The Countries and Regions subcollection includes 33 record groups, alphabetically arranged by country or region. For details, see the collection-level Scope and Content on the main page of this finding aid.

Arrangement

Record Group: Aden

The Aden record group consists of one file containing correspondence, reports, telegrams, and emigration deposits. Topics include statistical data, supplies, and financial and medical assistance to Jewish refugees in Aden provided by JDC in collaboration with the Jewish Agency.

Record Group: Australia

The Australia record group consists of one file containing correspondence and telegrams. Topics include immigration to Australia as well as requests from Jewish refugees in Europe, particularly Spain, to receive financial assistance sent from relatives in Australia.

Record Group: Austria

The Austria record group consists of two files containing correspondence regarding financial remittances and a report on the Jewish community of Vienna.

Record Group: Baltic Countries

The Baltic Countries record group consists of five files chronicling JDC’s rescue work in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. Documents include correspondence, telegrams, reports, and a list of Jews killed in Riga.

Record Group: Belgium

The Belgium record group consists of seven files containing correspondence which deals with individual emigration cases (for surnames A-M only) and claims. In addition, this record group contains Nazi documents documenting confiscation of Jewish property in Belgium compiled for property restitution claims in the postwar years.

Record Group: Bulgaria

The Bulgaria record group consists of one file, a 1944 report on the Jews of Bulgaria from the American Jewish Congress.

Record Group: Canada

The Canada record group consists of one file containing correspondence and telegrams dealing with immigration to Canada and inquiries from Canadian Jews about relatives in Europe. One noteworthy document is a list of Jewish refugees in Europe who had relatives in Canada.

Record Group: Caribbean

The Caribbean record group consists of two files and chronicles JDC’s assistance to Jewish refugees in Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and the Dominican Republic. Topics include missing baggage, baggage shipment, transferal of funds, transportation, packages, and financial support.

Record Group: China

The China record group consists of five files containing correspondence, telegrams, lists, and financial statements. Topics include Jewish refugees in Shanghai, emigration from Shanghai to Palestine, financial remittance from Switzerland to Shanghai, provision of funds for matzot before Passover, and Jews interned in the Shanghai Jewish quarter by Japanese authorities.

Record Group: Czechoslovakia

The Czechoslovakia record group consists of four files containing correspondence, telegrams, meeting minutes, reports, passenger expense charts, and emigration charts. Topics include financial assistance to Jewish refugees in Czechoslovakia, emigration, and statistical data.

Record Group: Danzig

The Danzig record group consists of one file containing reports, emigration deposits, correspondence, and telegrams dealing primarily with fund raising to aid the Jews of Danzig.

Record Group: Denmark

The Denmark record group consists of three files, including a claim file on the part of the Board of Jewish Communities Denmark containing correspondence. Topics include Danish Jewish refugees in Sweden and a financial contribution earmarked for them from the Jewish community in Chile. Among this group of a Danish Jewish refugees was a group of “chalutzim” (Zionist pioneers) whose intention was to make aliya.

Record Group: France

The France record group consists of twelve files and deals primarily with property restitution, particularly valuable artwork stolen from Jewish homes in Paris. Documents include correspondence, statistical charts, JDC statutes, and numerous Nazi documents describing confiscation of Jewish property in France compiled for property restitution claims in the postwar years. One noteworthy document is a copy of an announcement posted on a door of a confiscated Jewish apartment in Paris. There is a significant amount of post-1944 material related to postwar property restitution claims.

Record Group: Germany

The Germany record group consists of twelve files and deals primarily with property restitution under the German federal restitution law called BRUEG (Bundesrückerstattungsgesetz). It contains numerous Nazi documents which deal with confiscation of Jewish property, including post-1944 documents, and many files contain English translations. Topics include property storage, correspondence regarding furniture which belonged to specific individuals, and arranging for various confiscated items such as furs to be shipped to the Eastern Front.

Record Group: Greece

The Greece record group consists of one file, a 1944 report on the Jews of Greece from the American Jewish Congress.

Record Group: Hungary

The Hungary record group consists of two files containing a report and correspondence detailing philanthropic aid to Hungarian Jews during the war years.

Record Group: Iran

The Iran record group consists of one file containing documents prepared for litigation purposes.

Record Group: Italy

The Italy record group consists of one file containing a legal gazette regarding Italian property restitution laws.

Record Group: Mauritius

The Mauritius record group consists of one file containing correspondence regarding assistance to Jewish refugees in Mauritius, including a large group of Austrian Jews, most of whom were interned by British authorities under poor conditions. Packages and financial aid were sent from South Africa.

Record Group: Mexico

The Mexico record group consists of one file containing correspondence regarding youth emigration and the emigration and maintenance of Jewish refugees with relatives in Mexico.

Record Group: Mozambique

The Mozambique record group consists of one file containing correspondence regarding remittance requests.

Record Group: North Africa

The North Africa record group consists of seven files and chronicles JDC’s work in Algeria, Egypt, and Morocco. Documents include a historical survey on the Jews of Morocco, statistical charts, situation reports, names lists, a lease agreement, correspondence, and telegrams. A significant amount of correspondence is from Hélène Cazes Benatar and Elie Gozlan writing to Allied forces in the aftermath of Operation Torch. Other topics include aid to refugees, Sidi Al Ayachi and other concentration camps, release of camp internees, emigration to Palestine, evacuation of Jewish refugees in Spain to North Africa, and relief work in Tripolitania.

