Addison-Wesley). She cares
deeply about the tragedy of what happened to the Jewish people during World War II, particularly the psychological and
emotional impact. She feels passionately committed to doing something for the common good of Haiti at this critical time.
The Mohrs lived in Israel from 1970 to 1971.

For more biographical information on the Mohrs and reviews of their college sociology text/business book, CLICK HERE

For Biographical Sketches of Haiti Child Survivors CLICK HERE

For Harriets Biographical Information and reviews of her books CLICK HERE
For Bills Biographical Information CLICK HERE

Bills Familys Road Map to Escape Anti-Semitism and Hitlers Grip

Mohr Family Emigration Chronology

Date Event
11/9/1938 Ernest Mohr incarcerated in Dachau on Kristallnacht
Affidavit for Mohr Family issued by Julius Ochs Adler, vice president and general manger of the
12/6/1938
New York Times.
~12/21/1938 Approximate date Ernest Mohr released from Dachau
3/7/1939 Auguste Mohr German passport issued
3/9/1939 Haitian Consulate in Hamburg issued Visa
4/6/1939 Auguste, Ruth and Bill depart Hamburg aboard S.S. Henry Horn
4/?/1939 Ernest Mohr boards S.S. Henry Horn in Antwerp, Belgium
5/8/1939 Mohr family arrives in Port-au-Prince, Haiti
German Immigration Visas issued by American consul at Port-au-Prince for Ernest, Auguste
12/16/1939
and Ruth Mohr
German Immigration Visa issued by American consul at Port-au-Prince for Ludwig Edward (Bill)
2/16/1940
Mohr
2/29/1940 Mohr family departs Port-au-Prince, Haiti on board M.S. Colombia
3/4/1940 Mohr family arrives in New York City
12/11/1945 Bill became a naturalized U.S. citizen
A REMEMBRANCE from Bill:

The woman in my early life, who inspired and shaped my thinking most, was my mothers mother, Sofie Midas. See her
picture, taken in 1955, as her three daughters surround her. The picture was taken at my grandfather Lothars 80th
birthday party, celebrated in Kew Gardens, N.Y.

On the left in the back row is Sofies youngest daughter, Elsbeth, who spent the war in Auschwitz. In the middle is my
mother, Auguste (Gusty), her eldest daughter who lived in Haiti for 10 months during the Shoah. On the right is her middle
daughter Hilde, who she and my grandfather lived with in Portugal after fleeing Germany. My grandfather, Lothar Midas,
and his brother owned a large glass factory in Frth, Germany, which they were forced to turn over to the Nazis. My
grandmothers remarkable strength and optimism served to support my grandfather during this terrible time when he lost
everything. Despite all the hardships, my grandmother never wavered in her strength and ability to hold our family
together in the most extraordinary ways.

For additional photos of Bills family go to the Mohr/Midas Photo Gallery

Harriet is the granddaughter of Russian Ukrainian grandparents who fled anti-Semitism in Russia early in the 20th century.
The picture shows (l. to r.) Charles and Rose, Harriet and Bill. As immigrants, her grandparents embodied resilience, hard
work and determination. They expressed a tremendous love of Israel.
For additional photos of Harriets family go to the Mohr/Midas Photo Gallery.

Bills Aunt Elsbeth and Uncle Robert are at the core of our inspiration to write a blog dealing with issues related to World
War II. Seventy-One years ago, on July 23, 1943, after hiding in Amsterdam, they were captured by the Nazis and held in
Scheveningen Prison. One month later, they were transferred to Auschwitz where Elsbeth remained until the end of the
war. Robert was murdered by hanging six weeks after his arrival in Auschwitz. There are rumors that they were with the
resistance in Amsterdam. They have our deepest respect for extraordinary courage in the face of unimaginable horrors
and incredible suffering.
Elsbeth married Harry Weilheimer after the war and celebrated 30 years of a good life in New York and Palm Beach. She
fully recovered from tuberculosis and other medical conditions caused by her wartime experience including imprisonment
in Auschwitz.

There are two primary motivating factors for this blog. The first is to call attention to the Haiti World War II Jewish refugee
connection. The second is to honor all those who were impacted by Nazi domination and genocidal efforts.

Most of all, it is our way of remembering and honoring Bills Aunt Elsbeth and Uncle Robert as shown in the chart below.
Harriets new blog, Spotlight on Women and Violence, click http://spotlightonwomenandviolence.com/

3 Comments

1. jonas alexandre | July 18, 2010 at 11:50 am

Great endeavor and story! I like the idea. Keep me in your distribution list to share the stories excerpts and let me
know when the exhibition is coming in the Philadelphia area (home to 50,000 Haitians and many more Jews).
Maybe we can do an event together with the Haitian Coalition of Philadelphia. Try contacting the Biggio & Accra &
Cassis families in Haiti whom I heard were Jewish to get more information. Maybe they have memorabilias from
their parents. Let me know if I can be of any help.

Jonas
Reply

2. deanna rosen | August 1, 2010 at 3:59 pm

my brother,glenn rosen,has connected me to you.he has already provided you with info re:our mother,lia sanger
rosen, and our grandparents,josef and ernestine sanger.if you need anything further,id be happy to oblige.when
the earthquake struck haiti i was compelled to do something;i gave to several different orgs@the time but wanted
to do something more long-term.im sponsering a child monthly thrusave the children foundation.the least i
could do for my mothers savior.yours,deanna rosen
Reply

3. anne boher | January 22, 2012 at 1:37 pm

This is most interesting info. I have never heard mention of this info before. I think it would be wonderful if the
Jewish population in the U. S could be mobilized to do more for Haiti. Anne Boher

https://www.pinterest.com/haitiholocaust/

Bill and Harriet Mohr

Menlo Park, CA

haitiholocaustsurvivors.wordpress.com

We are the founders and authors of the HAITI JEWISH REFUGEE LEGACY PROJECT, (http://wp.me/PS6a0-2) .
https://haitiholocaustsurvivors.wordpress.com/published-articles/one-more-step-toward-never-again/

One more step toward never again

Couples legacy project focuses on Haitis role in saving Jewish refugees during World War II

The Almanac March 14, 2012

By Renee Batti

Bill Mohr, who fled Nazi Germany with his family and lived in Haiti for 10 months, co-founded the Haiti Jewish Refugee
Legacy Project in 2010 with his wife, Harriet. .... Michelle Le/The Almanac

This is a story with two beginnings. The first has shadings of a dark fairy tale, or a bad dream.

Once upon a time, a small boy fled Germany with his family, leaving behind most of their possessions.

The boy was far too young to know the reason for that quickly arranged journey across an ocean to a strange new land, or
understand that the passage would mean that he, his parents, and his sister would escape extermination in camps
crowded with fellow Jews.

And young Bill was also too young to retain much in his memory of the 10 months he subsequently lived in Haiti, a country
that opened its proverbial arms to Europes refugees fleeing Hitlers Nazi forces.

Details of that welcoming land are hazy at best for Bill Mohr some 72 years later. But the January 2010 earthquake that
devastated Haiti created fresh, vivid, and painful new images of the tiny nation he called home as a child of 4.

Sitting in their home in the Allied Arts neighborhood of Menlo Park, Bill and his wife, Harriet Mohr, watched the TV news
detailing massive efforts launched by domestic and international rescue teams to find and aid earthquake victims. Among
the scenes unfolding on the screen, one image provided some relief to the couples distress: a medical team from Israel
rescuing and treating injured Haitians.

That powerful image of Jews from a faraway country coming to the aid of the Haitian people seven decades after Haiti
helped to save desperate Jewish refugees represented the completion of a circle, and was the spark for a new pursuit
for the Mohrs. And so begins the story anew.

A new life project

Haiti was not on our minds ever until the earthquake, Ms. Mohr said during a recent interview. In the quakes
aftermath, however, they couldnt get it out of their minds.

