Guide to the Records of the Jewish Labor Committee (U.S.), Part II, Holocaust Era Files WAG 025.2

Descriptive Summary

Creator:	Jewish Labor Committee (U.S.)
Title:	Jewish Labor Committee Records, Part II, Holocaust Era Files
Dates:	1948-1956
Abstract:	The Jewish Labor Committee, an umbrella group of Jewish trade unions and fraternal organizations, was founded in 1934 for the purpose of organizing opposition to Fascism, providing assistance to its victims, and fighting all forms of bigotry. After the Second World War the Committee continued its program of relief to Holocaust victims, providing shipments of food, clothing, and medical supplies. It also provided immigration assistance, and offered help with employment and housing for refugees who came to the United States. The JLC's Holocaust-related records, Part II (1948-1956), include minutes, convention proceedings, reports, press releases, correspondence, survivors’ biographical files and a wide range of printed material. Documented in detail are the JLC's efforts to sustain and resettle survivors, contacts with socialist and trade-union leaders in post-war Europe, proposals for liberalizing American immigration policy, lobbying for reparations, and anti-discrimination work.
Quantity:	150.0 Linear feet (150 boxes)
Call Phrase:	WAG 025.2

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Historical/Biographical Note

The Jewish Labor Committee, an umbrella group of Jewish trade unions and fraternal organizations, was founded in 1934 for the purpose of organizing opposition to Fascism, providing assistance to its victims, and fighting all forms of bigotry. It maintained close contact with European resistance movements and was able to effect the rescue of several thousand labor and socialist activists and their families. (For the earlier history of the Jewish Labor Committee, see the finding-aid for Records of the Jewish Labor Committee (U.S.), Part I, Holocaust Era Files, 1934-1947 .)

After the Second World War the Committee continued its program of relief to Holocaust victims, providing massive shipments of food, clothing, and medical supplies. It cooperated with other Jewish agencies in reuniting families, provided immigration assistance, offered help with employment and housing for refugees who came to the United States, and had several representatives working in the Displaced Persons camps in Germany.

The Committee organized a post-war "Child Adoption Program" through which American trade unions, branches of fraternal organizations such as the Workmen's Circle and others made monthly financial contributions toward the support of thousands of destitute children in Europe and elsewhere. The Jewish Labor Committee was the main source of financial support for a number of children's homes in France, Italy, Belgium, Poland and Palestine/Israel. An eighteen-minute film about the children's homes in France, commissioned by the JLC, was an effective fund-raising tool (this film is available for viewing at the Library). The Committee also made substantial contributions to the reconstruction of Jewish culture after 1945 by financing Yiddish libraries, schools and publications in North and South America, Europe and Palestine/Israel.

The JLC sent emissaries to assess the situation in the ruined Jewish communities and refugee camps of Europe beginning in 1945. Their reports, and those of survivors who toured the U.S. under JLC auspices, brought the harsh realities of the aftermath of the Holocaust to American audiences. Officers of the JLC were active in the lobbying effort that secured reparations for victims of the Holocaust from the governments of Germany and Austria in the early 1950s.

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Scope and Content Note

The Jewish Labor Committee (U.S.) Records as a whole have been divided into three parts, each of which has been processed separately: Part I: Holocaust-Era Files, 1934-1947 (microfilmed); Part II: Holocaust-Era Files, 1948-1956, mostly documenting rescue and relief work and overseas political contacts (microfilmed); and Part III: Administrative Files, 1957-1990s, and Anti-Discrimination Department Files, 1943-1960s (not microfilmed), documenting organizational activities in general from the late 1950s to the 1990s, and domestic anti-discrimination activities from the mid-1940s through the 1990s.

This finding-aid describes the Jewish Labor Committee (U.S.) Records, Part II only. The JLC's Holocaust-related records for 1948-1956 include minutes, convention proceedings, reports, press releases, correspondence, survivors' biographical files, financial records and a wide range of printed material. Documented in detail are the JLC's efforts to sustain and resettle victims of the Holocaust, continuing contacts with socialist and trade-union leaders in post-War Europe, campaigns against Communism in the U.S. and on behalf of the rights of Soviet Jewry, proposals for liberalizing U.S. immigration policy, and anti-discrimination work.

Part II is divided into four series, with a number of sub-series. A considerable amount of correspondence and many reports, flyers, clippings and other documents are in Yiddish.

Series I: Administrative and Organizational Records, is comprised of a constitution, minutes, convention records, incoming and outgoing correspondence of JLC officers and staff (including Lasar Epstein, Samuel Estrin, Joseph Godson, Adolph Held, Walter Kirschenbaum, Emanuel Muravchik and Jacob Pat), general subject files, division records and clippings scrapbooks. ( NOTE: The JLC's Women's Division was founded in 1947 and the Workmen's Circle Division in 1946; the few early files for those groups have been included in this series to avoid dividing the record of their activity between Parts I and II.)

Series II: American Cities, is comprised of incoming and outgoing correspondence, as well as clippings and notices, documenting JLC activity and contacts in U.S. cities and towns. The files are arranged alphabetically by state, and by town or city within each state.

