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- Eldest sone of Saleh and Aimée Ambar. Family and friends knew him as Albert Ambar, but officially his name was Ibrahim Saleh Ambar. Throughout his life, Albert was fascinated by airplanes and became one of the first licensed pilots in Egypt. Expelled from his country as a result of the Suez War, he immigrated to Brazil in 1957 where he passed away on August 10th, 1969. He is buried in the jewish cemetery of Rio de Janeiro.
For most of his life, Albert worked for the Shell Oil Company, first in North Africa and eventually in Rio de Janeiro. During World War II he was stationed in Libya and Tunisia where he supported the war effort as a civilian pilot.
He did not talk much about himself, but a few weeks before he died, bed-ridden, Albert told his son Joseph about a group of Jewish pilots, including himself, and some anti-British Egyptian pilots, who were flying secret missions smuggling Jews into what was then called Palestine.
On his first mission he was supposed to pick up immigrants at a particular location in Egypt, fly them to Palestime, and return to Cairo that very same day. However, due unexpected delays, it got dark before he could complete his mission. He decided to fly into Lod instead and spend the night in Tel-Aviv. Without any information he went to Tel-Aviv, walked into a hotel speaking in English and asked for a room. He was treated very politely and rooms were apparently available, until the moment Albert produced his Egyptian passport. With his Arabic sounding official name, Ibrahim Saleh Ambar, the desk clerk looked at Albert and told him to find a hotel in Yaffo! There was a man smuggling Jews and he was told to go the Arab area of Tel-Aviv to find lodgings!
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