Aid and Rescue: Organizations

HICEM and HIAS

Among the critically important organizations helping Jews, HICEM was an umbrella group formed in 1927 by the merging of three groups including the well-known HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) which was based in New York, managed immigration to America, and was the main source of HICEM’s financial support. They had offices in Europe and the Americas as well as the Far East and helped refugees in the process and preparation for emigration. After the Germans invaded France, its office was moved to Lisbon, Portugal - considered a neutral country - along with the offices of the JDC and the American Friends.

See 2014.1.374, 2014.1.376, 2014.1.378, 2015.2.183, 2019.2.241.

The American Friends Service Committee and the Unitarians

Apart from the Red Cross, a number of faith-based Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO’s) operated throughout Europe during this period of time along with Jewish organizations: the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC-Quakers), Protestant and Catholic organizations, and the Unitarians; all were part of the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees (IGCR), which ultimately became part of the UN Relief and Rehabilitation Administration or UNRRA.

The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) gave Quakers the opportunity to serve rather than be combatants during wartime. It assisted refugees escaping from European countries such as Germany and France, and for its work helping refugees it received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1948.

See 2019.2.231.

The Unitarians Waitstill and Martha Sharp were honored as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem for helping Jewish refugees in Marseilles, Lisbon and Prague - the second and third recipients of this award in the United States to be so honored.

See 2022.1.32.

American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (“The Joint”) and Other NGOs

Most nations did very little to rescue or assist the Jews of Europe attempting to escape the Nazi scourge. Those countries that did take Jewish émigrés often placed severe restrictions on the number of prospective candidates. In the case of the United States, antisemitic State Department personnel made certain that the number of Jews admitted was kept artificially low, even lower than the “quota” would allow. The burden of aiding and rescuing refugee Jews fell on a limited number of Jewish and non-Jewish organizations and individuals.

The principal mission of the American Joint Distribution Committee (AJDC) since its inception had been to deliver aid to Jews in distress, usually in the context of war and discrimination. During the Nazi era the “Joint” focused mainly on helping Jewish stateless refugees emigrate to countries which could provide sanctuary. The organization HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) would help Jews once this mission had been accomplished and refugees reached safety. Apart from the Red Cross, a number of other Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) operated throughout Europe during this period of time along with Jewish organizations: the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC-Quakers), Protestant and Catholic organizations, and the Unitarians: all were part of the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees (IGCR), created after the Evian Conference of 1938 and subsequently absorbed by the UN Relief and Rehabilitation Administration or UNRRA in 1944. The AFSC received a Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts assisting refugees escape from Germany, France and other countries. As mentioned above, the Unitarians Waitstill and Martha Sharp helped Jewish refugees in Marseilles, Lisbon and Prague.

For UNRRA and the AJDC, the end of WW2 meant attending to the extraordinary needs of Holocaust survivors living in Displaced Persons camps throughout Europe. The Preparatory Commission of the International Refugee Organization (PCIRO) was created in 1946 and Joint field workers were under this organization. In 1948, the PCIRO became the IRO. The UN took over operations in 1951 as the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The last DP camp in Europe, Foehrenwald, was closed in 1957.

See 2012.1.209, 2012.1.210, 2012.1.211, 2012.1.213, 2012.1.232, 2012.1.244ab, 2012.1.249, 2012.1.253, 2012.1.258ab, 2012.1.274, 2014.1.373, 2014.1.375, 2015.2.99, 2015.2.160ab, 2021.1.45, 2022.1.6.

RELICO

Abraham Silberschein was a Polish attorney and labor Zionist. He had relocated to Geneva, Switzerland in 1930 as a representative to the Zionist congress and remained there after the outbreak of WWII. Geneva became a base from which he organized rescue and relief activities through RELICO (Relief Committee for Jewish War Victims), which he founded in 1939 with funding from the World Zionist Congress and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee to aid Polish and German Jews persecuted by the Nazis. Silberschein maintained contact and cooperated with other Jewish institutions assisting Jewish war victims: sending food packages and medical supplies, locating family members or helping those who had lost their homes and property. Silberschein was also affiliated with the “Lados Group” supplying forged passports - rescue documents - to Jews caught in the Nazi maelstrom.

