Object ID
2022.1.24
Object Name
Postcard
Date
1-18-1946
Content Warning
The Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection consists of images, documents, and artifacts related to the Holocaust. The collection contains materials that depict a number of topics that may be difficult for viewers to engage with, including: antisemitic descriptions, caricatures, and representation of Jewish people; Nazi imagery and ideology; descriptions and images of German ghettos; graphic images of the violence of the Holocaust; and the creation of the State of Israel. For more information, see our policy page.
Description
Postcard with typed message to Nathan Schwalb from Roswell McClelland , January 18, 1946.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Belated New Year’s postcard sent from Roswell McClelland in “Beautiful Old Bern” Switzerland to Nathan Schwalb in Geneva where Schwalb works. He asks Schwalb to “stop by” to discuss some issues. Signed by McClelland.
During the Nazi occupation of Europe in the early 1940’s, Roswell McClelland and his wife Marjorie worked in a number of European countries for the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), the Quaker relief organization. Roswell McClelland was involved in programs to provide refugees with financial aid, clothing, and assistance in the emigration process. One of his initiatives was to supply aid for inmates at Les Milles internment camp. By 1943 both were managing the AFSC office in Geneva, Switzerland. Marjorie worked to select children for the USCOM children’s transport to the United States in the summer of 1942. In 1944 McClelland was appointed director of the Swiss office of the War Refugee Board, assisting Jewish victims of the war and Nazi persecution in rescue and relief efforts, and coordinating with other agencies doing the same, including DELASEM and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. With his gift for foreign languages, McClelland was able to translate the so-called Auschwitz Protocols - the report written by two Slovakian escapees, Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler - which were eyewitness accounts of the mass murder of Jews in the extermination camp. A summary of the report was sent to the main office of the War Refugee Board prior to submitting the completed account. As a result, bombing the railway lines to Auschwitz was considered, but ultimately rejected by Secretary of State John McCloy. However, the report was used as evidence in the Nuremberg trials.
Dimensions
4 1/8 x 5 7/8"
Keywords
Nathan Schwalb, Roswell McClelland, Marjorie McClelland
Subcollection
Slovakia
Recommended Citation
"Postcard From Roswell McClelland to Nathan Schwalb" (1946). Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection. 2022.1.24.
https://digital.kenyon.edu/bulmash/1871
Rights Statement
