The World Jewish Congress Paris Office records

The World Jewish Congress (WJC) is an international organization founded by resolution of the First World jewish Congress, which took place in August 1936 in Geneva. The organization goal is to defend the political, social, and economic rights of Jews throughout the world. Its governing bodies were elected at the First World Jewish Congress: the executive committee headed by Stephen Wise (also the organization’s chairman), an administrative committee, headed by Nahum Goldman, and a central council headed by Louis Lipsky. At the first session of the executive committee, Sept. 6, 1936, it was decided to establish regional offices of the WJC in Geneva, New York, and London, and a central bureau in Paris. The central bureau coordinated the WJC’s work, collected information on the situation of Jews in various countries, published materials, and also lobbied at the League of Nations. In 1940, with the Second World War under way, the central bureau was transferred to New York, and a European office was established in London.

Forms part of the Claims Conference International Holocaust Documentation Archive at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. This archive consists of documentation whose reproduction and/or acquisition was made possible with funding from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.

The archives of the Paris Office of the World Jewish Congress were transferred to the Central Zionist Archives in Jerusalem in 1992, and held as a record group C10. The material covering the period 1934-1954 was filmed by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum International Archives Project and transferred to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives in Jan. 2005.The records from 1954 to the 1980s are available as original documents only at the Central Zionist Archives.