Holocaust survivor indemnification case files a.k.a. Moskovits Office Expedientes personales: indemnizaciones a sobrevivientes del Holocausto/Estudio Moskovits

Contains hundreds individual compensation and reparation claim files for Holocaust survivors living in South America, all of whom were clients of the legal office of Mr. José Moskovits, a Holocaust survivor and attorney in Buenos Aires. The claim files feature testimonies and affidavits by the survivors, legal documents and correspondence. IWO Foundation (Yivo Institute for Jewish Research) in Buenos Aires is a not for profit organization devoted to education preservation, and research of the Jewish heritage. IWO library and archives hold more than 60.000 volumes archives and artifacts related to the history of East European Jewry, the immigration to Latin America, the Holocaust, Jewish literature and languages, Jewish thought and religion, Israel and the middle east conflict, and more. Each year, more than 1.000 students, teachers, scholars, writers, filmmakers, artists, and family history researchers visit our library and archives. IWO also offers a variety of conferences, cultural programs, lectures, exhibitions, and courses. José Moskovits (1926-2014), he was born on March 27, 1926 in Mezöcsát, Hungary. As a teenage boy, José Moskovits was sent to a forced labor battalion. His mother and four siblings perished in Auschwitz, his father in Buchenwald. Mr. Moskovits was able to flee and joined the Jewish resistance in Budapest. After the liberation by the Red Army in January 1945, he became a leader in the youth movement "Dror Habonim." Together with other activists he organized a successful illegal transport to the British mandate of Palestine of 500 Jewish orphans whose parents had been murdered during the Holocaust. In 1945, Mr. Moskovits met his later wife Halina (Elena) Parys Feldberg, a native of Radomsk in Poland and survivor of several concentration camps. All of her family had been murdered in Treblinka. Another illegal transport of refugees that José Moskovits organized in 1947 was intercepted by the British and Mr. Moskovits was sent to a holding camp on Cyprus. A few months later Jose Moskovits was able to settle in Palestine. In 1948 he fought as a volunteer in the Golani Brigade during the War of Independence. He was wounded and in 1949 he was honorably discharged. In 1953, Halina Feldberg and José Moskovits married in Asunción, Paraguay where they had emigrated. Their marriage would last over 60 years until Mrs. Moskovits' death in April 2014. In 1955, Mr. and Mrs. Moskovits settled in Argentina. In 1958, José Moskovits opened his law office in Buenos Aires to assist Holocaust survivors with their reparation claims against the German government. Eventually, his law office would assist thousands of survivors all over South America. He maintained contact with Simon Wiesenthal and assisted in the identification of Nazi war criminals hiding in South America, and allegedly also played a role in the capture of Adolf Eichmann by setting up safe houses for the Israeli agents. In the 1960s, Mr. Moskovits moved his law practice into larger and more modern premises at calle Uriburu 272 PB no. 2 in Buenos Aires where he practiced law until the office was disbanded in 2012. From 1967 to 1976, Mr. Moskovits was the President of Sherit Hapleita, the Argentine Association of Jewish Survivors of Nazi Persecution. In that capacity he raised awareness of the Holocaust in Argentina, organized survivor reunions and commemorations, participated in international Holocaust events and conferences, and held demonstrations in support of the State of Israel. At the height of Argentina's so-called Dirty War, from 1976 to 1984, Mr. Moskovits was forced to move to Israel from where he continued to represent his survivor clients. Starting in 1976 until his death in 2014, Mr. Moskovits remained the lifelong honorary President of Argentina's survivor organization. José Moskovits passed away on November 30, 2014 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.