Adolf August Poisson

Adolf August Poisson was born in Vienna, the son of August Josef Poisson, a Jewish director of the Creditanstalt-Bankverein who had converted to Catholicism, and Bertha, née Lippmann, a Catholic.

After finishing school, he first worked at Creditanstalt-Bankverein like his father. In 1927, he married Eduarda Schwarz, daughter of the Jewish imperial and royal captain Heinrich Franz Schwarz and Eugene Schwarz. Between 1934 and 1938, Adolf Poisson worked as a commercial clerk in various companies.

On March 12, 1938, the Poissons witnessed the downfall of a free and independent Austria with the invasion of the German Wehrmacht. With the occupation of Austria, the 'Nuremberg Racial Laws' came into force overnight, according to which Eduarda was classified as a 'full Jew' and Adolf as a 'half Jew'.

On August 15, 1938, Eduarda and Adolf Poisson decided to flee and emigrated via Trieste to Rio de Janeiro, where a brother-in-law of Adolf Poisson lived. They moved to São Paulo in 1941.

Eduarda Poisson's stepmother, Renate Schwarz, whom her father married after the death of his first wife and who stayed behind in Vienna, was deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp on July 10, 1942 and murdered there on November 3, 1942.

In emigration, Adolf Poisson kept his head above water with book exams and odd jobs. In Brazil, they experienced the liberation of Austria in May 1945.

However, the couple lacked the financial means to return home after the war. Adolf Poisson died in São Paulo at the age of 71 without ever having seen his homeland again.