Haapalah / Aliyah Bet

Joseph Ithai Indig was raised in Osijek, where his father was cantor in the Synagogue.

Josef Indig, age 32 years, escorted children to Yugoslavia.
He, and two other adults accompanying the children, planned to take the children to Palestine,

In the summer of 1940, Recha Freier escaped from Germany to Yugoslavia, and arranged for 120 German children to be smuggled to Yugoslavia in a similar manner.
Sara Kadosh cites: "When Freier requested certificates for the youth, however, Szold informed her that certificates could be issued only to children who had left Germany before the outbreak of the war. Freier received ninety certificates for her group, but only because the director of the Palestine Office in Zagreb, Richard
Kohn, notified Szold that all the candidates were prewar refugees. (Szold was angered by the deception.)"
Joseph Indig escorted the 30 children who did not receive certificates to Italy, and from there, to Switzerland.

 

In 1942, Josef Indig smuggled 30 children into Italy, and, in 1943, after the German occupation of Italy, he took them across the border to Switzerland.

Joseph Ithai Indig and the children went to Zagreb, in the German zone, where Jews were being arrested.
An Italian official told him, "Bring them into the Italian zone. We are Hitler's allies but we do not persecute Jews."
The Italian official arranged for Ithai to take the children to the province of Lubiana in the Italian zone, where the Italian Jewish Relief Organization gave him money to rent an old castle, Lesno Brdo.
When the Germans took over the Italian zone, the children were moved to Italy.

In July 18, 1942, Josef Indig and the children he was escorting boarded a train to Italy, not knowing how or where they would be living; he was simply told to take the train to Venezia.
In Venezia, Josef Indig was told that arrangements had been made for the children to live in Nonantola.
Mario Finzi told him, "With the help of the priests of the Abbey at Nonantola, arrangements have been made for the children to live in the Villa Emma, an empty mansion."

Josef Indig escorted the children to Bex-Les-Bains, changing trains in Milano.

After the war, Josef Indig and the 30 children boarded a boat for Palestine.