So, determined to collect information about the period when Jewish refugees were welcomed there, and to increase public
awareness of that time, they created the Haiti Jewish Refugee Legacy Project. It was launched two years ago this month
and 70 years, to the month, after Bill Mohr arrived with his family in New York after leaving Haiti.
Beginning with a blog, haitiholocaustsurvivors.wordpress.com, with personal messages from the Mohrs, the website soon
expanded to include current news of Haiti and Israel, anti-Semitism, and other information.

Mr. Mohr says his prime motivation for creating the legacy project is to shine a positive light on Haiti a country known
by much of the world for its extreme poverty and political corruption.

In October 2010, the Mohrs began choosing and honoring individuals and organizations who are working in the areas of
remembrance of World War II, revealing Haitis role in saving Jewish refugees lives during the Shoah and building
bridges to new understanding of the current connection between the Jewish and Haitian people, according to a statement
on their website. The recognition is called the Tikkun Olam Award, and the couple has sent out 25 award certificates to
honorees so far.

Tikkun olam is a Hebrew phrase meaning repairing the world, and on the website the Mohrs describe it as a
fundamental Jewish principle and lived value. Recognizing people whose work has had a positive impact on the world has
been a meaningful and gratifying aspect of the Mohrs work, they say.

At this time in our culture, we need a lot of tikkun olam people, Ms. Mohr says. We feel so good to be able to honor
both the ones who have passed and the ones still with us.

Connecting dots

Bill Mohr at 4, on a ship heading from Haiti to New York.

The fact that Haiti accepted Jewish refugees during World War II is not well known. When the Mohrs began their research
on the topic, some people, including at least one Jewish history archivist, either knew nothing about it, or they knew but
thought it was only a few families, Ms. Mohr says.

Their own research was almost like an archaeological dig. (There was) a lot of connecting the dots, Ms. Mohr says.

Its unknown how many Jewish refugees ultimately made it to Haiti the figure may be as low as 150, and as high as
about 300. But the number of European Jews who obtained Haitian passports is certainly higher. Some people used their
Haiti passports to flee, even though they (ended up) in another country, Ms. Mohr says. People had to move very
quickly, she says, and they used any means available to get on a ship and out of danger.

Their research included a closer look into the Mohr familys escape from Germany and life in Haiti, which was made
easier by an oral history in the words of Bills mother, Auguste Mohr, transcribed by his older sister, Ruth.

Auguste Mohr was in her late 80s when she recalled the events that turned her life upside down a history she begins
with the aftermath of the Kristallnacht attacks on German and Austrian Jews in November 1938. Bills father, Ernest, was
taken to the Dachau concentration camp, where he remained for six weeks while Auguste worked feverishly on our
immigration to Haiti, which for us was the only way out, she said in her oral history.

The process was arduous, and when the passports were secured, packing up the familys belongings was done under the
supervision of Nazi guards, who greatly restricted what could be taken away.
The family had the affidavit necessary to eventually immigrate to the United States, but the U.S. restricted the number of
refugees to the degree that many had to find temporary places to live.

After 32 days at sea, the family arrived in Haiti, where they survived with little money and few possessions for the next 10
months.

Harriet Mohr

Bill and Harriet Mohr say that one of the most exciting discoveries theyve made since exploring the family story is that
Ernest Mohr, Bills father, volunteered with the local group of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) to
assess the needs of the refugees in terms of food, shelter and funds. No one starved because the JDC provided needed
help, Ms. Mohr says.

It was in Haiti, decades before the devastating earthquake of 2010, that Auguste Mohr experienced her first earthquake,
Harriet Mohr says. She was terrified, she says, but a Haitian woman who was nearby held the German womans hand
and stayed with her to provide comfort. The Haitian people were so helpful. It was a nice, healing place to be.

The Mohrs plan to write a book about the Mohr familys escape from Germany, life in Haiti, and immigration to the United
States, they say. Meanwhile, they say they usually spend a few hours each day on legacy project work, which we find
very meaningful and engaging, they said in an email.

Although Ms. Mohrs Jewish grandparents had to flee Tsarist Russia to escape persecution in the early 20th century, she
was fortunate not to have had any experience of being chased away from home, she says. But a deep sense of moral
outrage has remained with her since her childhood experience of seeing pictures of World War II concentration camp
victims, she says.

Her hope and vision for the legacy project, she says, is that it makes one small contribution to the goal of never again.'

The Mohrs came to California in the 1960s, and have lived in San Francisco and on the Peninsula ever since, except for
one year of living in Israel. That year was an incredible experience were still growing from, Ms. Mohr says.

Bill Mohr worked from 1971 until his 1999 retirement at Hewlett-Packard.

Harriet Mohr was a stay-at-home mother, raising the couples daughter, Tara, but managed to write a trilogy of spiritual
books during that time, and has lectured on the books subjects.

Go to Haiti Holocaust Survivors for a look at the Mohrs work over the last two years.

To see a pdf file of original article from The Almanac CLICK HERE.
A family picnic in the late 1940s, of which Bill (standing) writes: What joy and relief for everyone to be together in New
York after Kristallnacht, my fathers experience in Dachau, (Aunt) Elsbeths capture in Amsterdam and years in Auschwitz,
my immediate familys 10 months in Haiti and my Aunt Hilde, Uncle Max and grandparents separation from all of us in
Portugal. I ... think the smiles and lightness say everything and more than I could ever express in words.
http://kreyolicious.com/haiti-history-101-haitis-role-in-saving-jewish-families-during-the-holocaust/3976/

Haiti History 101: Haitis Role in Saving Jewish Families During the Holocaust
Written by Kat on Mar 7th 2012 | 9 Comments

Did you know that Haiti was instrumental in saving the lives of several dozens families of Jewish descent as they fled the
Nazis during World War II?

Most people, arent aware of it, and even today only a handful of historians may know this, but Haiti was indeed
responsible for saving about 70 Jewish families (an estimated total of up to 300 lives) during the horrendous Holocaust
that occurred in the 1930s, in which Jewish families were hunted down in Europe and placed in concentration camps,
some starved to death. Some were Austrian Jews, others were Polish Jews, still others German Jews, and a trickle of
Romanian-Jew and Czech-Jewish descent.

300 livesThat number is certainly not as high as the number of Jewish families that Schindler helped saved, but a
human life is a human life.

According to documents furnished to Kreyolicious.com by the Jewish dating from December 5, 1939, it was estimated that
anywhere from 250-300 individuals fleeing Nazi Germany had come to Haiti. There were others other than this bunch who
never came to Haiti at all, but from Germany were given Haitian passports by the Haitian government that allowed them to
flee Germany to other countries.

In a then-confidential report done by Manuel Siegel to the Joint Relief Committee (this was set up from New York to help
Jewish refugees in several different countries, including Haiti), its affirmed that the first flow of Jewish refugees fleeing
Germany and arriving in Haiti started around March of 1938. Siegel attested in his report that he was unable to form a
committee made up of Haitian Jews, writing that the estimated 10 Haitian Jewish families, some of whom had come to
Haiti from Northern Africa in the 1900s, and others who had arrived before (in the 1800sin Haiti), desired to be helpful but
feared to identify themselves with the refugees in view of their relations with the government. The Jewish cause found
plenty of sympathetic ears in Haiti, according to Joint Relief Committee records. One such person was Gontrand Rouzier,
a Haitian lawyer and Rafael Brouard, the then-mayor of Port-au-Prince. Siegel managed to gather up several heads of the
Jewish families to form a committee, and the Committee regularly sent the refugees small remittances to maintain
themselves. The committee estimated that about 10% of the refugees were able to make a living as bakers, doctors,
shopkeepers, photographers, among other professions.

While some of the refugee families arriving in Haiti were self-sufficient, and while others managed to make a living, some
found it hard to adapt because work permits were difficult to get. At one point, a special tax was actually placed on the
refugees awaiting visas to the USA ($50 every six months), a tax that the Committee tried to get abolished. Writing to the
Committee, one representative wrote in a confidential letter that he suspected that an influential German chummy with the
Haitian Minister of Interior was behind the sudden tax.

