Jewish Agency Representative Perishes in Plane Downed by Nazis over Bay of Biscay

Wilfried Israel, a representative of the Jewish Agency who was sent from London to Portugal and Spain to arrange for the transfer of several hundred Jewish refugees from those countries to Palestine, was among the passengers who perished on the British transport plane shot down by Nazi aircraft over the Bay of Biscay en route from Lisbon to England, it was learned here today.

The young envoy of the Jewish Agency was returning to London after having completed his mission in Spain where he spent several weeks supervising the distribution of Palestine immigration certificates to Jewish refugees who succeeded in escaping from France.

A British subject by birth, Wilfried Israel lived most of his life in Berlin where his father founded one of the largest department stores in Germany. He was active in the work of helping German Jews emigrate from Nazi Germany to Palestine and other countries, and after the Nazis “Aryanaized” his firm in Berlin, he moved to London where he continued to be active in helping Jews flee Nazi Europe. He was a member of the board of the Jewish Colonization Association. Though a non-Zionist, he devoted much time to problems dealing with the settlement of Jews in Palestine and was chosen by the Jewish Agency as its representative to cooperate with the Hias-Ica Emigration Association in arranging shipping facilities in Lisbon for the transportation to Palestine of Jewish refugees from Spain by way of the Belgian Congo.