Series III: Foreign Countries, is comprised of incoming and outgoing correspondence (much of it in Yiddish) with survivors, refugees, political sympathizers and others in many countries. Canadian files document activity of JLC branches in that country. The files for France, Poland, Italy, Sweden and Israel contain a good deal of correspondence relating to JLC aid efforts directed at East European survivors in those countries. The files for Germany are largely devoted to correspondence with two JLC representatives in the Displaced Persons camps, Nathan Gierowitz and Bella Meiksin.

Series IV: Immigration, Resettlement and Refugee Aid, is comprised of files relating to location of surviving relatives, procurement of visas, aid to child survivors in Europe and Israel, and efforts to secure reparations for survivors from the German and Austrian governments. Sub-series D and E are made up of biographical files of child survivors (mostly in France and Italy) and card-files of biographical information on survivors in DP camps. Sub-series F consists of JLC financial ledgers, with entries for expenditures on both foreign and domestic aid to refugees, among other expenses and receipts.

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Arrangement

All series are arranged alphabetically by topic or personal name, except for Series I, Sub-series A, B, D and H (Minutes, Convention and National Conference Records, Meetings-Events, and Scrapbooks), and Series IV, F (Financial Ledgers), which are arranged chronologically.

This portion of the Jewish Labor Committee (U.S.) collection is organized into four series, with subseries, as follows:

I. Administrative and Organizational Records

A. Constitution and Minutes

B. Convention and National Conference Records

C. Correspondence
1. General
2. Individuals
3. Other Organizations

D. Meetings, Conferences and Other Events

E. General Files

F. Women's Division Records, 1947-1956

G. Workmen's Circle Division Records, 1946-1956

H. Scrapbooks, 1949-1956

II. American Cities

III. Foreign Countries

IV. Immigration, Resettlement and Refugee Aid

A. Immigration and Aid

B. German-Austrian Reparations Files

C. Child Adoption Program

D. Child Adoption Case Files

E. Displaced Persons Card Files

F. JLC Financial Ledgers, 1934-1949

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Related Material at the Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives

"Jewish Labor and the Holocaust," a web exhibit based on the JLC records and featuring more than 100 graphics from the collection.

Jewish Labor Committee (U.S.) Oral History Collection (OH 27)

Papers of Baruch Charney Vladeck

Papers of Edward S. Goldstein: Jewish Labor Committee Research Files

Papers of Isaiah Minkoff

Papers of Jacob Pat

Papers of Julius Bernstein

Records of the Jewish Labor Committee, Boston

Records of the Jewish Labor Committee, Chicago

Jewish Labor Committee (U.S.), Part I, Holocaust Era Files, 1934-1947

Jewish Labor Committee (U.S.) Photograph Collection (NP 48)

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Separated Material

A large collection of photographs and other graphic material was separated to the Non-Print Department of the Tamiment Library. See Guide to Jewish Labor Committee (U.S.) Photograph Collection (NP 48).

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Restrictions

Access Restrictions

Open for research without restrictions.

Use Restrictions

Permission to publish materials must be obtained in writing from the:
Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives
Elmer Holmes Bobst Library
70 Washington Square South
New York, NY 10012
Phone: (212) 998-2630
Fax: (212) 995-4225
E-mail: gail.malmgreen@nyu.edu

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Access Points

People

Epstein, Lasar.
Gierowitz, Nathan.
Held, Adolph, 1885-1969.
Kirschenbaum, Walter.
Meiksin, Bella.
Muravchik, Emanuel.
Pat, Jacob, 1890-1966.

Subjects

Concentration camps.
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
Jewish labor unions.
Refugee camps.
Refugees, Jewish.
World War, 1939-1945--Jews--Rescue.

Organizations

American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee..
Jewish Labor Committee (U.S.).
Jewish Labour Committee (Canada).

Type

Card files.
Correspondence.
Ledgers (account books)
Minutes.
Newsletters.
Reports.
Scrapbooks.

Places

Canada.
France--History--20th century.
France.
Germany.
Israel.
Italy.
New York (N.Y.)
Poland--History--1918-1945.
Poland.
Sweden--History--20th century.
Sweden.

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Administrative Information

Provenance

The Jewish Labor Committee (U.S.) records were donated to the Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, through an agreement by JLC Executive Director Martin Lapan, in 1984. The first shipment of records came to the archives in early 1985. A number of additions to the collection have been made by the JLC over the years. Some printed material was transferred to the Library after microfilming, and deteriorated clippings scrapbooks were not retained after filming.

Preferred Citation

Published citations should take the following form:

Identification of item, date; Collection name; Collection number; box number; folder number;
Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives
Elmer Holmes Bobst Library
70 Washington Square South
New York, NY 10012, New York University Libraries.

Descriptive Summary

Historical/Biographical Note

Scope and Content Note

Arrangement

Related Material at the Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives

Separated Material

Restrictions

Access Restrictions

Use Restrictions

Access Points

People

Subjects

Organizations

Type

Places

Administrative Information

Provenance

Preferred Citation

Container List

Series I: Administrative and Organizational Records

Subseries A: Constitution and Minutes

Subseries B: Convention and National Conference Records

Subseries C: Correspondence

General

Individuals.

Other Organizations

Subseries D: Meetings, Conferences and Other Events

Subseries E: General Files.