Record Group: Palestine

The Palestine record group consists of four files containing telegrams primarily documenting with searches for lost relatives. A significant part of this record group deals with provision of supplies and packages to Jewish refugees in Europe. JDC staff in Palestine sent tea, coffee, food, shoes, and clothing, as well as matzot for Passover. Packages were sent from Palestine through Iran to Poland. Other topics include financial aid for refugees in Sweden and Switzerland, Bokharian refugees in Tehran, funding for Alliance schools in Tehran, supplies to Italy, and relief work in Aden.

Record Group: Poland

The Poland record group consists of four files containing correspondence, telegrams, newspaper clippings, reports, accounting charts, and financial statements. Topics include financial remittances, assistance to Czech Jewish refugees in Poland, rescue and relief work for Jews in Poland, provision of supplies such as matzot, and tracking Polish Jewish refugees in other countries such as Holland, Romania, Lithuania, and Latvia. In some cases, JDC helped refugees find relatives in the US to assist with immigration. Efforts were made to contact JDC Warsaw after the outbreak of the war via the US embassy, and to increase awareness of the dire situation of the Jews in Poland. JDC representatives composed a report depicting the terrible starvation, illness, and general rise in mortality rates. JDC also assisted and collaborated with existing organizations in Poland such as TOZ (Society for Safeguarding the Health of the Jewish Population).

Record Group: Portugal

The Portugal record group consists of 51 files containing assistance case forms, US immigration forms for children on the Serpa Pinto, birth certificates from France, Germany and Portugal, passports from Germany and Poland, a Portuguese identity document, names lists, identity photos from Serpa Pinto applications, police clearance certificates, luggage inventories, parcel order records, records of payment, a list of people with claims to property in foreign countries, and personal testimonies. Topics include parcels to inmates in Auschwitz and Theresienstadt via JDC Lisbon; immigration to Palestine, the United States, and various countries in Central and South America; and financial coverage for medical care of Jewish refugees in Lisbon. The record group also contains a small number of post-1944 documents, and is comprised primarily of individual case files, most but not all of which are restricted. Please see our Access & Restrictions Policy.

Record Group: Romania

The Romania record group consists of six files, three of which are restricted case files. (Please see our Access & Restrictions Policy.) Documents include reports, affidavits, correspondence, and telegrams regarding visas, assistance to Polish refugees in Romania, and financial claims made through the Jerusalem office.

Record Group: South Africa

The South Africa record group consists of one file containing lists of concentration camp inmates registered for the Red Cross package service, correspondence, and telegrams dealing with Red Cross packages to concentration camp inmates.

Record Group: South America

The South America record group consists of ten files and chronicles JDC’s work in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Documents include correspondence, telegrams, newspaper clipping, and a financial and statistical report. Topics include Jewish refugees in Uruguay and Venezuela inquiring after relatives in Europe, emigration to Colombia predominantly from Spain, requests from Jewish refugees in Spain for financial assistance from relatives in Colombia, immigration to Brazil (mostly from Spain), currency regulations for immigrants to Brazil, Jewish refugees in France and Belgium with relatives in Bolivia, requests for funds from relatives in Bolivia, inquiries concerning relatives in Chile and Peru, baggage shipment and storage, and baggage claims.

Record Group: Spain

The Spain record group consists of 44 files containing charts, names lists, telegrams, and correspondence. Topics include assistance to Jewish refugees in Spain; visas, passports, and entry certificates for youth Aliyah groups and other candidates to go to mandate Palestine; immigration to Palestine via Mozambique; lists of children on the Serpa Pinto; arranging for release of concentration camp internees; exit permits for Spanish nationals; Salonican Jewish refugees in Spain; and Sephardim interned in Bergen Belsen. The record group contains numerous case files most but not all of which are restricted. Some of these case files contain post-1944 material and deal with both transmigrants in Spain en route to South America and refugees who had been living in Spain for many years. There are also case files dealing with non-Jewish refugees in Spain applying for PCIRO assistance. Please see our Access & Restrictions Policy.

Record Group: Sweden

The Sweden record group consists of one file containing lists of children who came to Sweden during the war, and Eva Warburg’s correspondence.

Record Group: Switzerland

The Switzerland record group consists of six files containing an annual report, lists of accounts, correspondence, and telegrams regarding renting a car for Curt Trumpy, refugee assistance which included food parcels and other resources to Displaced Persons camps, Hungarian yeshiva students in Switzerland, OSE programs for children in France, Italian Jewish refugees in Switzerland, and a funding request for a Jewish studies chair at the University of Lucerne.

Record Group: Turkey

The Turkey record group consists of three files containing lists of refugees, meeting minutes, written statements with information on Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary, reports, expenditure statements, statistical charts, correspondence, and telegrams. Topics include Jewish refugees in Turkey and efforts to get them financial assistance and immigration permits from relatives abroad, fair exchange rates for JDC funds, food parcels sent to concentration camps (mostly Theresienstadt), Turkish repatriates from France and other countries, shipping expenses, transmigrants en route to Palestine, the sinking of the S.S. Mefkure and survivors, Jewish community of Izmir, and emigrant movement statistics.

Record Group: United States

The United States record group consists of two files containing meeting minutes and correspondence dealing with rescue and relief efforts during and after the war, locating relatives, supplies for refugees, bringing Jewish children to Portugal, and baggage shipment.