Alfred Schwarzbaum was a wealthy Polish businessman from Bedzin who was able to obtain the requisite visas to escape to Switzerland after the German occupation of Poland in 1939. Settling in Lausanne, he began sending food, clothing and financial aid to the beleaguered Jews of Poland. He sent parcels through Lisbon, Turkey and Sweden to their intended recipients. He responded to Jews asking for help with inquiries about family members living in Poland and Germany and provided relief to Jews who had lost their homes or their property. He also worked with Silberschein’s RELICO organization, and like Silberschein, also produced rescue passports for Jews.

See 2014.1.154, 2014.1.155, 2014.1.274, 2015.2.119, 2015.2.120, 2015.2.121, 2015.2.122, 2015.2.125, 2015.2.134, 2015.2.135, 2015.2.139, 2015.2.140.

L'Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants

The OSE (L'Œuvre de Secours aux Enfants) was a humanitarian children’s aid organization providing social and medical assistance to Jewish families in need. After 1933, OSE’s main office was moved from Berlin to Paris, where Jewish children - refugees from Nazi Germany and Austria - were placed in OSE children’s homes in the area. By 1939 more than 200 children had been placed in one of these homes in Paris. OSE also provided social services to foreign Jews living in internment camps such as Gurs and Rivesaltes. OSE attempted to relocate Jewish children from these camps to homes in the unoccupied Vichy region of France where they would be cared for. With the German occupation of the Vichy region in 1942, the OSE mission changed to more clandestine activities: the development of hiding places, the creation of false documents, and smuggling children across the border to Switzerland and Spain. Through the heroic efforts of the OSE, more than 5000 Jewish children were saved from Nazi extermination. OSE’s work continued post-liberation assisting surviving children from Buchenwald find placements in French rehabilitation facilities.

See 2021.1.46a-e (Postcards Sent by Family to Jewish Child Rita Goldstein Sheltered by OSE).

The Kindertransport

Kindertransport refers to the rescue operations approved by the British Parliament bringing 10,000 mostly Jewish children under the age of 17 to Great Britain from Nazi-occupied territories. A number of groups and individuals in Britain and on the Continent worked together to organize these efforts.

See “What They Carried: The Kindertransport” curated collection.

Youth Aliyah

Youth Aliyah was an organization credited with rescuing thousands of children during the Third Reich, resettling Jewish youth in Palestine on kibbutzim where they would learn Hebrew and agricultural techniques. Youth Aliyah was founded in 1933 by Recha Freier, a rabbi’s wife and committed Zionist, at the time of the Nazi advent to power. It would be supervised in Palestine by Henrietta Szold.

See “Recha Freier and the Beginning of Youth Aliyah” curated collection.

Academic Assistance Council (AAC)

Within months of his appointment as chancellor in 1933, Hitler’s government issued the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service. Political opponents of the Nazi Party and anyone in government positions with at least one Jewish grandparent were summarily dismissed from their jobs. University professors in Germany’s best universities, judges and police officers lost their positions. The so-called “Aryan paragraph” would apply to lawyers, physicians, musicians and other civil servants. At every level of civil society and public life, Jews were persecuted through the gradual, methodical yet inexorable rollout of laws and regulations restricting their civil and political liberties. As this noose of incremental persecution tightened, academicians began to emigrate. Stepping into the breach was the Academic Assistance Council (AAC), a British initiative giving needed support and assistance to the growing number of scholars and academicians whose plight only increased with the 1935 Nuremberg Laws, the 1938 Anschluss, and the devastation of the Kristallnacht pogrom shortly thereafter.

Faced with the loss of their careers and livelihoods, fearful of losing their lives, and concerned for the welfare of their families, Jewish scholars became increasingly resigned to their fate in Germany, and the exodus of Jewish scholars increased. The AAC would eventually evolve into the Society for the Protection of Science and Learning (SPSL), but its mission would continue: to help refugee scholars -based on their specific curriculum vitae - find employment in the UK, the USA, and other countries. Several of the more than 1500 academic refugees from Germany and Austria would win Nobel Prizes. Several refugees had already earned them. Many of these emigrés would make important contributions to the scholarship and the culture of their adopted countries and have an enormous influence in their respective fields. For example, the current New School for Social Research in New York had been the home in the 1930s to the University in Exile, a haven for over 180 scholar-refugees and their families. Though a number of these refugees would find positions in other universities, many would remain as permanent faculty after the University in Exile had been incorporated into the Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science in 1934.