Subsequent correspondence does not indicate whether the tax was canceled or not. What is known however is that the
majority of the families eventually received visas to leave Haiti for New York, and families like the Mohrs did. Another
portion went to other countries in South America, and Central American countries like Panama and Cuba. A small portion
remained. According to the report done by Manuel Siegel, dating from 1941, one of patriarchs among the Jewish refugees
settled in Cap Haitian with his family, and was able to make a decent living in that city as a physician. Its indicated in the
JDC records that two other families settled a few miles away from Port-au-Prince and were given remote agricultural land
to settle. There were a few deaths as well, according to the JDC reports from tropical diseases.

There has been some observations made that far from wanting to save Jewish refugees, accepting Jewish families fleeing
the Nazis from Germany into Haiti was purely business. For example, some of those Jewish families who were able to
arrive in Haiti, and those furnished with Haitian documents to flee Germany were given those passports and official
documents at $3000-5000, a huge sum for that time (heck, a huge sum for our time too; although the JDC report from
1941 says up to $3000). Misha Mitsel, an archivist with the American Jewish Distribution Committee of New York agrees
that yes, indeed, while it was somewhat of a business transaction, However, even such policy was better and human
considering that more developed countries closed doors for Jewish emigrants.

Bill Mohr, who is now in his 70s, fled Germany (4 years of age at the time), and spent a year in Haiti, before his family was
furnished with a visa by the American Consul in Haiti to go to New York told The Jewish Weekly in an interview in 2010:

I do not know what would have happened if Haiti had not opened its doors to those fleeing the Holocaust My mothers
mother and sister had found safe haven in Portugal, while my mothers younger sister was caught and spent the war in
Auschwitz.

Mohr is putting together a Memory Project to gather the memories of people just like him who were saved from the
Holocaust through passage to Haiti, or who were given Haitian documents to allow them to leave Nazi Germany. He
recalls the pride he felt when Israeli medical teams landed in Haiti during the 2010 earthquake that hit Haiti. It brought
back some bittersweet memories for him, and he is working hard with his wife in making sure that this aspect of Jewish
Holocaust-Haitian connection is never lost.

So what do you think of all this?

Special thanks to Misha Mitsel of the JDC-NY for providing Kreyolicious.com with historical documents from the JDC files.

Marlyne

I love this article! I knew that there were a group of Polish immigrants to Haiti since my paternal great grandmother was
Polish. But I never knew the reason why they emigrated to Haiti. Its very possible she could have been in the 70 families
mentioned here. Is there a way I can find out if she was a part of this group that fled the Holocaust?

Kat

Hi Marlyne! The Polish immigrants that Ive read about originally came to Haiti in the early 1800s, as part of an army sent
to fight against the rebelling slaves and freed(wo)men. Its quite possible that among the Jewish families that came to Haiti
during the Holocaust, there may have also been of Polish-Jew ancestry. We hope to get more information in the future
regarding their names. Right now, the reports I have on hand only have descriptions of what happened to them, but
doesnt have a list of names, per say. But of course, if Kreyolicious.com ever gets any additional information about this, or
should a name or family list ever materializes, we will certainly share. Thank you for reading.

Emmanuel Arhin

Im not Haitian. But Im a student of history, especially the type about the African diaspora. And I just love this article.

Luciane

Im glad we were able to help them, thank for the information, very instructive, peace

Tavenky

Very helpful information. I hope many others can read this. I love it.
https://books.google.com/books?id=h-ewkTc29kYC&dq=haiti+visas+german+jews+world+war+II&source=gbs_navlinks_s

We Were Europeans: A Personal History of a Turbulent Century

Werner M. Loval
Gefen Publishing House Ltd, 2010 - History - 520 pages
8 Reviews
From pre-Hitler Germany to Kristallnacht, a last minute escape from the Holocaust, and on to a life on three continents,
this book catalogues the experiences of one Jewish family as the events of the twentieth century overturned its settled
existence and scattered the family across the globe. Enhanced by excerpts from several historical diaries, and lavishly
illustrated with photographs and maps, this personal history of triumph despite persecution is a microcosm of the life of
the Jewish people.

https://books.google.com/books?id=h-
ewkTc29kYC&pg=PA379&lpg=PA379&dq=haiti+visas+german+jews+world+war+II&source=bl&ots=8dbPQseV5q&sig=N
5cD1BwdDDFpW7rxdxkQbcv7wVw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwijyKyd8sbOAhWH9h4KHelmCqM4ChDoAQg8MAc#v=o
nepage&q=haiti%20visas%20german%20jews%20world%20war%20II&f=false

page 379ff

100,000 Immigration Visas!

To the surprise of everyone, however, the representative of the 37th country, the Dominican Republic, stood up to offer
100,000 Jewish refugees visas to his country, ruled at the time, as it would be for thirty years (1930-1961) by Rafael
Lenidas Trujillo Molina, one of the most brutal dictators in a subcontinent rich in dictators. Yet the offer was sincere, and
the Dominican Republic deserves full credit in the annals of Jewish history.

In the words of Benner Weiser Varon, appointed Israels first ambassador to the Dominican Republic in 1964, The sins of
a ruler are his sins. His good deeds are part of the national patrimony.

Benno had this explanation for Trujillos spectacular and singular offer: in Trujillos opinion, the decline of Spain and
Portugal started with the expulsion of the Jews. To him, the cleansing of the Iberian peninsula of Jews was a monumental
blunder by the Spanish and Portuguese monarchs, whereas the European nations that received the fleeing members of
so gifted a race benefited greatly.

According to Trujillo, the royals essentially exported on of their greatest assets to their competitors, the Dutch and the
British, who soon acquired enough knowledge of navigation and trade to eclipse Spain and Portugal as the dominant
seafaring powers.

In Trujillos view, if Hitler was stupid enough to repeat the mistakes of Spain and Portugal, why should the Dominican
Republic not benefit from the situation?

This was the idealized background for Trujillos magnanimity. On the other time, commentators at the time pointed out
that in 1938 Trujillo also had a political motivation. He needed to generate good publicity after the international outrage
caused by the Dominican massacre of 15,000 to 20,000 Haitians in October 1937, just nine months before the Evian
Conference. In a brutal ethnic cleansing, he had the Dominican army round up Haitians in the northwestern border area,
not far from Sosua. Using machetes, bayonets, and clubs, his army murdered them. Thousands more either fled or faced
deportation to Haiti.
Trujillos gesture at Evian served to distance him from his own atrocities and helped him recover some stature in world
opinion. At the time, one commentator considered his Evian offer one of the boldest master strokes of modern press
agentry.

On January 16, 1940, a small American Jewish group headed by James Rosenburg and Joseph Rosen of the JDC (the
Jewish Distribution Committee) met with Generalissimo Rafael Trujillo, who offered 26,000 acres of land in Sosua with
buildings at any terms. Sosua lay 12 miles from the deep-sea port of Puerto Plata and had an eight-mile beach.

At a luxurious diplomatic party for the Americans, Trujillo reminded Rosenberg that in Palestine there will be
bloodshed. But here you will not have any of that. Here you will be peace and quiet. You will never be a foreigner;
you will be a Dominican as soon as you come to our shores.

His sincerity was such that he used government money to build a synagogue for Santo Domingos Jewish community. A
unanimously approved act of the Dominican parliament granted Jewish refugees from Hitler freedom of religion and
exemption from taxes and customs duties.

Tragically, no more than 5,000 Jews took advantage of Trujillos offer of sanctuary, and only half of them actually came to
the Dominican Republic. The rest used their Dominican visas as stepping stones to the United States.

As for the 95,000 unused visas, it was not Trujillos fault that not more came. The year was 1938, and the Nazis were not
even discussing Auschwitz. The would-be emigrants thought that something better might come up than what they
mistakenly imagined as a tropical inferno on a Caribbean island.

Nazi policy at the time was to make Greater Germany judenrein (cleansed of Jews), and part of the terror was aimed at
inducing Jews to emigrate. Thus it may be that the indifference shown by the whole world, as represented in Evian, was a
factor in the later Nazi decision to implement their Final Solution.

