Records of HIAS-HICEM Main Office in Europe

This collection, a sub-group of RG 245 HIAS, includes all existing records of the main HICEM offices in Europe prior to and during World War II. There are also some records of the post-World War II period relating to the merger of HICEM with HIAS in 1945 and HIAS’s work with displaced persons. Records of the Lisbon office of HICEM are in the sub-group HICEM and HIAS Office in Lisbon, RG 245.6. The bulk of the European HIAS records of the post-war period can be found in the sub-group European Offices of the HIAS, RG 245.7.

Correspondents include HICEM and HIAS affiliates from all over the world, HIAS headquarters in New York, various government and consular offices, and private individuals. Types of documents include inter-office memoranda/circular letters, that disseminate standard operating procedures, letters among the management discussing policy and personnel matters, field trip reports mainly concerning Jewish refugee conditions and public or official opinion towards local Jewish communities and immigration prospects, statistical and accounting reports, case files of refugees applying to HICEM for visas, exit permits and for transportation, and periodic activity reports from various HICEM/HIAS offices. The materials are arranged chronologically, rather than by document type or topic. The researcher must therefore read each item to get the flavor of events and the decision-making processes of managers. Sometimes copies of outgoing letters are together with the responses, while at other times the two are in separate folders, creating some difficulty in following the sequence of events. As a rule, the original order of the records as seen on receipt was retained in the final arrangement.

Throughout this collection, there is an obvious corporate tenet that HICEM/HIAS always be an impeccable organization. They maintained very detailed dossiers on their refugees, with filled-out forms, insisting that any correspondence have references to the clients’ complete name, with the family name capitalized, and the clients’ case number. Lists of persons waiting for visas or booked on ship transport had to have explicit, detailed identification, with copies sent to the organization in the destination city, to HIAS in New York and to the main HICEM office in Paris. Affiliates could send very little correspondence to other affiliates directly or to other organizations without routing the information via Paris. There are several instances of reprimanding, and occasionally firing, employees for sloppy record-keeping or for not following standard procedures. HICEM also maintained absolutely correct relations with government and consular officials. It was with great pride that HICEM could claim that they were the accepted trustworthy intermediary between government and immigration departments and arriving refugees.

The one exception to this professionalism that can be found in these papers is from when the UGIF officially took over HICEM along with all other Jewish organizations in France. UGIF’s insistence that HICEM turn over its funds was apparently circumvented by playing off the fact that HICEM’s funds were from a foreign source. Documents on hand show that UGIF’s continuing requests for reports were often answered late and then only with the minimum of information.

Another source of contention throughout HICEM’s existence was their constant wariness of the operations of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, also known as the JDC or the Joint. HICEM and the JDC often worked in parallel among the same population and HICEM officials often referred to the Joint’s “kidnapping” of HICEM clients or “stealing” reserved ship accommodations. There was often competition for publicity at ship departures and arrivals. This was especially true after the war, when immigration to Palestine/Israel was growing. The Jewish Agency had control of social service organizations in the new state and the JDC was very close to them. HICEM was not initially allowed entry.

The flavor of the operation of HICEM can be found in the correspondence among managers of various national offices and the HIAS directors in New York. Their personalities come out in their letters. Some were polite, diplomatic, slow-moving negotiators and others, often the American transplants, were direct-moving movers and shakers. Some of the HICEM/HIAS personalities found in these papers include Leon Alter, Isaac Asofsky, Israel and James Bernstein, Ilya DiJour, Max Gottschalk, Benjamin Mellibovsky, Lewis Neikrug, Louis and Edward Oungre, Theodore Pontzen, Wladimir Schah, Raphael Spanien, Morris Troper, and Lazaro Zelwer.

The collection was microfilmed in the 1970s and the microfilm has been designated as MKM 16-19. The official language of the Paris office was French, but some English was used when corresponding with the HIAS office in New York. There are also some letters in German, Yiddish, Spanish, and Italian. The collection is approximately 50 linear feet in over 1850 folders in 103 manuscript boxes and one oversize box and the materials date from 1924-1953, the bulk of which dates 1935-1953.