Leon and Rebeka Ilutovich collection
Extent and Medium
boxes
oversize boxes
oversize folders
2
6
4
Creator(s)
- Rebeka R. Ilutovich
- Leon Ilutovich
Biographical History
Leon Ilutovich was born on April 8, 1914 in Odessa, Russia to Jankiel and Lea (née Plotycher). He graduated from the University of Poland in 1932 and earned a law degree from Warsaw University in 1937. While he lived in Warsaw, Ilutovich was active in the Zionist movement. After the German invasion of Poland, he fled Warsaw and made his way by foot through the forests to Vilna, Lithuania leaving behind his parents and extended family. After the Soviet Union annexed Lithuania, Ilutovich decided to flee Vilna as well and obtained Curacao and Japanese visas from Zwartendijk and Sugihara. Leon was number 819 on Sugihara’s list, his wife Maria was number 720. While in Japan he became a representative of the Jewish Agency and a secretary of the World Jewish Congress. Most of Ilutovich’s family perished. In 1941, Leon traveled to Shanghai, China to establish the “Far Eastern Committee representing the Jewish Agency for Palestine in connections with the immigration of Jewish refugees stranded in the Far East.” In July 1941, he served as member of the Palestine Committee and was one of four representatives of the Jewish agency for Japan. He was hospitalized with typhus from October 16 through November 21, 1943. From November to February 1945, Leon served as the manager and general manager of the Jewish Weekly publication Our Life. He was also a member of the Executive Committee of Polish War Refugees in Shanghai. From 1945 to 1946, he worked as the Secretary of the World Jewish Congress in China. He served as a delegate from China to the 22nd Zionist Congress held in Basel, Switzerland on December 9, 1946. By 1948, he moved to New York and worked as an American correspondent for The Voice of Zionism, a Jewish-Hebrew weekly publication. In the United States he later serve as the Assistant Director of the Palestine Bureau, the Director and Editor of the Zionist Information Service, and the Assistant Executive Director of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA). He also served as a member of the Zionist Actions Committee and served as Secretary of the ZOA delegation to the 24th, 25th, 27th, 28th, and 29th Congresses held in Jerusalem. At some point he married Rebeka Ilutovich (born Renia Lindenbaum), who was likely among his acquaintances from Warsaw, Poland.
Before the war, Renia Lindenbaum (b. 1917, later Renia Landau and Rebeka Ilutovich) was active in the “Ha ‘Noar Ha’Zioni” Zionist youth organization, where she met her future husband Michal (Mulek) Landau and likely her second husband Leon Ilutovich. In July 1940, Michal Landau escaped the Łódź ghetto and found his way to the Warsaw ghetto where he was reunited with Renia. Shortly after his arrival in the Warsaw ghetto he and Renia contracted typhus. Both recovered and on November 9, 1941 they were married in a rabbi’s study. It was a traditional Jewish wedding. Renia wore her sister Sara Kuniegis’ wedding dress and they served carrot cake. In February 1943, Renia and Michal escaped the Warsaw ghetto. Renia hid with her brother Lutek and her sister-in-law Rutka. However, after a few weeks Mr. Czechorowski took the three of them to an open field and abandoned them. Despite attempts to persuade her to stay, Renia decided to leave Lutek and Rutka in order to find her husband who was hidden elsewhere. Soon after Renia left, Lutek and Rutka were discovered and executed by the Gestapo. Renia found Michal and together they hid in a coal pit for a couple of weeks before making their way to the Hotel Polski. There they obtained Palestinian certificates. In 1943, they were deported to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. In April 1945, the prisoners were forced aboard a train and traveled without food for several days. The train was abandoned by German soldiers outside of Magdeburg, Germany and American forces liberated the prisoners the following day. The survivors were taken to the Hillers Leben village where they were able to recuperate. Renia and Michal were among the survivors. In September 1945, after spending a month in Belgium, Renia and Michal arrived in Palestine aboard the British military ship “Mataroa.” Eventually Renia Landau married Leon Ilutovich. During her life Renia also went by the name Rebeka.