Delayed by the outbreak of war, the first German Jews reached the Dominican Republic only on May 10, 1940. They and
those who followed them formed the countrys first Jewish cooperative village or moshav, based on the Israeli model, and
located on the Sosua banana plantation on the north of the island, between the jungle and the Atlantic Ocean.

The land was poor and the climate was sweltering. JDC worried that these German urban intellectuals would fail as
farmers, and recommended that only 600 unattached young men come to the island. On arrival, JDC taught them to farm
and gave them each 80 acres, 10 cows, a mule, a horse, and a low-interest homestead loan at $10 a month. The Jewish
farmers also built workshops, a sanitation system, and a clinic. They established a dairy, named Productos Sosua,
which still exists.

Most of the original pioneers left the island after the war, but those who stayed on prospered. Today, about 25 Jewish
families live in the tranquil and exotically beautiful beach resort of Sosua. Sixty years on, their business still supplies the
countrys best butter, cheese and meat products.

The old wooden Sosua Synagogue, built by the original settlers in the design of a log cabin, opens for services every
fourth Shabbat. The small synagogue houses three Torah scrolls and is decorated with stained-glass windows depicting
traditional Jewish images. The museum adjacent to the synagogue was built in 1990 to chronicle 50 years of Jewish life
in the town.

Evocative of the refugee experience as well as of the Dominican welcome, a plaque in the museum reads:

Sosua, a community born of pain

nurtured in love,
must in the final analysis
represent the ultimate triumph of life.
http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/58037/escape-to-haiti-local-man-recalls-how-nation-saved-jews-from-nazis/

Escape to Haiti: Local man recalls how nation saved Jews from Nazis
by rebecca anna stoil, the jerusalem post
Thursday, May 13, 2010
In the devastating aftermath of the Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti, many Jews felt a measure of pride when they turned on
their televisions to see Israeli medical teams on the scene. But for some the sight evoked not only pride it was a
reminder of an important and nearly forgotten era 60 years ago.

For those Jews, Haiti was more than a troubled Caribbean nation struggling against hunger and poverty and now disaster
it was the nation that saved their lives when they found door after door closed to them as they tried to flee Nazi Europe.

I was 4 years old when I escaped from Germany and went to live in Haiti for a year, until immigrating to New York, said
Bill Mohr of Menlo Park. I do not know what would have happened if Haiti had not opened its doors to those fleeing the
Holocaust.

After the earthquake put Haiti in the news, Mohr was inspired to explore this intriguing part of his past. He and his wife,
Harriet, wanted to know more. Not only about Bills family history, but also about Haitis almost unknown role in providing
150 to 300 Jews with a shelter from the disaster looming in Europe.

Initially the two found only minimal historical documentation of the refugee community in Haiti. However, soon they were
able to start putting together a clearer picture of the tiny Jewish community, which swelled with the arrival of the European
immigrants but declined as Haitis fate turned in the postwar years.
Bill Mohr enjoys his time on an ocean freighter at age 4.

Although Bill, now 75, spent less than a year of his life in Haiti, he has become immersed in putting together the puzzle
and tracking down details about this little-known piece of Jewish history. In fact, what started with a curious interest has
snowballed into a full research endeavor, keeping the couple busier than they could have imagined.
We started working on this right after the earthquake, said Harriet, and now every day theres an e-mail or related
phone call. Everyone is coming out of the woodwork. Its become a full-time and deeply meaningful project. Its the
discovery of a lost tribe, almost.

Bills ties to Haiti began late in 1938, following Kristallnacht. His father, Ernst, was arrested Nov. 10 and held at Dachau
until the end of December. During that harrowing time Bills mother, Auguste Midas Mohr, worked feverishly to get
immigration papers after finding out from a friend that Haiti was a possible escape route. The family also had an affidavit
that would allow them to enter the United States eventually, but there were numbers given out [and] people could only
come slowly into the United States when their number was called, she told her daughter, Ruth, in an oral history many
years later.

I went to Hamburg on the night train all by myself and I contacted our friend, the Haitian consul-general, Mr. Fouchard,
who issued the visas that saved their lives, Auguste, now deceased, recalled in the oral history.

Auguste Midas and Ernst Mohr in Germany shortly before their departure in 1939.

Once Ernst got out of Dachau, the family continued preparations and then left, with each of the four family members
allowed to take the equivalent of just a few dollars on the journey.
The family Ernst, Auguste, 5-year-old Ruth and 3-year-old Bill spent 32 days on the high seas, traveling with the
only company to include Port-au-Prince on its Caribbean route. Auguste recalled that the children were very happy there
and they ran up and down the ladder to the captains deck and the captain let them take the rudder.
When the family arrived in the Haitian capital, Fouchards father had prepared a small house for them. They quickly
settled into a Haitian routine. Bill and Ruth played with neighborhood children, and Auguste learned from the locals how to
place orders from the market.

In their middle-class circle, appearances were maintained even at what must have seemed like the end of the world. The
men wore white suits with white shirts, and they always had to wear a tie in that terrible heat, said Auguste. The kids
went to kindergarten and they learned French in no time.

Because many of the Jews who had recently arrived came from Austria, Auguste recalled that any Jewish newcomers
who joined the tiny community were known as Austrians. The Bigios, a family that immigrated to Haiti from Syria at the
beginning of the century and still is influential in the country today, took charge of organizing the diverse mix of Sephardi
and Ashkenazi refugees.

Auguste Midas Mohrs German passport includes a J identifying her as a Jew, a swastika-embossed cover and arrival
stamps from the Haiti government.
With no work and little money, the Mohr family struggled, even in the relatively cheap Haitian economy, to make ends
meet. With no money, we were invited to the wedding of the chef du protocol, Auguste said. My friend and my neighbor
made Ruth a little dress so she could be a flower girl. The dress was made out of one of the collars of my dresses. I wore
my wedding gown that was dyed black It was between Christmas and New Years Day and we were dancing there in
the open air.
Shortly after arriving in Haiti, Ernst became very involved in the suddenly blossoming Jewish community and helped to
form the Joint Relief Committee of Haiti, a local branch of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), and
served as its secretary. Many of the refugees were in dire need of financial assistance, and he worked toward the aim of
lessening their burdens, Bill said.

Ernst was always interested [in Jewish life], and he vowed when he came out of concentration camp that he would
devote himself to Jewish causes, and that is what he did, Auguste told Ruth in the oral history.

In February 1940, the Mohrs received word they could legally enter the United States. They arrived in New York City the
next month, where Ernst fulfilled a promise he had made to the tiny Haitian Jewish community. Serving as an emissary
from the Port-au-Prince community, he went to plead its case for refugee aid before the JDC, seeking a subsistence
stipend for the Joint Relief Committee of Haiti.

Apologizing that it could not afford more, the New York headquarters approved $50 a month for the Haitian branch of
which $47.49 of the first installment went to order and ship 300 pounds of matzah from Horowitz Brothers & Margareten
for Passover.

Once in the United States, Ernst also kept his promise to devote himself to Jewish causes. He was a founding member
and executive director of Temple Anshe Sholom in Kew Gardens, N.Y., and was active in Bnai Brith, United Jewish
Appeal and State of Israel Bonds, which awarded him a medal of recognition in 1966.

Bill is doing what he can to continue his parents legacy.

He and Harriet established the Haiti Jewish Refugee Legacy Project (http://www.HaitiHolocaustSurvivors.wordpress.com)
to centralize their research and provide a clearinghouse for information about the Jewish refugees of Haiti. As a result, the
Mohrs have heard from a number of people who either came through the island nation sometime during the war or are
descendants of Jews who were there. They are tracking down leads at the USC Shoah Foundation Institute, are in touch
with a documentary filmmaker in New York who may be interested in the project, and reached out to the U.S. Holocaust
Memorial Museum and Yad Vashem, neither of which, according to Harriet, were aware of Haitis role in saving Jews.

