Abram Sokol

Abram Sokol received transit visa no. 225 at the Japanese consulate in Kaunas on 30 July 1940. The register records manufacturer, aged 52.

What the register records

Nationality as recorded

Polnisch

Age in 1940

52

Occupation

Manufacturer

Family, per the Kitade-Bluman list

husband of #810

The journey

Reached Japan; reached Shanghai; aided by the Polish ambassador Tadeusz Romer; registered in Kobe for Australia.

Where this comes from

• The Kobe relatives list — refugees at Kobe in 1941 recorded with their relatives abroad. Seventy-six pages in numbered sheets (LIST No. 7, No. 16 and others), each line giving a name, age, birthplace, occupation and citizenship, and then…
  Entry 307 of the Kobe community's list of refugees and their relatives abroad: aged 52, born at Bialystok, Polish; relatives abroad: a cousin, Ofenberger, 50 Pine Street, New York.
• "Escape from the Nazis — two years to reach here", The Australian Jewish Herald (Melbourne), 17 July 1941, p. 1: Oskar Wajsbrem, his wife and her parents Mr and Mrs Sokol, newly arrived from Japan
  The Australian Jewish Herald of 17 July 1941 reported the arrival in Melbourne of Oskar Wajsbrem with his wife and her parents, Mr and Mrs Sokol — Mr Sokol from Białystok, with many friends in Melbourne; Mrs Sokol's grandmother had worked with Herzl and a street in Rehovot bears her name. The register's Abram Sokol, 52, and Jenta Sokol (No. 810), 50, both bound for Australia, are the couple; their daughter Elka is No. 227's wife on the register's own lines (Nos. 226–227).
• Find a Grave memorials 200228079, 200228078 and 200228038 — Oskar Wajsbrem (1909–6 Jan 1997), Helen Wajsbrem née Sokol (12 Apr 1922–9 Mar 1980) and Abram Sokol (1890–31 Dec 1958, St Kilda), with Jetta Makon Sokol (1890–1969); Jewish sect…
  Abram Sokol, born 1890, died at St Kilda on 31 December 1958 and is buried in the Jewish section of the Melbourne General Cemetery, a few rows from his daughter and son-in-law; the memorial links his wife Jetta Makon Sokol, 1890–1969.
• JDC Archives, New York, collection AR 33/44 file 53 (the Jewish Community of Kobe's returns to the JDC, 1941; Set I, item 00761) — Set I pp. 24–32 — April 1941 (and a May continuation sheet)
  He left Japan for Shanghai on the Kobe Maru, from Kobe, 5 April 1941 (the Jewish Community of Kobe's list of refugees who left Japan for Shanghai, April 1941 (JDC Archives, AR 33/44 file 53)). The list reads: "Sokol Abram". (Kobe Maru, Kobe, 5 April 1941, Shanghai.)
• Public Record Office Victoria — the probate and administration index
  Abram Sokol died in Melbourne on 31 December 1958. *The Australian Jewish News* mourned him as a philanthropist and industrialist, and the Friends of Kiryat Bialystok marked his sheloshim. (Trove, National Library of Australia; Public Record Office Victoria, (Public Record Office Victoria, probate index).)
• Melbourne Chevra Kadisha — the burial records of the Melbourne Jewish community (mck.org.au)
  The Melbourne Chevra Kadisha's burial records close his story: Abram Sokol died in Melbourne on 31 December 1958, aged 68, and was buried in the Melbourne General Cemetery two days later. Two things independent of the name tie the record to this man: the age gives 1890, within two years of the birth year the register's compilers recorded, and Melbourne is the city where the Australian Jewish Herald reported his arrival in 1941; on the register the surname belongs to him and his wife and nobody else. Read in the Chevra Kadisha's online burial records, October 2026.

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