Levitanus Nikolai Semenovich (1914)

Levitanus (Lewitanus) Nikolai Semenovich (born 31 December 1914, Riga) — textile worker.

Nikolai Levitanus was born into the family of Solomon Vulfovich Levitanus (1882, Riga — 1941, murdered by the Nazis in the Riga ghetto), a tailor, and Roza Mikhelevna Levitanus (née Deich) (1889, Riga — 1941, murdered by the Nazis in the Riga ghetto), a seamstress. He graduated from the Riga Gorfinkel Gymnasium in 1934, studied at the textile institute in Brno (1935, Czechoslovakia) and later in Vienna (1936, Austria). In 1937 he served in the Latvian Army (5th Cēsis Regiment). From 1937 to 1941 he was unemployed; during these years he was active in sports and played on the Latvian national football team.

During the Second World War Nikolai Levitanus fought on the North-Western Front in the 122nd Rifle Regiment of the 201st Latvian Rifle Division. He was wounded near Staraya Russa in 1942 and treated in a hospital in Glazov (Udmurt ASSR) in 1943. He later worked in Moscow at the Committee for Physical Culture and Sports under the Council of People’s Commissars of the Latvian SSR, and in 1945 returned to Riga. Until 1957 he worked for the Committee for Physical Culture and Sports and the sports society “Daugava.” From 1957 to 1975 he worked in his specialty as a textile worker (precise place of employment not recorded).

In his marriage to Nina Vasilievna Levitanus (née Sass) (born 1919, Irkutsk) two children were born: Anita Nikolaevna Bernshtam-Balester (née Levitanus) (born 1946, Riga), who in 1967 left for Barcelona (Spain) with her husband and his mother, and Alexander Nikolaevich Levitanus (born 1958, Riga).

In 1975 Nikolai Levitanus received permission to emigrate to Israel, where since the 1930s his maternal aunt Yeti Shamit (née Deich) (born 1892) had lived.

Family:

Solomon Vulfovich Levitanus (1882–1941) — father
Roza Mikhelevna Levitanus (née Deich) (1889–1941) — mother
Taiba Solomonovna Itkina (née Levitanus) (1908–1941) — sister
Alexander Solomonovich Levitanus (1910–1942) — brother
Mikhail Solomonovich Levitanus (born 1912, Riga) — brother
Maksim Solomonovich Levitanus (born 1916, Kharkiv) — brother
Nina Vasilievna Levitanus (née Sass) (born 1919) — wife
Anita Nikolaevna Bernshtam-Balester (née Levitanus) (born 1946) — daughter
Alexander Nikolaevich Levitanus (born 1958) — son
Yeti Shamit (née Deich) (born 1892) — aunt