us-005578-irn538657-irn518917
type: RecordSet
has beginning date: 1945-01-01
has beginning date: 1944-01-01
has end date: 1946-12-31
has end date: 1969-12-31
has or had holder: us-005578
has or had identifier: 1
has or had some members with language: deu
has or had some members with language: eng
has or had subject: 001704
has or had subject: 177
has or had subject: 843
has or had subject: 304
has record set type: Item
history: Carl Atkin (1903-1976) was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Russian immigrants and had an older brother, Jacob (b. 1898- ?). He attended New York City public schools, graduating in 1922. Shortly thereafter, he married Frances Ruthenberg (1904-1969) and had two children. In his early career, Carl worked as a house painter, a newspaper reporter for the Standard News Association, and a publicity manager for the Coney Island Publicity Bureau. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the United States declared war on Japan and by December 11, Nazi Germany declared war on the United States. When Carl registered for selective service in February 1942 he was working for the Office of Emergency Management in Washington, D.C. He was not chosen to join the fighting, and instead worked as a property and supply officer for the U.S. Treasury Department’s San Francisco and Los Angeles offices. In the spring of 1945, Carl applied for a post with the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), an international humanitarian organization established to help countries left economically devastated and the people displaced during World War II. The organization was established in November 1943, and began administering displaced persons (DP) camps in the Middle East in May 1944. After the war ended in May 1945, the UNRRA assumed management of the DP assembly centers and camps in the French, British, and U.S. Zones in Germany and helped to repatriate millions of people. Carl joined the UNRRA and reported for training in Washington, D.C. on April 12, 1945. Leaving his family behind, Carl arrived in England on June 1 and continued on to a U.N. staging area in Heidelberg, Germany. On August 23, he led UNRRA Team 55 to Deggendorf, a former concentration camp turned displaced persons camp, in the American-occupied zone of Germany. When Carl’s team took over Deggendorf was largely populated by former inmates of Theresienstadt ghetto-labor camp and was poorly ma…
history: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
identifier: irn518917
is or was included in: us-005578-irn538657
record resource extent: folders 19
record resource structure: The Carl Atkin papers are arranged as three series: I. Biographical materials, 1944-1969 and undated, II. Deggendorf displaced persons camp and UNRAA materials, 1945-1947, III. Photographs, approximately 1945
results or resulted from: 1
scope and content: The Carl Atkins papers comprise documents and photographs related to the his work as the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration director of the Deggendorf displaced persons camp between 1945 and 1946. Materials include an illustrated song book, clippings from the camp’s newspaper, Deggendorf Center Revue, and a memory book created by members of the camp for Carl upon his departure in 1946. Several of Atkin’s identification cards are also included here, as are biographical materials, including a resume and partial memoir. The photographs in this collection include images of General Dwight D. Eisenhower and General Joseph T. McNarny’s visit sometime around 1945. The Carl Atkins papers comprise documents and photographs related to the his work as the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration director of the Deggendorf displaced persons camp between 1945 and 1946. Materials regarding the camp include an illustrated song book, clippings from the camp’s newspaper, Deggendorf Center Revue, and a memory book created by members of the camp for Atkin upon his departure in 1946. The book is titled “A Memory of Good Friendship in Hard Days” and includes several illustrations and chapters describing Atkin’s contributions to improving the camp conditions and bettering the refugees’ quality of life. The book describes in great detail the various mechanisms that he had put into place to aid the survivors as well as many statistics about the survivors themselves. Several of Atkin’s identification cards are also comprised here within, including a military entry permit and his certificate of registration. Correspondence relating to his assignment and departure as the director of Deggendorf is also included, as is a statement that he made regarding the specific needs of Jewish Holocaust survivors in the period immediately following their liberation. The photographs in this collection depict the camp, presumably during Atkin’s tenure as director, and inclu…
title: Carl Atkin papers