Archival History
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Rebeka Renia Ilutovich
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum collection, gift of Rebeka Renia Ilutovich
Funding Note: The cataloging of this collection has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
Rebeka Ilutovich donated the Leon and Rebeka Landau Ilutovich collection to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2000 and 2002. The collections accessioned as 2000.22.1 and 2002.409.1 have been incorporated into this collection
Scope and Content
The Leon and Rebeka Ilutovich collection focuses on the wartime experiences of Leon Ilultovich in Poland, Lithuania, Japan, and Shanghai, China. Materials in the collection include correspondence, visas, travel documents, medical records, identification records, newspapers, printed notices, ephemera, photographs, and photograph albums. The collection also includes photographs of the Ilutovich, Lindenbaum, and Landau families in Poland. The collection contains extensive biographical materials relating to Leon Ilutovich. These materials include identification documents, school records, medical records, financial records, and documents relating to his travel and residency. Leon Ilutovich’s identification documents include photostat copies of his military draft card, with an English transcription, September 21, 1937; a Lithuanian Red Cross certificate, 1940; a handwritten translation of a transit visa for a trip from Japan to Curaçao, August 2, 1940; “Autotechnika” identification card with record of completed coursework, 1940-1941; a Shanghai Jewish Club guestrooms pass, August 17, 1942; a Polish Resident’s Association in China Photo ID, circa 1943-1946; and a Shanghai Zionist Organization card, 1944. The school records include a photostat of his diploma from the University of Poland, with English translation, November 7, 1932; a handwritten student identification certificate with Lithuanian notary seal, circa 1937-1940; a library form written in Russian, undated; and an affidavit in English attesting that Ilutovich earned a law degree from the Warsaw University in 1937, dated 1950. The medical records include three vaccination certificates issued in Kobe, Japan for vaccinations against typhoid fever, dysentery, cholera, and smallpox, 1941; a document issued by the Shanghai Jewish Polyclinic and Hospital which states Ilutovich was hospitalized with typhus from October 16-November 21, 1943; an International certificate of inoculation and vaccination with health certificate issued by the Shanghai Quarantine Service of the National Health Administration of the Republic of China, 1946; and a medical certificate from the Commonwealth of Australia, November 5, 1946. Residency and travel documents for Ilutovich include a transit visa for travel to Palestine, authorized by the government of Palestine, 1941; travel permits for travel within Japan, circa 1940s; travel permits for Australia, 1945-1947; a notification document regarding permission to stay for Kobe, Japan, August 12, 1941; a Shanghai residency extension permit, May 7, 1943; three Shanghai residence certificates, 1944-1946; a U.S. Naval Air Transport Service Priority Certificate, December 2, 1946; a Transcontinental and Western Air, Inc. International Passenger Clearance form, September 1947; and a Pao Chia Census Form, April 6, 1944. Financial materials in the collection related to rationing include a “Foodstuff Allotment Book” and ration stamps for the Shanghai ghetto both documents are undated. Other financial materials include tickets and receipts for packages sent to Warsaw, Poland; rubles taken in Vladivostok, February 10, 1941; a receipt in Russian, 1941; a Shanghai Relief Lottery ticket, March 6, 1942; three Chinese receipts, July 28, 1942, May 19,1943, and undated; a receipt for application, March 31, 1943; a Chinese ticket, undated; and a handwritten document with numeral characters written in Chinese, undated. Correspondence in this collection is written in Polish and English. The content of the letters largely relates to Leon Ilutovich’s status as Polish refugee in Shanghai, as well as his work with Jewish agencies, his support of the Zionist movement, and his service as a delegate from China to the 22nd Zionist Congress held in Basel, Switzerland. Other correspondence relates to his work as a correspondent for The Voice of Zionism and Our Life. The few pieces of personal correspondence in the collection were written by Leon Ilutovich to Rebeka Ilutovich (born Renia Lindenbaum) in 1941, 1946, and 1947. The collection’s printed materials series includes newspapers; newspaper clippings; printed notices; programs; a World Jewish Congress Report, No. 1834, printed in Hebrew, March 29, 1946; blank travel postcards with scenes of Japan, circa 1930-1940s; and ephemera. The newspaper clippings include pieces written by Leon Ilutovich regarding the experience of Jews in China. The articles published in German were featured in the Shanghai Echo, Shanghai Jewish Chronicle, Die Neue Zeit, Lihr Abendblatt. Russian articles were published in the Wiadomsci, New Day, and Nouosti Dnia. Articles in English were published in The China Press, China Daily Tribune, North China Daily News, Daily News Shanghai, Tientsin Evening Journals, and the Cleeva Press. Articles published in Hebrew were featured in The Word. There are also articles from unidentified newspapers. Complete newspaper issues include two copies of Our Life, published in Russian, October 25, 1946, and Nasza Trybuna, published in Polish, April-May 1950. Organized under notices, the collection includes notices, leaflets, and broadsides. These materials include appeals to the Jews in Shanghai published in German and English, 1945, 1946; five notices published in Russian, 1942, undated; two copies of an election announcement published in Russian, undated; an announcement regarding Zionism published in German, undated; and an appeal to Jewish displaced persons to join the Zionist movement, published in German, undated. Programs include a program printed in Russian, May 5, 1943; a program for the “Takarazuka Girls Stage Show ‘Springparade’” April 9, no year; the Shanghai Musician Association of Stateless Refugees, August 2, 1944; a Table Tennis Tournament program, May 4, 1941; the “Wieczor Powiecony Walkom O Niepodleglosc” a play, printed in Polish, 1942; two programs for the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra at the Lyceum Theatre, 1942-1943, 1943-1944; and the Shanghai Jewish Club presents First in Shanghai Exhibition of Jewish Artists, May 5-8, 1943.
System of Arrangement
The Leon and Rebeka Ilutovich collection is arranged into six series: Series 1: Biographical materials, circa 1937-1949 Series 2: Correspondence, 1920-1947 Series 3: Printed Materials, circa 1940-1950, undated Series 4: Photographs, circa 1911-1983 Series 5: Photograph Albums, circa 1910-1946 Series 6: Souvenir book, 1941
People
- Lindenbaum, Tobiasz, 1878-1939.
- Lindenbaum, Rutka, ?-1943.
- Kuniegis, Bernard.
- Lindenbaum, Lutek, ?-1943.
- Rebeka R. Ilutovich
- Rosen, Gitel, - 1942.
- Leon Ilutovich
- Ilutovich, Rebeka, 1917-?
- Kuniegis, Jerzy.
- Goldberg, Mietek, ?-1943.
- Linden, Krystyn, 1942-
- Kuniegis, Sara.
- Goldberg, Sewek, ?-1943.
- Goldberg, Wella, 1904-1942.
- Lindenbaum, Curtla, ?-1942.
Subjects
- Shanghai (China)
- World War, 1939-1945--Refugees--China--Shanghai.
- Jewish refugees.
- China--Politics and government--1937-1945.
- Vaccines.
- Palestine--1940-1950.
- Jews--China--Shanghai--History--20th century.
- Zionism.
- Palestine.
- Japan.
- Warsaw (Poland)
- Jewish refugees--China--Shanghai--History--20th century.
- World War, 1939-1945.
- Russia.
- Poland.
- World War, 1939-1945--Refugees.
Genre
- Visas.
- Document
- Correspondence.
- Photographs.
- Travel documents.
- Newspapers.