That role was significant, she said, even if the numbers look relatively small.

It was a profound statement [the country] made, said Harriet, who has written books on human development and
spirituality. Bill was a manager at Hewlett-Packard for 27 years; their daughter, Tara, lives in San Francisco and chairs the
board of UpStart Bay Area, which supports Jewish innovators. Haiti made the decision to take a stand, take Jews in and
issue these passports. There was a sympathetic energy going on.

Passports were the difference between life and death for at least 300 people and their children, so it turned into saving
thousands.

Days after the earthquake, the JDC described Haiti as a legitimate source of inspiration, noting that it played a small yet
critical role in saving Jewish lives during the darkest chapter in the Jewish story. According to the organizations records,
starting in 1938, Jewish refugees from Central Europe immigrated, with JDC assistance, to Haiti. By the time travel was
rendered impossible with the outbreak of World War II, some 150 Jewish refugees had reached Port-au-Prince. The Joint
Relief Committee Haiti financially supported about one-third of them.

According to Harriet, not all Jews with Haiti passports came to the island nation. Some with Haitian documents simply
leveraged them to flee to other countries. Others didnt get the chance to use them at all. We didnt realize there were
concentration camp prisoners with Haiti passports who got caught before they could make it out, she said. Some of
these people perished in the camps, while others were liberated at the end of the war.

Haiti which in 1947 was one of three countries that changed their original positions and voted for the U.N. partition
plan, giving Jews a homeland had a Jewish population of around 200 people in 1957. But the political climate, lack of
economic opportunity and longing for an active Jewish community on the part of Haitian-born Sephardis, as well as the
refugees, began to take their toll. By 1970, approximately 75 percent of the Jewish population had left, mostly for the
United States, Argentina and Panama. According to the World Jewish Congress last count, in 1997, the permanent
Jewish community of Haiti numbered 25, mostly still centered in Port-au-Prince.

The Bigio family that organized the community at its peak is still active, owning Haitis only Torah scroll and serving as
Israels consul to the troubled nation. With history turning again full circle, it was Gilbert Bigio who offered his land to
house the Israeli field hospital in the earthquakes aftermath.

Seeing Israelis saving Haitian lives reminded Bill of his personal connection to the country, and launched the Mohr
familys efforts to make sure Jews learn about and remember a time when Haiti saved Jewish lives.

For information on the Haiti Jewish Refugee Legacy Project, visit www.haitiholocaustsurvivors.wordpress.com. For
donations to Haiti relief, visit www.ajws.org
http://www.jpost.com/Features/In-Thespotlight/A-look-into-Haitis-tiny-Jewish-community

A look into Haiti's tiny Jewish community

By REBECCA ANNA STOIL

03/22/2010 23:10

Jews who found shelter in Haiti when fleeing Nazi Europe recently launched a research project to map out their
history.
Many Jews felt a measure of pride when they turned on their televisions to see IDF medical teams performing heroically
amid the desolation following the January earthquake in Haiti, but for a small handful the sight evoked more than just
pride it was the closing of a circle that began more than 60 years ago. For those Jews, Haiti was more than a troubled
Caribbean nation struggling against hunger and poverty and now disaster it was the nation that saved their lives when
they found door after door closed to them as they tried to flee Nazi Europe.

I was four years old when I escaped from Germany and went to live in Haiti for a year, until immigrating to New York,
said Bill Mohr. I do not know what would have happened if Haiti had not opened its doors to those fleeing the Holocaust.
My mothers mother and sister had found safe haven in Portugal, while my mothers younger sister was caught and spent
the war in Auschwitz.

When Haiti resurfaced in the headlines following the deadly earthquake, Mohr was moved by a desire to learn more about
the country that had provided his family, together with approximately 300 other Jews, a shelter from the disaster looming
in Europe. Together with his wife, Harriet, Mohr began a massive research project, and the two found that historical
documentation of the refugee community in Haiti was minimal. Gathering scraps of information from survivors and
archives, the two are still trying to put together a complete picture of the tiny Jewish community that swelled with the
arrival of the European immigrants, but declined as Haitis fate turned in the postwar years.

The Mohrs hope to mount exhibits and collaborate on further projects to preserve and commemorate Haitis Holocaust
history, and have set up an e-mail address HaitiHolocaust@aol.com in the hopes of gaining as much information as
possible regarding the Jewish community, particularly the refugee community, on the island.

MOHRS TIES to Haiti began late in 1938, following Kristallnacht. His father, Ernst, was arrested on November 10, and
held at Dachau until the end of December. Mohrs mother, Auguste Midas Mohr, recalled years later that he had nothing
on except for pajamas and they had to stand at attention in the cold, and he always said he was so afraid he would lose
his glasses. Without his glasses, he wouldve been lost. He kept them in his shoes at night and would retrieve them first
thing in the morning.

While her husband suffered in the cold and tried to save his glasses, Auguste worked feverishly on our immigration to
Haiti. The family had an affidavit that would have allowed them to enter the US eventually, but there were numbers given
out but people could only come slowly into the United States when their number was called.

I went to Hamburg on the night train all by myself and I contacted our friend, the Haitian consul-general, Mr. Fouchard,
who was a friend of all the people who were in the group of actors and actresses that dad knew so well, partly from Fuerth
and Nuremberg, that were transferred and had taken jobs in Hamburg, Auguste later told her daughter, Ruth, in a
recorded oral history. At least one other family the Meinbergs specifically credit Fouchard for issuing the visas that
saved their lives.

He was one of this group and thats how he knew dad and he was very nice to me and tried to help me, continued
Auguste. I also visited a doctor there who gave me all the pointers on how to behave in the tropics, he gave me
medication and he showed me how to wash the lettuce and the fruit. Then I went home again and things slowly
developed, but I was alone and I had to do all that on my own.

Once Ernst was released from Dachau, the family continued preparations and then left, with each of the four family
members allowed to take 10 marks on the journey.

The family Ernst, Auguste, five-year-old Ruth and three-year-old Bill spent 32 days on the high seas, traveling on the
only company to include Port-au-Prince on its Caribbean route. The parents told each other that this was their last
vacation, and Auguste recalled that the children were very happy there and they ran up and down the ladder to the
captains deck and the captain let them take the rudder.

When the family arrived in the Haitian capital, Fouchards father had prepared a small house for them. They quickly
settled in to a Haitian routine. Bill and Ruth played with the neighbors children, and the neighbors grandmother helped
Auguste learn how to place orders from the market.

In the middle-class circle in which they found themselves, appearances were maintained even at what must have seemed
like the end of the world. The men wore white suits with white shirts and they always had to wear a tie in that terrible
heat, said Auguste. The kids went to kindergarten and they learned French in no time.

With no work and only 40 marks, the family struggled, even in the relatively cheap Haitian economy, to make ends meet.
With no money, we were invited to the wedding of the chef du protocol... My friend and my neighbor, Madame Moise, the
wife of the doctor, made Ruth a little dress so she could be a flower girl. The dress was made out of one of the collars of
my dresses. I wore my wedding gown that was dyed black and it was very cut out at the neckline, Auguste later told
Ruth. I was sitting there in the church and one of those monks came by and said to me, I should cover myself. It was
between Christmas and New Years Day and we were dancing there in the open air.

Shortly after arriving, Ernst became very involved in the suddenly blossoming Jewish community. Auguste said that many
of the Jews who had recently arrived came from Austria, and so all of the Jewish newcomers who joined the tiny
community were known as Austrians. Then, as now, the Bigio family, a family that immigrated to Haiti from Syria at the
beginning of the century, took the reins in organizing the diverse mix of Sephardi trading families and Ashkenazi refugees.

In February 1940, the Mohrs number finally came up and they were allowed entry to the US. They arrived in New York
City in March, but Ernst still had one last promise that he had made to the tiny Haitian Jewish community. Serving as an
emissary from the Port-au-Prince community, he went to plead its case for refugee aid before the American Jewish Joint
Distribution Committee, seeking a subsistence stipend for the recently formed local branch of the organization founded to
aid refugees. Apologizing that it could not afford more, the New York headquarters approved $50 a month for the Haitian
branch, of which $47.49 of the first installment went to order and ship 300 pounds of matza from Horowitz Brothers &
Margareten for the upcoming holiday.

