Early pioneer Jewish film director
1950 travel document.
Following the founding of Israel the country absorbed many immigrants and among them those with vital talent who were required in the young fledgling state.
The country was in dire need of material, funds, food, and equipment; and also in short supply of man power that was crucial for the building of the state in all fields: industry, agriculture, finance, production and more; and those who were arriving contributed to the establishment of vital sectors of the market and government.
Among those who immigrated to Israel was the holder of the travel document in this article.
The end of the war in Europe brought back to their homes many refugees who escaped east or to neutral countries when hostilities commenced. Among them were Polish Jews that fled from western and eastern Poland deep into the USSR in the east, reaching as far as Uzbekistan; originally from parts of Poland that were annexed by the Soviet Union in 1939, following their short-lived alliance with Nazi Germany in partitioning of the country in September of that year. By mid 1940, the “new citizens” of eastern Poland, Galicia and Bialystok, for example, where offered the choice of accepting Soviet citizenship and be given special internal passports or for those who refused, deportation to the east, to interment and imprisonment, was the only Soviet response to such defiance. For those sent away, the living conditions in captivity were extremely harsh and unbearable.
After the war, the survivors were repatriated back home, to Poland in the west; thus a mass migration, on wagons, trucks and trains brought thousands back home. 1945 saw close to 150,000 Polish Jews entering back into Poland, with many of them learning about the war-time occupational atrocities once returning back, and that in most cases, their loved ones and fiends, perished in the death camps of Auschwitz, Treblinka, Sobibor and Majdanek. Among those who returned back was Włodzimierz Rubinow from Bialystok.
Post-war Poland also saw a change in pre-war regime, were Communist elements formed the government in the country for the next 40 years, after the Red Army initially liberated the country from the German occupation but maintained their presence in the country, with a tight grip of control. By 1952 the country was termed the Polish People’s Republic (1952-1989) and part of the Soviet sphere of influence behind the infamous Iron Curtain.
During the late 1940’s, roughly during the period of 1949-1951, the authorities in the country were “encouraging” immigration of their Jewish citizens to the new State of Israel. And special Identity Documents for traveling to Israel, explicitly indicating this at the bottom of each document ” Cette carte autorise a traverser la frontière de Pologne apres la reception du visa de l’Etat d’Israel ” were issued; even the nationality section did not indicate that the holder was of Polish status but a JEW.
Identity Card number Seria E 13454 was issued to Włodzimierz at Warsaw by the Ministry of Public Administration on March 29th 1950 (the ministry was part of the Ministry of Public Security and functioned from December 31st 1944 – April 28th 1950; during this period of time it was also responsible for issuing of passports & travel documents instead of the Foreign Ministry. Before the war and up to mid 1945, the Ministry of Interior of the Second Republic was in charge of issuing such papers, and after the establishment of the Communist regime in the country in the second half of 1945, the issuing was changed to the FM – it was one of its senior leaders that contributed to a mass immigration of its Polish Jewish citizens out of the country in the late 1940’s: Marian Spychalski, deputy Minister of Defense from 1945-1948, who signed a decree that permitted Jews to leave the country without need of visas or permits, thus a mass exodus began).
After returning back home in 1945, he enrolled into class at the city of Lodz, studying film at the Lodz Film School, enrolling in 1948 and graduating in 1950.
Włodzimierz obtained his Israeli immigration visa No. 8898/50 from the consular section of the embassy at Warsaw on March 31st. It was issued by Immigration Officer Baruch Niv. Four days later his document was endorsed with the Italian transit visa Nr. 4137, issued by diplomat Carlo Massolo and the next day the Austrian transit visa Nr. 1013/II. On the 7th he received his Czech transit visa as well numbered 5226/50.
He left Poland for the last time on April 13th, transiting through Czechoslovakia same day at Bogumin and exiting into Austria via the border crossing point of Summerau on the 14th, exiting a day later at Arnoldstein at the Italian border crossing of Tarvisio, and boarding a boat at Venetia for Israel on the 16th, arriving at Haifa port a week later.
In Israel he changed his name to Ze’ev Rav-Nof and established the Israeli Youth Corps film department (Gadna), which he headed from 1951-1953. From 1954 up to his untimely death in 1979 he was the senior film critic and reporter on music & art issues for the well known Israeli news paper Davar which saw print from 1925 to 1996.
I have added imaged of his travel document and additional relating documents such as his 1950 Polish film school ID & student’s book as well.
Smaller image source: Wikipedia.
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