Recent Acquisitions
New photographs and ephemera added to JDC’s archival holdings
The JDC Archives is excited to share some notable new acquisitions to its historical collections received during the pandemic.
Rachele Aruch with her parents Beppo Aruch and Hanka Secemski in Feldafing DP camp, Germany, early 1950s.
Scroll through a cache of family photos documenting life in Foehrenwald and Feldafing which provide an intimate look at life in the DP camps. Here, we don’t see vocational training or clothing distribution, but rather the daily grind of individual families marking birthdays with parties and participating in parades; parents attempting to build a normal life for their children. These photographs allow us to document a more complete representation of the experience of survivors in the DP camps.
View a program of the 16th Rover Scout Ball in Shanghai from 1946, featuring an ad by Charles Jordan, JDC’s Director of Far Eastern Activities. From his Shanghai headquarters, Jordan supervised programs providing relief, rehabilitation, and immigration assistance for 15,000 European refugees. Charles Klotzer, a German Jewish refugee in Shanghai, was the scout master of the 16th Independent boy scout group and organized this event. He donated the program to JDC, recounting his fond attachment to Charles Jordan, who made a point of staying in touch with Jewish refugees he had met in Shanghai.
Sift through a stash of documents saved by a former employee of JDC’s Supplies for Overseas Survivors (S.O.S.) department, including a 1948 signed letter by Eddie Cantor endorsing JDC’s campaign, as well as a newspaper advertisement and pledge card publicizing Lane Bryant’s Committee of American Mothers-To-Be, which urged mothers to donate maternity clothes overseas which would be distributed by JDC’s S.O.S. committee. The advertisement features the photographs of three Hollywood stars who all served on the collection committee. The mementos were all cut out and saved, to commemorate a career well spent.
Each acquisition unearths a special part of JDC history along with the story of individuals whose lives were impacted by the JDC. Do you have materials connected to JDC history? Let us know!
