Records of the Istanbul Office of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, 1937-1949
Extent and Medium
17 microfilm reels, 35 mm
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 include: correspondence with Jewish communities throughout Turkey, Romania, and Palestine; extensive documentation regarding shipments of food packages and other supplies to concentration camps such as Theresienstadt and Bergen-Belsen (including a postcard sent by Rabbi Leo Baeck, the renowned German scholar, from Theresienstadt acknowledging receipt of a AJJDC care package); cables and news releases; lists of survivors, including thousands of files from the Central Location Index; wartime testimonies; and correspondence regarding Joel Brand’s and Rudolf Kasztner’s negotiations in 1944 with Nazi officials in an attempt to save Hungarian Jews from deportation to Auschwitz. This collection also contains documentation on AJJDC's extensive support for refugees passing through Turkey en route to Palestine and to passengers on the SS Drottningholm, a rescue ship used for repatriation of civilians and prisoners of war; and eyewitness accounts, including an account of the sinking of the SS Mefkure, a rescue ship traveling from Romania to Palestine, by torpedoes in the Black Sea on August 5, 1944.
System of Arrangement
Arranged in four series: 1. Administration; 2. Organizations; 3. Subject Matters; 4. Countries and Regions. 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
Corporate Bodies
- Bergen-Belsen (Concentration camp)
- Drottningholm (Ship)
- Theresienstadt (Concentration camp)
- Mefkure (Ship)
- Jewish Telegraphic Agency (New York, N.Y.)
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
Subjects
- Holocaust survivors--Europe--Registers.
- İzmir (Turkey)
- Romania--Emigration and immigration--History--20th century.
- Canada--Emigration and immigration.
- World War (1939-1945)--Refugees--Europe.
- Lisbon (Portugal)
- Jews--Legal status, laws, etc.--Europe--History--20th century.
- World War, 1939-1945--Jews--Rescue.
- Passenger ships.
- Jewish communities (ushmm)
- Istanbul (Turkey)
- Jewish refugees--Europe--Registers.
- Humanitarian assistance--Europe--History--20th century.
- Stockholm (Sweden)
- Jerusalem.
- London (England)
- New York (N.Y.)
- Palestine--Emigration and immigration--History--20th century.
- Emigration and immigration--Europe--History--20th century.
- World War, 1939-1945--Concentration camps--Europe.
- Holocaust Jewish (1939-1945)
Genre
- Correspondence.
- Testimonies.
- Registers.
- Document
- Cables.