Although he only spent one year of his life in the island nation, Bill Mohr has tried to contact other refugee Jews of Haiti to
put together a more complete picture of the community that emerged there.

DAYS AFTER the earthquake, on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the JDC described Haiti as a legitimate
source of inspiration, explaining that Haiti played a small, yet critical, role in saving Jewish lives during the darkest
chapter in the Jewish story. According to the organizations records, starting in 1938, Jewish refugees from Central
Europe emigrated, with JDC assistance, to Haiti. According to the JDC archives, by the time travel was rendered
impossible with the outbreak of World War II, some 150 Jewish refugees had reached Port-au-Prince. The organization
that Ernst Mohr helped build in late 1939, the Joint Relief Committee Haiti (JRC), financially supported around one-third of
them.

For some of these Jews, Haiti was a way station a place of refuge before emigrating to the US. Others stayed. Their
survival and the lives of their descendants are fitting reminders of how small the world is and how dependent we all
are on the conscience and humanity of those with whom we share the planet, concluded the JDC blog entry written in
January.

Beyond the German and Austrian families that arrived in the late 1930s, historians note that at least one French Jew
Lucette Tardieu also was given refuge in Haiti. Yad Vashem said that it was not aware of much available information
concerning Haiti and the Holocaust, but that it seems there were a few Jews who resided in the Netherlands who held
Haitian citizenship. Historians, however, have said that it is possible that the citizenship was forged.

Part of the confusion regarding Jewish immigration to Haiti stems from conflicting accounts regarding the conditions under
which Jews arrived in the country. According to Beit Hatfutsot, Although the Haitian government has traditionally frowned
on white immigration, asylum was granted to refugees... Until 1938 immigration laws were benign, the only prerequisite
being the possession of $100; as of that year the sum was raised to $1,000 and a government permit was required in
addition.

But other accounts claim that the sum was higher, and that absorption of refugees was simply a money-making venture
on the part of the Haitian government.

Prof. David Bankier, of the Institute of Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said that after 1938,
the cost [of a visa] was outrageous: If you wanted to go to Haiti, you had to pay $5,000.

One surprising insight comes from the collected papers of the NAACP, in which Ed Mathon (identified as the director of
Radios-Electricite), in a letter to NAACP executive secretary Walter White (January 13, 1941), said that a couple of
hundred Jews acquired Haitian nationality without going to Haiti and a great many Germans [Jews] came to Haiti as
Haitian citizens and many wealthy Jews became naturalized Haitians.

Others have argued that it took an act of the Haitian legislature to provide a loophole for Jews to meet the Haitian
citizenship criterion of being of African descent.

Although the Jewish population of Haiti remained as high as 200 in 1957, the political climate, lack of economic
opportunity and longing for a Jewish community on the part of Haitian-born Sephardim as well as the refugees, quickly
took their toll. By 1970, around 75 percent of the Jewish population had left, mostly for the US, Argentina and Panama.
According to the World Jewish Congresss last count, in 1997, the permanent Jewish community of Haiti numbered 25,
mostly still centered in Port-au-Prince.

The same Bigio family that organized the community at its peak is still active, owning the islands only Torah scroll and
serving as Israels consul to the troubled island. With history turning again full circle, it was George Bigio who offered his
land to house the IDF field hospital that saved hundreds if not thousands in the earthquakes aftermath.

The same field hospital that reminded Bill Mohr, thousands of miles away, of his own special connection to the island and
launched the Mohr familys crusade to make sure that Jews remember that decades ago, it was Haiti that saved Jewish
lives.
The Gazette (Montreal)
Thursday, March 11, 2010, p. A3
Honouring Haiti's courage Sheltered Jews in Second World War

MICHELLE LALONDE
The Gazette

Months before January's earthquake in Haiti, Montreal researchers were planning an exhibit to pay homage to
Haiti's little-known campaign to help European Jews in the Second World War. As that exhibit opened last night
at the Fdration CJA, prominent members of Montreal's Jewish and Haitian communities noted its special
poignancy, with Haiti struggling to rebuild and Montreal's Jewish community coming to its aid.

The exhibit was conceived as a way to celebrate Haiti's efforts to provide asylum to Jewish refugees from Europe
in the late 1930s. In the spring of 1939, as Hitler's mobile extermination units were beginning to assassinate Jews
and the first concentration camps were opening, Haitian President Stnio Vincent issued a decree that permitted
Jewish refugees from Europe to obtain Haitian nationality. The procedure, called "naturalization in absentia,"
allowed hundreds of Jews - some of whom were already imprisoned in the camps - to immigrate to Haiti. In fact,
Haiti had offered to welcome as many as 50,000 Jews, but United States scuttled that plan.

"In the grand scheme of things, Haiti's efforts to save a few hundred persecuted Jews may seem insignificant,"
the exhibit notes in its introduction. "But in those days, that this impoverished, almost invisible nation would
dare take a stand against Nazi Germany was quite remarkable."

Entitled Jews and Haitians: A Forgotten History, the exhibit is co-ordinated by the Quebec Jewish Congress and
Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre, in partnership with the Centre International de Documentation et
d'Information Hatienne, Caribenne et Afro-canadienne and Images Interculturelles.

The exhibit can be viewed at the Fdration CJA, 5151 Cte Ste. Catherine Rd. until March 21. It is designed to be
mobile, and its creators hope it can serve as an educational tool in schools, museums or libraries.
Juifs et Hatiens : Une histoire oublie

March 10, 2010

Order of Speakers & Principal Messages

1. Maurice Chalom: Master of Ceremonies (on the Board of QJC, works for the City: Service intercuturel de
Montral, involved as a volunteer in intercultural affairs and involved in developing this project. He will welcome
everyone and introduce speakers.
2. Adam Atlas: Quebec Jewish Congress Message: Rapprochement intercultural, role of Congress in this area,
pleasure to work with Haitian community
3. Susyn Borer: Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre: Story which remains unknown; links, shared history of two
communities. Importance of recognizing the role of Haiti and Haitians in efforts to save Jews in Europe before and
during the Holocaust.
4. Frantz Voltaire: Political scientist born in Haiti. Director of CIDIHCA (le Centre International de Documentation et
d'Information Hatienne, Caribenne et Afro-canadienne). Message : Exhibition, why this project.
5. Marcel Auguste Bonaparte: Historian, history of Haiti. Message: Research, background re exhibition.
6. Nurses (2): At the JGH, returned from working in Haiti. Message: Experience in Haiti (testimony)
7. Andres Spokoiny: Exec Director, FCJA. Message: Role of Montreal Jewish community re earthquake in Haiti.
Solidarity.
8. Mary Deros: City Councilor. Message: Greetings from the City
9. Pierre Richard Casimir, Consul General of Haiti Closing remarks, thank you.

Susyn Borer Message

Bonsoir. Cest pour moi, et pour le Centre commmoratif de lHolocauste Montral, tout un honneur de travailler avec la
communaut hatienne de Montral et de reconnatre cette histoire commune si peu connue.

The Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre is proud to be a partner in the development of this exhibition which, for the next
10 days, offers an extraordinary opportunity to Montrealers to learn about this common history. The exhibition will
particularly help us all recognize the efforts of a small nation to intervene to protect others, Jews, victims of hate and
discrimination prior to and during the Holocaust. In Holocaust research and education, in genocide prevention work, there
is much work based on the roles of individuals, communities and countries, as perpetrators, bystanders and rescuers.

Young people today, grappling with issues related to discrimination and racism face the same choices. We are hopeful
that through this exhibition, we will understand how solidarity and mutual respect contribute to an understanding that
diversity is to be valued rather than feared or hated. Through the example of Haitian intellectual leaders and that of the
Haitian government we learn and appreciate the actions to protect Jews, to issue visas through Haitian consulates in
Europe, to keep its borders open, to lobby the United States with the goal of saving lives. A nation which fought to free
itself from slavery took a stand and acted with courage.

