Rachel Saltiel's Post-War Spanish Passport with Israeli Visas and Consular Stamps

Authors

Object ID

2022.1.56

Object Name

Passport

Date

1952

Files

Content Warning

The Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection consists of images, documents, and artifacts related to the Holocaust. The collection contains materials that depict a number of topics that may be difficult for viewers to engage with, including: antisemitic descriptions, caricatures, and representation of Jewish people; Nazi imagery and ideology; descriptions and images of German ghettos; graphic images of the violence of the Holocaust; and the creation of the State of Israel. For more information, see our policy page.

Description

Blue booklet with bird and shield on cover, includes photograph on page 2 of 32 pages, no marks on pages 12-30.

Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:

Rachel Pinhas de Saltiel and her husband Mentech Saltiel y Saporta, both of Spanish descent, belonged to the ancient Sephardi community of diaspora Jews in Thessaloniki, Greece, whose origin could be traced to the Spanish Expulsion of 1492. Sebastian de Romero Radigales- Consul General of Spain in Athens- used his authority to try to protect the Sephardi Jews who were being deported from Thessaloniki to Auschwitz (48,000 Jews deported between March and August, 1943), invoking a 1924 decree which gave Sephardi Jews of the diaspora-descendants of the Spanish Expulsion of 1492- a right to Spanish citizenship. Romero Radigales made repeated demands on the German ambassador that Jews with Spanish heritage should not be deported, but rather repatriated to their country of origin. Ironically, he found the Germans amenable to this, while Spain’s Francoist regime resisted his efforts to repatriate Jews from Thessalonica who had Spanish citizenship, the 1924 decree notwithstanding.

In August 1943, the Germans identified 367 Jews with Spanish citizenship who were subsequently interned in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp from August, 1943 to February 1944, to be used for a possible trade with the Allies. The group included Rachel Saltiel and her husband Mentech. Heated negotiations occurred between Spanish diplomats and German authorities until Romero Radigales was able to change his own government’s position and allow these Belsen interns to be transferred to Spanish Morocco. Rachel and her husband Mentech would eventually take up residence in Tel Aviv.

[see related item: 2022.1.16]

Dimensions

6 x 4"

Keywords

Rachel Pinhas de Saltiel, Mentech Saltiel y Saporta

Subcollection

Diplomats, Thessaloniki

Recommended Citation

"Rachel Saltiel's Post-War Spanish Passport with Israeli Visas and Consular Stamps" (1952). Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection. 2022.1.56.
https://digital.kenyon.edu/bulmash/1900