The remarkable role played by the AAC academics in rescuing Jewish emigré academicians imperiled by the Nazis and helping them find new homes and institutions where they could continue their careers, would stand in stark contrast to the lack of support - and frank betrayal - on the part of their academic colleagues in the Reich who were either afraid of reprisals or given to “Gleischsaltung,” i.e., “working toward the Fuhrer” in establishing totalitarian control over Germany. A notorious example of this duplicity was that of Martin Heidegger, a world-renowned philosopher, author of Sein und Zeit (Being and Time) and rector of the University of Freiberg, given to sporting a Hitler-style mustache and proudly wearing his Nazi pin. Heidegger signed every letter dismissing Jewish faculty members, including that of his own mentor Edmund Husserl - the renowned phenomenologist who had been Heidegger’s most important advocate: born a Jew but later in life baptized into the Lutheran faith. Some of Heidegger’s most eminent students were forced to leave Germany and find positions elsewhere, including Herbert Marcuse and Hannah Arendt. Heidegger would remain unrepentant for the rest of his life.

See 2022.1.12ab.

--Michael D. Bulmash, K1966

Browse the Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection.

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List of Displaced German Scholars and Supplementary List of Displaced German Scholars

2022.1.12ab

a: 125 page list printed in Great Britain by Speedee Press Services, London, Autumn 1936; cover - page 9 scanned

b: Supplemantary List,16 page, London, August 193; cover - page 7 scanned

Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:

Within months of his appointment as chancellor in 1933, Hitler’s government issued the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service. Political opponents of the Nazi Party, and anyone in government positions with at least one Jewish grandparent were summarily dismissed from their jobs. University professors in Germany’s best universities, judges and police officers lost their positions. The so-called “Arian paragraph” would apply to lawyers, physicians, musicians and other civil servants. At every level of civil society and public life, Jews were persecuted through the gradual, methodical, yet inexorable rollout of laws and regulations restricting their civil and political liberties. As this noose of incremental persecution tightened, academicians began to emigrate. Stepping into the breach was the British Academic Assistance Council (AAC), giving needed support and assistance to the growing number of scholars and academicians whose plight only increased with the 1935 Nuremberg Laws; the 1938 Anschluss; and the devastation of the Kristallnacht pogrom shortly thereafter.

Faced with the loss of their careers and livelihoods, fearful of losing their lives, and concerned for the welfare of their families, Jewish scholars became increasingly resigned to their fate in Germany, and the exodus of Jewish scholars increased. The AAC would eventually evolve into the Society for the Protection of Science and Learning (SPSL), but its mission would continue: to help refugee scholars-based on their specific curriculum vitae- find employment in the UK, the USA, and other countries. Several of the more than 1500 academic refugees from Germany and Austria would win Nobel Prizes. Several refugees had already earned them. Many of these emigres would make important contributions to the scholarship and the culture of their adopted countries and have an enormous influence in their respective fields. For example, the current New School for Social Research in New York, had been the home in the 1930’s to the University in Exile -a haven for over 180 scholar-refugees and their families. Though a number of these refugees would find positions in other universities, many would remain as permanent faculty after the University in Exile had been incorporated into the Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science in 1934.

The remarkable role played by the AAC academics in rescuing Jewish emigre academicians imperiled by the Nazis and helping them find new homes and institutions where they could continue their careers, would stand in stark contrast to the lack of support- and frank betrayal -on the part of their academic colleagues in the Reich who were either afraid of reprisals or given to “Gleischsaltung”;i.e., “working toward the Fuhrer” in establishing totalitarian control over Germany. A notorious example of this duplicity was that of Martin Heidegger, a world-renowned philosopher, author of Sein und Zeit (Being and Time), and rector of the University of Freiberg, given to sporting a Hitler-style mustache and proudly wearing his Nazi pin. Heidegger signed every letter dismissing Jewish faculty members, including that of his own mentor Edmund Husserl - the renowned phenomenologist who had been Heidegger’s most important advocate: born a Jew but later in life baptized into the Lutheran faith. Some of Heidegger’s most eminent students were forced to leave Germany and find positions elsewhere, including Herbert Marcuse and Hanna Arendt. Heidegger would remain unrepentant for the rest of his life.

