Records of the Stockholm Office of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
Extent and Medium
14 microfilm reels, 35 mm
Creator(s)
- Linda Levi
Biographical History
The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) is the world’s leading Jewish humanitarian assistance organization. The JDC was founded in 1914 to assist Jewish persons in Palestine during World War I. The Holocaust and World War II caused the JDC to ramp up its relief efforts. With the end of the war in 1945, Jewish survivors were placed into hastily created displaced persons camps throughout Europe. Along with the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), the JDC helped administer these camps and provide supplies. The JDC has aided millions of Jews in more than 85 countries.
Archival History
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
Acquisition
Source of acquisition is the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (Jerusalem, Israel). The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives received this collection via the United States Holocaust Museum International Archives Project in March 2016.
Scope and Content
Records of AJJDC’s Stockholm office during the years 1941-1967. The majority of the materials focus on the Stockholm office’s activities during World War II and in the postwar period from 1944-1949. Included are records of the AJJDC’s collaborations with other organizations to assist survivors, such as its work with the Red Cross on the White Buses. This project, headed by Count Folke Bernadotte, a Swedish diplomat and then-president of the Swedish Red Cross, provided packages and medical care to survivors in concentration camps, as well as bringing concentration camp inmates to safety in Sweden during the last months of the war. AJJDC also cooperated with the local Swedish Jewish community, the Mosaiska Församlingen to assist Holocaust survivors who had arrived in Sweden from Denmark, Norway, Hungary, and concentration camps. After the war, AJJDC representatives in Stockholm arranged for shipments of supplies distributed by AJJDC offices to survivors in Germany, Poland and Austria. These were referred to as the "Felix Convoys", coordinated by Mrs. Kerstin Felix. AJJDC also provided care and maintenance for refugees with tuberculosis and other diseases who were sent to sanatoria in Sweden to recuperate. In addition, the Stockholm office also corresponded with Jewish communities in South America and South Africa who sought to send money and other aid to survivors, and with other Jewish communities requesting assistance, such as the Jewish community in Prague.
System of Arrangement
Arranged in six series: 1. Financial records, 1941, 1944-1946, 1958; 2. Correspondence, 1944-1947; 3. Memorandums to staff, 1946-1949; 4. Marcus Levin file, 1942-1943; 5. AJJDC’s Stockholm office- miscellaneous files, 1945-1947; 6. Miscellaneous correspondence with Swedish humanitarian organizations and other international organizations, 1958-1966 (mostly organized in alphabetical order). The records in this collection have been digitized and are searchable online through the textual collections portal of the AJJDC Archives database.
Conditions Governing Reproduction
Copyright Holder: American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
People
- Kersten, Felix, 1898-1960.
- Levin, Marcus, 1899-1965.
- Bernadotte, Folke, 1895-1948.
Corporate Bodies
- International Committee of the Red Cross
- American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
Subjects
- Tuberculosis--Europe--History.
- Sweden--Foreign relations--Europe.
- Jews--Legal status, laws, etc.--Europe--History--20th century.
- Emigration and immigration--Europe--History--20th century.
- Refugees, Jewish--Europe--Registers.
- Jewish communities (ushmm)
- Sweden--Emigration and immigration--History--20th century.
- Sweden--Foreign relations--Germany.
- World War (1939-1945)--Refugees--Sweden.
- Sweden
- Holocaust survivors--Europe--Registers.
- Holocaust Jewish (1939-1945)
- Humanitarian assistance--Sweden--History--20th century.
- Malmö (Sweden)
- World War, 1939-1945--Civilian relief--Germany.
- Medical aspects of war--1940-1950.
Genre
- Telegrams.
- Document
- Correspondence.
- Memorandums.
- Posters.