American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee

The bulk of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) collection consists of the German case files of the JDC and date from 1929 to 1947. These records document various individuals’ immigration attempts. Although the JDC was at first reluctant to aid individuals directly, this became necessary after the outbreak of World War II. Individuals of note whose case files may be found in this collection include: Ossip Flechtheim, Babette Gross, Kurt Grossmann, Albert Grzesinski, Erich Kaestner, Alfred Kerr, Hermann Kesten, Siegfried Kracauer, Karl Meinhard, Franz Oppenheim, Wolfgang Panowsky, Joachim Prinz, Kurt Rosenfeld, Hans-Joachim Schoeps, Leopold Schwarzschild, Toni Sender, Kurt Singer, Heinrich Stahl, Friedrich Stampfer, and Bruno Weil.

The case files themselves include papers and correspondence of organizations, which collaborated with the JDC, including: American Jewish Committee, American Jewish Congress, Canadian Jewish Congress, Comit‚ voor Joodsche Vluchtelingen, HIAS-HICEM, Hilfsverein der deutschen Juden, National Refugee Service, Reichsvertretung der deutschen Juden, Selfhelp for German Refugees, and United Jewish Appeal. Amongst individuals whose correspondence is contained in the case files are Cyrus Adler, Ernst Behrendt, Albert Einstein, Joseph Hyman, Bernhard Kahn, Herbert Katzki, J. B. Lightman, Robert Pilpel, Cecilia Razovsky, and Jeanette Robbins.

The collection also contains a small section of Italian case files of the JDC, 1945-1947, for displaced persons in Italy after the war, concerning attempts to contact friends and relatives, conditions in Italy, and attempts to emigrate.