Jewish Relief Unit: personnel files

The Jewish Relief Unit was the operational arm of the Jewish Committee for Relief Abroad, which was formed in 1943 by the Joint Foreign Committee of the Board of Deputies and the Anglo-Jewish Association and under the auspices and financial responsibility of the Central British Fund for Jewish Relief and Rehabilitation. The Archive consists of 28 folders in 6 boxes. Each Folder contains up to (a maximum of) 14 files (in one case). The Folders are numbered 1407/1 to 1407/28. The files are further numbered 1407/1/1 (up to the maximum number in the Folder), followed by the total page count for the particular file, e.g., 1407/10/1/1-20, with a total page count for the Folder appearing in the Catalogue: 1407/10/1-6 files, pp213. The Committee began recruiting workers as early as 1943, the date of the earliest application in the Archive, to work in Europe to relieve the problems of those European Jews who survived the Nazis once the war ended. In the event, the Relief Agency worked in the British Sector of Occupied Germany, alongside the American Joint Distribution Committee (known as “the Joint”) in the American Sector, ORT (Organisation for Rehabilitation through Training) and the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. On occasion, some of those employed by the JRU transferred to either the Joint or ORT. The folders and files are organised as follows: folders 1-22 (and the files contained therein) are in alphabetical order by surname of the those recruited to serve in mainland Europe, from Abel, Gertrude to Zimmerman, Daphne + out of order Guttmann, Gerda. This listing of names resumes at Folders 25 to 28, from Rasbah, Lucy to Silver, Stella. The contents of Folders 23 & 24 will be noted at the appropriate place in the catalogue, as will the contents of the final file of Folder 28. It is important to note here that the alphabetical list of names of recruits, to be found at 1407/23/3, is incomplete: not all names are listed and some of the names listed have no file in the Archive, and some of the women recruits who married during or at the end of their service with JRU/JRA may be listed in the file either by their maiden or their married name. In one case, Lily Holt (who rose to become a senior administrator in Europe) has two files: under her maiden name and separately (in Folder 28) as (Mrs) L. Schwarzschild. As an important, but nevertheless side, issue, it is interesting to note that a higher than chance number of the recruits emigrated to Israel at the end of their service. The final address in their file may mislead: it is usually described as “Palestine”, despite being dated after May 1948.

The provenance of the collection is unknown

JRU personnel files from 4th floor: 5 boxes

Donated March 2005