As late as 1948, almost 90 members of the Ústí group of “Germans of Jewish Origin” believed in voluntary deportation through UNRRA.
Unlike them, Ota had money and eventually arranged and paid for his trip himself. It wasn’t easy for him either, the laws of the time did not allow for the free use of foreign currency, so he coordinated the emigration process with Jewish refugee organizations.
The list of the Ústí group of “Germans of Jewish Origin” has been preserved in the UNRRA archive, where it was discovered by historian Kateřina Čapková:
In the spring of 1947, Ota Vital secured emigration to his relatives in Peru, where he wanted to establish a textile chemicals factory. However, Jewish organizations in the free world apparently did not fully understand what a “mixed marriage” was and checked the Jewishness of both Ota Vital and his sons, stating that Luisa “lives in the same household with them”. Ota’s requests were supported by the then chairman of the Jewish community in Ústí nad Labem, Mr. Deutsch.
After an attempt to secure passage on the ship Jagiello from Gdansk, Poland, and a similarly unsuccessful attempt to travel by plane via Buenos Aires, the Vitals were to leave on September 10, 1948, by express train to Genoa and continue on the ship Sebastiano Caboto to the port of Callao, from where they would continue by train to Lima. However, Mrs. Vital fell ill and the family lived in Ústí for another month. They did not arrive in the Peruvian port of Callao until early October 1948.
In October 1966, the family moved to the United States, where Ota died shortly after obtaining citizenship, in February 1973.