[Related item: 2022.1.13]
Censored Registered Bank Cover from Oslo, Norway to the American Friends (Quaker) Service Committee in Berlin

2019.2.231

Envelope addressed to “American Friends Service Committee,” “Rekommandert” stamped in red ink near top. Back includes black and red seal marked “DEN NORSKE CREDITBANKE – OSLO,” image of building near top.

Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:

One of the faith-based NGOs operating in Europe helping Jews, the American Friends (Quaker) Service Committee was founded in 1917 to provide Quakers the opportunity to serve rather than take up arms in WWI. The AFSC was instrumental in assisting refugees escape from Germany, France, and other countries. It was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1948.

This cover arrived in Berlin on New Year’s Day in 1940, just four months before the German invasion of Norway.
Postcards Sent by Family to Jewish Child Rita Goldstein Sheltered by OSE

2021.1.46a-e

Five postcards written in blue and black ink. All bearing blue french stamps.

Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:

The OSE (L'Œuvre de Secours aux Enfants) was a humanitarian children’s aid organization providing social and medical assistance to Jewish families in need. After 1933, OSE’s main office was moved from Berlin to Paris, where Jewish children - refugees from Nazi Germany and Austria - were placed in OSE children’s homes in the area. By 1939 more than 200 children had been placed in one of these homes in Paris. OSE also provided social services to foreign Jews living in internment camps such as Gurs and Rivesaltes. OSE attempted to relocate Jewish children from these camps to homes in the unoccupied Vichy region of France where they would be cared for. With the German occupation of the Vichy region in 1942, the OSE mission changed to more clandestine activities: the development of hiding places, the creation of false documents, and smuggling children across the border to Switzerland and Spain. Through the heroic efforts of the OSE, more than 5000 Jewish children were saved from Nazi extermination. OSE’s work continued post-liberation assisting surviving children from Buchenwald find placements in French rehabilitation facilities.

The Goldstein family had lived in a flat on Bismarck Street in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin. The parents, David and Frida, did well in the family business: a smoker’s shop. Oscar, then an adolescent, has stated in reminiscing about the OSE and his own experiences as a refugee, that his parents decided to emigrate after Kristallnacht when the store was destroyed. By that time, however, it was not possible for them to obtain visas. They left for Belgium, first the father and then Oscar and his sister Rita and mother. Escape was difficult, they went back to Cologne, and this time were successfully smuggled into Belgium. The family received aid from the Jewish humanitarian organization AJJDC or “Joint” and were able to stay in a hotel until the Germans invaded Belgium in May 1940. At this point the family left for France on foot. Oscar would eventually be interned through the OSE at the Rivesaltes camp, while his sister Rita was placed by OSE in Hotel d’Angers in Le Mans early in the German occupation. Father David Goldstein would be deported to Auschwitz where he was murdered.

These 5 postcards appear to be written by several family members living at the Villa des Tourelles, an OSE “safe house” located in the Paris region at 113 Rue de Paris, Soisy-sous-Montmorency, France, all addressed to daughter Rita Goldstein placed by the OSE at the Hotel d’Angers in Le Mans. The postcards are somewhat illegible but appear to be written just before the German occupation of France.
Envelope Stamped “Special Delivery” to Dr. Otto Weiler of the National Refugee Service (NRS) Resettlement Department

2021.1.45

Envelope with three stamps on front addressed to Dr. Otto Weiler. “Special Delivery” in black type in upper left corner.

Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:

The National Refugee Service was founded in New York City in May 1939 to assist European refugees fleeing Nazi persecution. In the six years that it existed, NRS provided a range of programs across the United States to help immigrants arriving in New York to resettle in smaller communities. Services included financial assistance, vocational guidance, job placement and retraining, arranging small business loans, and the instruction necessary to meet the specific requirements of the immigration process. Programs were also geared to helping members of specific professions adjust to American life: for example, rabbis, musicians and physicians. Hundreds of communities across the United States were involved in the services provided by the NRS, which itself was the recipient of funds from the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and the United Jewish Appeal. After 1946 the NRS merged with several other charitable organizations.
Cover, Central Council for Jewish Refugees, London to New York

2014.1.373

Front: Typed address to 'Hotel Marcy, 720, West End Avenue, New York'. Back: Reverse type stamp, side label, 'Opened by Examiner 4811'.

Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:

The Central Council for Jewish Refugees, originally the Council for German Jewry, was a British Jewish organization established in 1936 with the goal of aiding German Jews aged 17-35 to leave Germany. Plans were formulated in consultation with German Jewish leaders, and preparation would involve funding vocational training programs for the prospective emigrés. The Council helped nearly 100,000 Jews emigrate by the outbreak of World War II.
HIAS [Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society]

2015.2.183

Cover with illustations of six faces, including a baby, woman hugging baby, old man with white mustache, young boy in cap, young girl with brown hair, old woman with white hair. HIAS in left upper corner in white with red background.

Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:

HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society), based in New York, was an organization focused on helping Jewish immigrants migrate to the United States where they would be assisted with food, shelter, and employment. This magazine was used to solicit funding from Americans sympathetic to the plight of European Jews trapped in Europe, attempting to arrange passage for as many Jews as possible. HIAS's crusade on behalf of Jews continued after the war, advocating for Jews in Displaced Persons camps. Along with Dorothy Thompson's brilliant essay on antisemitism, testimonials are given by Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, the mayor of New York City, and the Governor of New York State.
Censored Envelope from Bendsburg, Poland

2014.1.155

Front: An off-white envelope with writing in blue and black ink and two pasted stamps of Adolf Hitler in profile in green and blue. Includes black, red and purple hand stamps, as well as a white and red pasted stamp.Back: Writing in black ink, several black and purple hand stamps.

Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:

The Bendsberg Ghetto was among the first to be liquidated by the Nazis on August 1, 1943. This cover is stamped with the Jewish ghetto administrations stamp. Alfred Schwarzbaum was a wealthy Jew from Bendzin who escaped to Switzerland and conducted relief and rescue work for Jews in occupied Poland, as well as supporting armed resistance by Jews in the ghettos. On the envelope, he is referred to as Treue (“ever-faithful”) because of his support for Jews trapped in ghettos.
Postcard to RELICO in Geneva from Piotrkowice Ghetto in the Radom District

2015.2.122

Front: Tan postcard with black printed text and dotted lines, filled in with black cursive ink. Includes purple hand stamp in upper left corner, long red slash across page, and additional writing in grey and red pencil in upper left. Back: Black printed postcard lines. Includes several stamps, including long red stamp across type, black writing, and a printed address.

Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:

RELICO card with General Government franking tied KIELCE 8/3/1941, addressed to RELICO (Committee for Assistance of the Jewish Population Stricken by the War) in Geneva. With boxed "Piotrkowice uber Kielce (Distr. Radom)" alongside with Nazi censor. Acknowledgement of receipt of package. Signed by Chaja Liss.
Postcard from Kolomea Ghetto

2015.2.134

Front: Tan postcard with writing in blue cursive ink, and several lines underlined in pencil.Back: Printed postcard lines in green with writing in blue cursive ink. Includes black, red, and purple hand stamps, damage from a paper clip on the left, and three pasted stamps in green and orange on the upper right.

Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:

General Government 12 pfg. postal stationary card with additional 8 pfg. and 10 pfg. stamps. From S. Schein in Kolomea to Alfred Schwarzbaum, a Jewish benefactor who escaped Poland and settled in Lausanne, Switzerland, showing two-line Judenrat Kolomea (German name) handstamp alongside. Message in German. Nazi censor markings. Dated October 11, 1941, one day before the mass murder of Jews in the Szeparowce Forest 5 miles outside of town. Kolomea was an important center of Hassidism. The Judenrat, headed by Mordechai Horowitz, was soon burdened by the arrival of Jewish refugees from Hungary. Approximately 18,000 Jews were herded into the ghetto that was sealed off in March 1942, a holding pen for eventual deportations to the Belzec extermination center.
Modliborzyce Ghetto in Lublin District Postcard from Judenrat to RELICO

2015.2.125

Front: Tan postcard with black printed text and dotted lines, filled in with blue cursive ink. Includes a long red line through the card, and other red text, as well as numerical and date hand stamps. Back: Black printed postcard lines and address. Includes long red hand stamp across top of card, purple and black hand stamps, pasted purple stamp of a church on upper right, and several pencil markings.

Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:

Censored "RELICO" card from Frieda Gold of the ghetto at Modliborzyce with the cachet of the JUDENRAT in violet to the RELICO Committee acknowledging receipt of parcels. Modliborzyce was a small village in Poland's Lublin district. With the German occupation, the Jewish community swelled to 2000 with refugees arriving from Vienna in 1941. In October 1942 the ghetto was liquidated with the Jews being deported to Belzec death camp. RELICO was an organization established in September 1939 by Dr. Abraham Silberschein to provide assistance to Jewish refugees and to help search for missing relatives.
Postcard from Warsaw, Poland, Sent Undercover to Lisbon, Portugal

2014.1.274

Front: A white postcard with black printed postcard lines and typewritten address. Includes a pink pasted stamp of Adolf Hitler, as well as several red, purple and black hand stamps.Back: Typewritten message with signature in black ink.

Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:

Communicating between enemy-occupied territories and allied nations was made extremely difficult during World War II. Any communication with enemy countries was expressly forbidden by Germany in 1940 and could be labeled high treason, resulting in the death penalty. Yet friends and family were desperate to maintain contact with one another. Similarly, Jewish organizations, resistance groups and governments-in-exile took risks by using undercover addresses in neutral countries, which did not indicate the true destination of the correspondence. For example, a common means of sending mail from Nazi-occupied areas to loved ones in Great Britain was to use the Thomas Cook office in Lisbon, which used the undercover address of POB 506 for mail to be forwarded to the Thomas Cook office in Great Britain and redirected with a label of the final destination. Lisbon's status as a neutral country made it a choice destination for many undercover addresses; for example, the Dutch Air Force, Polish Red Cross, and Alfred Schwarzbaum of Lausanne Switzerland, who carried out Jewish relief services as well as secret support for the Jewish underground in Poland.
Postcard from Radomsko Ghetto: Anna Rozenbaum to Alfred Szwarcbaum in Switzerland

2015.2.120

Front: Tan postcard with writing in blue cursive ink. Back: Printed purple postcard lines with writing in blue cursive ink. Includes blue, purple and black hand stamps, and a printed purple stamp in upper right.

Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:

General Government 30 pfg cancelled Radomsko (District Radom) 3/7/1942 with two-line violet "Aeltestenrat Radomska Postabteilung" indicating the Jewish Elders of the ghetto, from Anna Rozenbaum to Alfred Szwarcbaum, the Polish benefactor who escaped to Lausanne, Switzerland and helped Jews. Written in Polish 2/271942. Radomsko was in the Lodz district of Poland but the Radom district of the General Government, and almost 40 percent of the population of 10,000 was Jewish. The ghetto - the second in Poland - was established soon after the Germans occupied the city in early September 1939, and incorporated Jews from surrounding towns. Many died from typhus epidemics, malnutrition, and the deplorable conditions rife in the Nazi ghetto system. In mid-October 1942, all of the Jews in the ghetto were deported to Treblinka. When the ghetto was re-opened in November to house Jews from neighboring towns, they too perished in Treblinka. Anna Rozenbaum did not survive the Holocaust.
Postcard from Kielce Ghetto

2015.2.135

Front: Tan postcard with writing in black cursive ink.Back: Printed purple postcard lines with writing in black cursive ink. Includes red, purple and black hand stamps, pencil markings, and two pasted stamps, including one red stamp showing a building, and one purple stamp showing a church.

Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:

General Gouvernement 30 pfg. Postcard with additional 1z., from J. Raufman at Kielce to Alfred Szwarcbaum, Lausanne, Switzerland, showing violet boxed "FLUGPOST." Nazi censor markings, dated March 13, 1942. Kielce was settled by Jews in 1819. They were expelled in 1845. The ban was lifted in 1863 and the population increased dramatically, having numbered 18,000 by the 1930s. This figure represents approximately 33 percent of the inhabitants of Kielce. The Germans entered Kielce on September 4, 1939 and a Judenrat was established soon thereafter. The Jewish population of Kielce swelled with the influx of deportees from other areas, including 7,500 from Vienna in 1941. Two ghettos were established in April 1941. The "Aktions" commenced in August of 1942 with the deportation of 21,000 Jews to Treblinka and the slaughter of another 3,000 in Kielce. The remaining 16,000 Jews were placed in the smaller ghetto and worked as slave laborers in the munitions factories and labor camps. The Judenrat members were murdered on November 20, 1942.
Postcard from Przemysl Ghetto to Alfred Schwarzbaum in Switzerland

2015.2.121

Front: Tan postcard with writing in black cursive ink. Back: Black printed postcard lines and text with writing in black and blue ink. Includes red, blue and black hand stamps, as well as some damage from a paperclip on the upper left, and several pencil markings on bottom right.

Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:

Censored card missing stamp to Alfred Schwarzbaum in Lausanne bearing "EINGELIEFERT AM SCHALTER." Card written May 18, 1942. The Jewish community in Przemysl dates to the 10th century. By 1931, there were over 17,000 Jews living in this town in the Warsaw District of Poland. There were several Hassidic sects, along with their assimilationist counterparts. It was occupied by Germans in 1939, and again in June 1941 it was taken over from the Russians. A Judenrat was established, Jewish property was expropriated, synagogues were destroyed, and by July 1942 Przemysl's 22,000 Jews were crowded into a ghetto. By fall 1943 the ghetto inhabitants were deported to Belzec, Auschwitz, or murdered outright.
German Red Cross Mail

2015.2.160ab

Front: Tan paper with printed writing and red cross, and typewritten information.Back: Printed and typewritten information, with signature in bottom right, and red stamp.Front: Black printed text.Back: Black printed text.

Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:

German Red Cross (Deutsches Rotes Kreuz) letter. British censorship stamp. 1942. Letter sent from Gertrud "Sara" Senger of Berlin to Hans Liebenthal in Jerusalem. Gertrud Senger was murdered in the Holocaust.

Messages within Greater Germany (including Austria) were sent by way of the Red Cross and forwarded to their respective destinations. Only 25 words were allowed both front and back, and the mail was censored.
Envelope from Bendsburg

2015.2.139

Front: Green envelope with black writing. Includes purple, blue and red hand stamps, a red and white pasted stamp in bottom left corner, and two pasted stamps on right: one green and one blue, each depicting Hitler in profile.Back: Black cursive writing, and black and blue hand stamps.

Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Registered, censored cover from Isaac Israel in Bendsburg to Alfred Schwartzbaum in Lausanne, Switzerland with Czeladz registered label alongside. Bendsburg, German for Bendzin, was in the Katowice District of Poland. A Ghetto was created on July 1, 1941 containing 6,000 Jews who did slave labor for the German weapons industry. All the Jews were transported to Auschwitz when the ghetto was liquidated between April 1942 and June 1943, including 2,000 Jews who had been transported from Osweicim--the name of the town before it became known as Auschwitz--to Bendsburg.
Censored Envelope from Prisoner in Bendsburg, Poland

2014.1.154

Front: A tan postcard with orange printed postcard lines and text written in black ink. Also includes black and purple hand stamps, and faint red underlining.Back: Message written in black ink.

Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:

The Bendsberg ghetto was among the first to be liquidated by the Nazis on August 1, 1943. This cover is stamped with the Jewish ghetto administration stamp. Schwarcbaum was a wealthy Jew from Bendzin who escaped to Switzerland and conducted relief and rescue work for Jews in occupied Poland, as well as supporting armed resistance by Jews in the ghettos.
Envelope Sent from Bolivia to HICEM

2014.1.374

Front: Typed address, 'HICEM SOCIEDAD DE SOCORRO, Casilla 1196, Santiago de Chile'; two red stamps at left. Back: Typed Return address, 'Dr. Glogauer'.

Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:

Cover sent to HICEM, an organization to assist Jewish refugees, in Chile.
Postcard from Arbeitslager to RELICO

2015.2.140

Front: Tan postcard with printed black text in French and writing in purple pencil. Several black and purple hand stamps.Back: Black printed postcard lines and address. Includes several red and black hand stamps, and a blue stripe diagonal across the page.

Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:

Unfranked RELICO postcard with censor marks and chemical censor, printed card from Abraham Taub who writes from a work camp Jowischovitz in Upper Silesia to Comité RELICO (Relief Committee for the Warstricken Jewish Population), founded by Abraham Silberschein, in Geneva Switzerland, dated June 24, 1944.
Envelope from the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) to the American Joint Distribution Committee

2012.1.209

White envelope addressed to Joseph C. Hyman, American Joint Distribution Committee in New York from M.W. Beckelman, UNRRA. Includes Beckelman's signature.

Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:

The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) was active from December 9, 1944 to June 30, 1947. This envelope is an early use of the UNRRA designation. Stamped API 759 (Casablanca) June 28, 1944, self-censored.
Envelope from the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees

2012.1.211

White envelope with decorative red and blue border. Address and return address both typewritten. Addressed to Mr. Joseph Hyman and Mr. Moses Leaultt from Arthur D. Greenleigh.

Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:

Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees (1938-1944), APO 394, Italy (Headquarters of Allied Commission).
American Joint Distribution Committee Letter Signed by Saly Mayer

2015.2.99

Tan paper with AJDC address in upper left corner. Typewritten messsage. Signature in black in middle right. Purple rectangular table stamp on lower left.

Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:

Document typewritten in German from the American Joint Distribution Committee to the Communauté Israélite de Genève, September 28, 1944, signed by Saly Mayer.

Saly Mayer (1882-1950) was director of the Swiss office of the American Joint Distribution Committee, responsible for maintaining contact with the Jewish communities in German-occupied territories and for distribution of funds from the AJDC. A retired Swiss businessman, he was instrumental in saving the lives of thousands of European Jews. After the Anschluss in 1938, Mayer was involved in the reception and settlement of Austrian refugees in Switzerland despite Swiss opposition. As the fate of European Jewry became more widely known, Mayer made a number of attempts to smuggle children out of Belgium and France. He was an important contact in Switzerland for the American War Refugee Board and took part in the infamous Eichmann-inspired "Jews for trucks" negotiations. Rudolf Kastner had asked Mayer to attempt to bring about a deal with the Nazis as a Swiss private citizen since the "Joint" was an American organization. However, Mayer's hands were tied inasmuch as he could not really provide any goods or services to the Nazis. He could only stall for time. The Nazis first released 318 Jews from Bergen-Belsen, and later another 1368 Jews who were able to find freedom in Switzerland. By February 1945, Mayer was able to secure the release of another 1200 Jews from Theresienstadt.
Envelope From the United National Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) to the American Joint Distribution Committee

2012.1.210

White envelope with decorative red and blue border. Addressed to Mr. Louis Sobel, Joint Distribution Committee, New York, from B. D. Mayer, UNRRA, New York.

Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:

The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) was active from December 9, 1944 to June 30, 1947. This envelope is an early use of the UNRRA designation. Stamped APO 787 (Cairo), November 9, 1944, and censored by the British.
Envelope Sent from Hotel Nutibara to HICEM in Santiago, Chile

2014.1.378

Front: Blue and red airmail border;'Hotel Nutilbara'logo. Back: 'Use Chilean Nitrates' handstamp.

Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:

Cover sent from Colombia to HICEM in Chile.
Letter from the American Joint Distribution Committee/United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration Team in Bavaria

2012.1.213

Typewritten letter in German to Saly Mayer on American Joint Distribution Committee stationery.

Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:

APO 757 (Munich), November 16, 1945, request for tracing information from Saly Mayer. Blue AJDC/UNRRA handstamp at lower right.

Saly Mayer (1882-1950) was director of the Swiss office of the American Joint Distribution Committee, responsible for maintaining contact with the Jewish communities in German-occupied countries, and for distribution of funds from the AJDC. A retired Swiss businessman, he was instrumental in saving the lives of thousands of European Jews. After the Anschluss in 1938, Mayer was involved in the reception and settlement of Austrian refugees in Switzerland despite Swiss opposition. As the fate of European Jewry became more widely known, Mayer made a number of attempts to smuggle children out of Belgium and France. He was an important contact in Switzerland for the American War Refugee Board and took part in the infamous Eichmann-inspired "Jews for trucks" negotiations. Rudolf Kastner had asked Mayer to attempt to bring about a deal with the Nazis as a Swiss private citizen since the "Joint" was an American organization. However, Mayer's hands were tied inasmuch as he could not really provide any goods or services to the Nazis. He could only stall for time. The Nazis first released 318 Jews from Bergen-Belsen, and later another 1368 Jews who were able to find freedom in Switzerland. By February 1945, Mayer was able to secure the release of another 1200 Jews from Theresienstadt.