Webinar: Global Perspectives on JDC’s Assistance to Jewish DPs with Health-Related Challenges, 1945-1963

The ability to work, hence to become a productive member of the receiving country was a defining principle of the global migration regime in the post-1945 era. Thus, being unable to work due to health reasons imposed a major burden in the process of resettlement and resulted in part of the sh’erit ha-pletah (“surviving remnant”) living in care facilities and camps from 1945 through the 1950s, and in some cases until 1963. The JDC was directly involved in organizing health care and rehabilitation efforts in order to foster resettlement and negotiate migration schemes. This talk draws on case studies from Austria, Israel, and Shanghai to examine the challenges Holocaust survivors with chronic illnesses, disabilities, and handicaps encountered in Europe and Asia after 1945 and how the JDC provided assistance along their migration routes.

Johannes Glack is a contemporary historian and doctoral researcher at the Department of Contemporary History of the University of Vienna, where he is engaged in the ERC project “GLORE%mdash;Global Resettlement Regimes: Ambivalent Lessons Learned from the Postwar (1945-1951).” His research focuses on the migration processes of Jewish Displaced Persons (DPs) with health-related challenges from 1945 to 1963. Prior to joining the Institute of Contemporary History, he worked as a research assistant for the Yad Vashem archive and contributed to various national and international projects in the field of Shoah remembrance and commemoration work. He is the recipient of the Max and Cecil (Steuer) Chesin/JDC Archives Fellowship for 2024.