Relief and Rescue Departments
Extent and Medium
46.4 linear feet (116 Hollinger boxes)
Biographical History
Material relief activities of the WJC began in April 1940 with the establishment of the Relief Committee for Jewish War Victims (RELICO) in Geneva under the direction of Adolf H. Silberschein. The purpose of RELICO was to supply food and social aid to Jews in Europe, especially in Poland and France, and to help refugee groups DL including those in Mauritius, Tangier, Rhodesia, and Tanganyika. RELICO continued in operation throughout the war years, even after the headquarters of the WJC was moved to New York. In July 1940 a separate relief department was established at the new office under Arieh Tartakower.
The Rescue Department was established in April 1944. Its primary functions were to document and publicize war crimes and atrocities; to devise rescue plans and enlist public and governmental support for action; to prevent deportation of some European Jewish communities; to liberate concentration camps from the Nazis; and to advocate punishment for war crimes. Aryeh L. Kubowitzki, head of the Department for European Jewish Affairs from 1941 to 1944, was named the first director of the Rescue Department, with Kurt R. Grossman as his assistant. In the spring of 1945, the Rescue Department was merged with the Relief Department under Arieh Tartakower and renamed the Relief and Rehabilitation Department. When Tartakower moved to Palestine in 1946, Kalman Stein became acting director of the expanded Relief Department. Stein was succeeded by Kurt R. Grossman in 1947. The Department was disbanded at the end of 1948 and its functions were assumed by the Relief Desk of the Political Department.
Scope and Content
Contains files of WJC departments engaged in relief and rescue work. The series includes files from the Relief Department, Department of European Jewish Affairs, Rescue Department, and Relief and Rehabilitation Department. Files of the Secretary-General of the WJC are included among the files of the Rescue Department director, since Aryeh L. Kubowitzki fulfilled both positions.
In the WJC collection, rescue materials were often found interfiled with general Relief Department files. Since the Rescue and Relief Departments were closely related in function and were merged in 1945, the materials of the two were combined into one series.
Series D deals with political, material, and social relief and rescue activities, location of survivors, immigration and migration, refugees, displaced persons, extermination and reaction to Hitler's Final Solution, and relations with international relief organizations (including the UNRRA and Red Cross). Throughout the second world war, the relief and rescue departments at the New York office maintained contact with WJC relief and rescue workers in Europe, especially via WJC offices in London, Stockholm, Geneva, and Lisbon.
System of Arrangement
This series is divided into seven subseries:1. Executive Files; 2. Immigration Division; 3. Location Service; 4. Child Care Division; 5. Committee for Overseas Relief Supplies; 6. Advisory Council on European Jewish Affairs; 7. Rescue Department.