Cette petite reconnaissance de ces efforts pour comprendre les liens entre tous les victimes du nazisme, pour sauver des
vies, pour agir avec justice, est tardive, mais lhistoire mrite toujours dtre souligne. Nous sommes convaincus que
cest ensemble que les communauts peuvent agir et combattre la haine et les prjugs.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/haiti.html

Officially the Republic of Haiti, Haiti occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola in the Greater
Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Today, few if any Jews remain in Haiti.

- The First Jews

- Modern Times
- 2010 Earthquake
- Community Contacts

The First Jews

The first Jew to settle in Haiti, Luis de Torres, arrived in 1492 as Christopher Columbuss Converso interpreter. After Haiti
was conquered by the French in 1633, many Dutch Jews emigrated from Brazil in 1634. Most of these Jews were
Marranos. Many became employees of French sugarcane plantations and further developed the industry.

In 1683, Jews were expelled from all French colonies, including Haiti. Nevertheless, a few Jews remained as leading
officials in French trading companies. After a few decades, in the mid-1700s many Jews, who had been expelled from
Haiti, returned to the country. In 1804, during the slave revolt of Toussaint LOuverture, much of the Jewish community
was murdered or expelled from Haiti. A few years later, many Polish Jews arrived in Haiti due to civil strife in Poland.

Most youth did not grow up with a Jewish education due to the lack of a Sunday school or Jewish communal life. Children
had to conceal their Judaism, because only Catholics could attend public school.

Jews tended to settle along the shoreline, in port cities. Most Jews were involved in commerce and trade, therefore,
establishing communities in major industry centers. A few years ago, archaeologists discovered an ancient synagogue of
Crypto-Jews in Jeremie, the only one discovered on the island. Several Jewish tombstones have also been uncovered in
port cities such as Cap Haitien and Jacmel.

By the end of the 19th century, approximately 30 Jewish families arrived from Lebanon, Syria, and Egypt. During this
period, a French law was enacted that gave French citizenship to minorities in the North American region; therefore, many
Jews from the Middle East felt secure moving to Haiti. These Jews brought with them their Sephardic customs and
traditions. By the time of the American occupation in 1915, roughly 200 Jews lived in Haiti. During the 20 years of
American occupation, many Jews left Haiti for the United States and South America.

Modern Times

In 1937, the Haitian government began issuing passports and visas to approximately 100 Eastern European Jews
escaping Nazi persecution. According to the Joint Distribution Company, Haiti played a small, yet critical, role in
saving Jewish lives during the darkest chapter in the Jewish story. The JDC's organizational records show that
up to 150 Jewish refugees managed to escape Europe to come to Haiti. Unfortunately, though, it seems that more
Jews were unable to acquire visas to Haiti due to the cost. Prof. David Bankier, of the Institute of Contemporary
Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said that after 1938, the cost [of a visa] was outrageous: If you
wanted to go to Haiti, you had to pay $5,000.

Most of these European Jews remained in Haiti, grateful to the government, until the late 1950s. Many of the
Haitian Jewry left, however, so their children could marry Jews and not assimilate, and to find greater economic
opportunity. The 21st century witnessed a continued departure of Jews from Haiti, for the United States and
Panama because of the poor economy and civil violence. Even after so many decades of living in Haiti, Jews are
still considered foreigners in the country. Today, only 25 Jews remain in Haiti, predominately residing in Port-au-
Prince.

The community is led by Gilbert Bigio, a retired well-to-do businessman. Every Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur,
services are held in his house. The last Jewish wedding in Haiti occurred 10 years ago, Bigios daughter, and the
last bris was Bigios son, more than 30 years ago. Bigio owns the only Torah in all of Haiti, which he provides to
the community for services.

IDF Search & Rescue in Haiti

Israel and Haiti maintain full diplomatic relations. In 1947, Haiti voted for the United Nations partition of Palestine and the
creation of the State of Israel. Many Haitians have a lot of admiration for Israel and its struggles. The Israeli ambassador
in Panama represents Israeli interests in Haiti. Israel maintains an honorary consulate in Port-au-Prince. Currently,
George Bigio is the honorary consul of Israel in Haiti, and flies a massive Israeli flag outside his home.

2010 Earthquake

In January 2010, after a devastating earthquake destroyed much of Haiti's capital, Port au Prince, killing more than
300,000 people and leaving nearly a million more homeless and without food or water, Israel was one of the first countries
to send crews to assist in the aftermath. The IDF sent both search and rescue teams to try and find remaining survivors
among the many rubbled building as well as medical teams to assist in caring for the survivors.

The medical team succeeded in setting up the first fully functioning field hospital, inclusive of a plethora of advanced
equipment. During its stay in Haiti, the delegation treated more than 1110 patients, conducted 319 successful surgeries,
delivered 16 births including three by Cesarean sections and saved many from within the ruins. Following the conclusion
of the IDF medical and rescue team operations in Haiti on January 27, the Israeli government decided to continue its
official assistance to Haiti as part of the global effort of reconstruction of the country.

The ongoing effort is being coordinated through MASHAV - Israel's Agency for International Development Cooperation,
Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Community Contacts

The Jewish Community of Haiti

P.O. Box 687
Port-au-Prince
Tel. 509-1-20-638
http://faculty.webster.edu/corbetre/haiti/misctopic/ethnic/listjews.htm

JEWS IN HAITI: LIST DISCUSSION MARCH 1996

In March 1996 a discussion came up on my Haiti list in which the history of Jews in Haiti was the primary topic. Below are
selected posts from that discussion and some later additions. I am still open to adding yet more information if there are
those of you who have contributions to add to what is below.
Bob Corbett, August 1999

From Eliabeth McAlister

Eliabeth McAlister EMcAlister@wesleyan.edu
I have also become interested in the story of Jews in Haiti and am researching for an article on "the Jew in the Haitian
Imagination" which discusses brule Juif rituals on Good Friday, and my findings among Rara bands that when they are
labeled "Jews" because they do Rara on Good Friday, some Rara members affirm that they consider themselves "Jews."
All of this is symbolic and mythical and I am doing a cultural analysis on it for an upcoming volume called Black Zion, on
African American imaginings of Judaism, to be published by Oxford Press.

This more symbolic data, though, has caused me to look for the real history of Jews in Haiti and I have uncovered a lot of
hints that there has been a steady migration of Jewish people--small but steady, I should say--for decades. Some of the
old, known families in Haiti were Jewish (I've got their names somewhere, you'd recognize them) but the pattern was that
Jews assimilated quite quickly into the larger Haitian society, marrying into Catholic families. Jeremie in particular was a
place where many Jews settled, and in Port-au-Prince you can find names like "Rosemberg" on the caveau; tantalizing
hints of a multicultural Haitian history. Some of the "Syrien" were Jewish originally. The main family, as Greg Chamberlain
mentioned, to still practice is Bigio; every passover he holds seder and invites visiting Jewish blanc. His cousin David
frequents the Oloffson and remembers going to Brule Juif as a kid; says he never felt any anti-semitism; says he knows
more about Catholicism than his own Judaism...

Apparently many Middle Eastern families (the Syrien) were Jewish and they socialized with other "Syrien". When the state
of Isreal was created this caused divisions among Haitian "Syrien" and resulting social tensions created two sort of social
camps.

Meanwhile, if anybody is looking for a dissertation topic, the social history of the "syrien" class has not yet been done;
nore, as Greg Chamberlain mentioned, has a study of the ruling families.

That's my two cents; I'd be interested to hear anyone's stories about Brule Juif rituals, or about Jews in Haiti; you can
write to me directly at my email address if you like.

