Nahman-Leib Neumann Itzicovici papers

Nahman-Leib Neuman Itzkovici was born in 1888 in Negreşti in Moldova, Romania. A clerical error on his birth certificate listed his last name as a Branci. This was corrected by Nahman-Leib in 1934. He married Rena di Pergola and they had two sons: Harry (b. 1921) and Virgil (b. 16 December 1927-2002). During the World War I, Nahman-Leib fought in the Romanian Army in two battles: Mārāsti and Mārāseşti, for which he was decorated with three medals for his service. In January 1938 the Goga-Guza Government enacted an anti-Jewish legislation which resulted in 250,000 Jews losing their Romanian citizenship. Nahman-Leib retained his citizenship due to his WWI military decorations. Under the dictatorial regime of King Carol II the Romanian Jews suffered additional exclusion from the Romanian society. Nahman-Leib used his veteran status to ensure that his two sons could continue their education in Romanian public schools. On 6 September 1940, Ion Antonescu took power and the Neuman Iticovici children were forced to attend Jewish schools. In September 1943, Harry left Romania for Palestine, but the British authorities forced the boat to Cyprus. In 1945 Harry reached Beirut, where he studied at the American University and later immigrated to the US. Nahman-Leib provided for his family throughout the war working as a shoe salesman. In 1946, his son Virgil changed his last name to Ioanid. He studied at the Bucharest Polytechnic and became a civil engineer and taught at different universities around the world.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Radu Ioanid

The papers were donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum by Dr. Radu Ioanid in 2002.