ISAK SARFATI


Isak Sarfati was born in 1923 in Bitola. He was one of the three children of Sarfati Avram Jakov and Hannah. His father was a commissioner, and mostly worked with purchase and sale of houses and other facilities, while his mother was a housewife. Given his family circumstances and difficult financial situation, Isaac was unable to complete his primary education, so he spent most of his time working as a laborer. Due to his positive character traits, he was loved and respected in the environment of the craft youth in Bitola. Before the war, he became a member of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, and in 1941 he was elected a member of the Local Committee of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia in Bitola. In late 1941, the Local Committee ordered him to set up a sub-committee to collect public aid among the Jews. In these activities of fundraising and collecting materials needed for the resistance movement, Isak Sarfati and Mois Mose stood out as the most active and responsible. In addition to them, lawyers Leon Ihsah, Peretz Ruso, Leon Franko, Dario Aruesti and Moritz Shami also took part in the subcommittee. This sub-committee for people’s aid worked with maximum investment and commitment in order to accomplish the task, so at the beginning of 1942 during a meeting they were pointed out as an example by Orde Chopela (participant in the National Liberation War, proclaimed as national hero). In April 1942, the Bulgarian police arrested Moritz Shami, and Isak Sarfati went underground for some time. In late July 1942, for the first time during the occupation, the Bulgarian occupiers sentenced the members of the resistance movement (nine people): 9 persons with hanging, 8 persons to 10 years in prison, and some were released due to lack of evidence. Isak Sarfati was sentenced to be hanged in absentia. He managed to escape to Greece, but the locals betrayed him. Together with Leon Faradzi, they fell into the hands of the occupiers and were immediately executed by a firing squad. Photo credit: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1132840 United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of State Archives of Macedonia


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