Liza McAlister

GHI408@cnsvax.albany.edu
While doing research within the NAACP Papers, I came across the following information:

Ed Mathon (identified as the Director of "Radios-Electricite"), in a letter to NAACP Exec. Sec. Walter White (1/13/1941),
stated in part: "a couple of hundred Jews acquired Haitian nationality without going to Haiti" and "a great many Germans
(Jews) came to Haiti as Haitian citizens" and "many wealthy Jews became naturalized Haitians"

In a subsequent letter from Mathon to White (1/22/1941), Mathon alluded to the Nazi propaganda question in Haiti,
apparently in response to remarks by U.S. Senator Joseph D'Mahoney about his concerns with German agents in Haiti.

Is anyone aware of the extent to which Jews emmigrated to Haiti? Are there any other primary source materials, or good
secondary source materials regarding Jews in Haiti, or that make reference to the Holocaust? A colleague in my
department is interested in this topic, and it was mere coincidence that I came across the material I cited above.

Glenn Inghram
UAlbany History Department

====================================

Haiti and Jews, 1940's

From Paul Brodwin

brodwin@csd.uwm.edu
This is the first time I have heard of Haiti as a country of refuge for persecuted European Jews during WWII. It would be
interesting to follow this up. I do know that the Dominican Republic welcomed refugees from Europe during the War --
indeed, there was an article a few years back in the New York Times about a community in the DR where a number of
German Jews settled in the 1930's and 40's, and where their descendents continue some of the same typically Old World
trades (making sausage, etc.). I notice that Howard French is a reader of this newsgroup -- perhaps he was even the one
who wrote that article.

Paul E. Brodwin

========================

Haiti and Jews, 1940's

From Greg Chamberlain

100074.2675@compuserve.com
In 1939, Dominican dictator Gen Rafael Trujillo, seeking to elevate himself in the eyes of foreign powers (that was how it
was seen at the time), offered to take in Jewish refugees from Europe. Several thousand arrived and settled in the small
town of Sosua, on the north coast, not far from the (now tourist centre) of Puerto Plata. The town still exists, but there's
little trace of the immigrants now.

I don't think it was Howard French who wrote about them, though the NYTimes has (many years ago) carried articles
about Sosua. Howard?

Greg Chamberlain

===================================================

Haiti and Jews: Chamberlain replies to Glaser

Don't know about Jews among the Polish troops. The Brandts are German-origin near-whites who came from Jamaica at
the turn of the century. Yes, there are Brandts elsewhere. There's a senior politician in Montserrat of that name, for
example. Anyone know of a serious study of the big ruling families in Haiti?

Greg Chamberlain

======================

From: Greg Chamberlain

Anyone recall Marion Saul, a splendidly eccentric American Jewish lady from NYork who ended up spending nearly all her
life in Haiti? She died about 10 years ago, in her eighties. She married a NYork Lehmann very young then divorced him,
then her second husband died, and at about 25 she was a rich widow and descended on Haiti.

She liked to recall how she danced with Trujillo at balls when he came over from the Dom.Rep. on dirty weekends just
before he seized power in 1930 (when he was head of the army). She never spoke much of Jews in Haiti but introduced
me to lots of "Syrians," as Arabs in general are called in Haiti.

Greg Chamberlain

=========================

From LeGrace Benson

LeGraceBenson@clarityconnect.com
Chinese and Jews in Haiti

According to some writers, the Wah family, of which Bernard Wah was internationally notable as a painter from about
1950, and whose members in Haiti and in diaspora continue to paint, are at least partly Chinese. A daughter of an East
Indian, orig. from Jamaica is noted in crafts circles. Someone told me that Kosher food was available in Leogane since
there were many Jews there --refugees from Nazi Germany. As one looks closer and closer at Haitian families, Haiti
seems to have ethnic and national diversity at least in some degree.
LeGrace Benson

There are/were at least two painters of some merit named Sau; Saul, that is Audes Saul was one of them --his work was
one of the illustrations for an article in Art International, 1982 on Haitian art. Is he/ are they realted to Mme Saul, does ony
one know.

===========================

From Adrianne Talamas

atalamas@mhc.mtholyoke.edu
I've met Audes Saul and enjoy one of his paintings in my kitchen. I don't think he's Jewish. I know of another Saul artist
who does or did a lot of flowers and things. I would be very surprised if Audes and his family were Jewish. I'm nearly
certain that they are not.

Adrienne

===========================

From Stewart R. King

stumo@teleport.com
This is a message from my mother about a Jewish family that she knew in Haiti in the 1940's.

From Anne King

ak1@pgstumail.pg.cc.md.us
Stewart: Mrs. Fisher's father was Senator Fombrun, "exiled" as UN Ambassador while I was there although I think I did
see or meet him briefly. Odette Fombrun was her sister-in-law. Eddie Roy likewise. Kurt Fisher came to Haiti because it
was the only place tht would give him a visa. He later brought his elderly parents there, both of them. They came from
Vienna; one of his big hobbies was little lead soldiers, of which he had an impressive array. He also wrote some
anthropological books for HAiti. Since one had to be of African descent to become a Haitian citizen, some hanky-panky
was observed in his case to prove this, so he was officially of African descent (!)

[Stewart] It's my understanding that the Haitian legislature declared all Jews to be of African ancestry since they came
from Egypt (that's Africa) at the time of the Exodus with Moses. This was the justification for permitting European Jews to
settle in Haiti in the '30's and '40's.

Mme Fisher must be still alive; I think she and her children live in Puerto Rico. When I was there (1948-49) the fishers
were already married and had two children, so they are around 50 today. You can send this to the man if you wish; I don't
know of any other Jews in Haiti except possibly the people who ran a meat market (don't remember their name).

[Stewart] We met the Fishers in San Juan in the '70's -- I remember Mme Fisher as a quite dignified lady. I remember I
was studying French in junior high school and so I had to try it out on her, but it all came out as Spanish.

Anne Mills King

Prince George's Community College

======================

From MichaelHeinl
MHeinl@aol.com
Footnote/Amplification:

As Patrick notes, some Haitian diplomats in Europe before the war did sell Haitian passports to Jews frantic to escape.
For those who remember the Sans Souci and its delightful proprietors, Georges & Gerti Heraux, Gerti and her mother
arrived in Haiti in 1938 from Vienna thanks to just such an arrangement. Georges benefitted, Haiti benefitted, I (to avoid
charges of conflict of interest on this posting) had my life enriched by Gerti's goodness to me over twenty years At least
Haiti (unlike Cuba, with the St. Louis/ "Voyage of the Damned") kept its bargain. With nostalgia and fondness.
Michael Heinl
http://www.gutenberg.us/articles/eng/History_of_the_Jews_in_Haiti

<snip>

In 1937, Haiti was responsible for saving about 70 Jewish families (an estimated total of up to 300 lives) during
the Holocaust (according to the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee), by issuing passports and visas
to Jews escaping Nazi persecution. Some were Austrian Jews, Polish Jews, German Jews, and a trickle of
Romanian Jew and Czech Jewish descent.

While these numbers are not as high as the number of Jewish families that Oskar Schindler helped save, a life is
a life as Haiti played a small, yet critical role in saving Jewish lives during the darkest chapter in the Jewish story
Unfortunately, though, it seems that more Jews were unable to acquire visas to Haiti due to the cost. Professor
David Bankier, of the Institute of Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said that after 1938,
the cost [of a visa] was outrageous: If you wanted to go to Haiti, you had to pay $5,000.

Haiti at the time, was still unfairly paying reparations on an exorbitant debt with interest fees to France after the
Haitian Revolution that could have hindered their efforts to continue issuing these visas for free. There were
others apart from this bunch who never came to Haiti at all, but from Germany they were given Haitian passports
by the Haitian government that allowed them to flee Germany and into other countries.

Grateful to the Haitian government, many of these European Jews stayed in Haiti until the late 1950s in which
many Haitian Jews left, so that their children could marry other Jews and not assimilate, while finding better
economic opportunities. The mid-20th century was a time where a continued departure of Jews from Haiti for the
United States and Panama because of the economic conditions and civil violence in the country.

<snip>