American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. European Executive Bureau in Paris, France (Fond 722)

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. 

Rossiĭskiĭ gosudarstvennyĭ voennyĭ arkhiv 

American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. European Executive Bureau in Paris, France (Fond 722) 

75 microfilm reels, 16 mm 147,634 digital images, JPEG 

Consist of records of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. European Executive Bureau in Paris: an organization statute, registration forms, files of the New York office; correspondence with branches in Riga, Budapest, Warsaw, and other European cities; and the Red Cross. Includes correspondence on visas and aid for emigrants, on the arrest of JDC official Isaac Gitterman, funding the evacuation of the Executive Committee from Paris to Bordeaux, and plans for refugee settlement in Haiti and South America. Other documents include cables on the hardships of Jews in Warsaw, a report on the circumstances of Jews in Belgium, a list of Polish, Romanian, and Dutch immigrants, and information on possibilities for emigration to India; and maps and statistics illustrating emigration information bulletins, articles, newspaper clippings, and economic journals from various countries. The staff of the Joint Distribution Committee fled Paris in advance of the German invasion in summer 1940, first to Bordeaux then on to Lisbon, where they re-established the JDC's European headquarters for the remainder of the war. These records were captured by German forces in 1940 and taken back to Germany, where Soviet forces would later find them in 1945. Note: USHMM Archives holds only selected records. 

Copyright Holder: Rossiĭskiĭ gosudarstvennyĭ voennyĭ arkhiv 

Fond 722 (1922-1940). Opis 1-3. Dela 685. Arranged in three series: 1. Office correspondence and letters, 1922-1940 [Opis 1]; 2. Conferences, correspondence and printed materials, 2931-1940 [Opis 2]; 3. Inventory of files on contacts with other countries, and various printed materials 1931-1940 [Opis 3]. Note: Location of digital images; Microfilm reels #817-891; Reels 817-891: Reels start-Reel end (Entire reels) Reel 891: Reel start-Image #490.