Emigrationsavdelningen

After the end of the war in 1945, emigration activities again became an essential part of the relief work for Jewish refugees in Sweden. The Jewish Community of Stockholm received special government grants for this purpose. The Refugee Section of the community signed agreements with HIAS (Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society) and Joint (American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, AJJDC) for financial support for emigration.

Swedish government agencies, in consultation with UNRRA, helped refugees and survivors in Sweden at the end of the war to return to their home countries through collective repatriation transports. Among the Jews, mainly those from Western European countries, went on these transports. The number of people (chaluzim, survivors, transmigrants, trade union workers, etc.) who received financial assistance for their emigration from Sweden through the Refugee Section amounted to more than 6,000 people from 1945-1950, for example. In addition, the section assisted people who were only passing through Sweden.

At the end of 1945, the community agreed with HIAS that the Refugee Section and HIAS would jointly form an emigration department to provide financial and technical assistance for emigration. Later, the community signed similar agreements with AJJDC.

At the end of August 1954, emigration assistance was coordinated by the United Hias Service (UHS) in Paris, taking over the activities of HIAS and Joint. These organizations paid the travel expenses and two-thirds of the administrative costs, while the Jewish Community of Stockholm covered the remaining third. The Emigration Department also had a dedicated office in Gothenburg.

The Emigration Department continued to operate until the end of 1956, when, in agreement with the UHS, the special department dissolved due to the sharp reduction in emigration. The remaining travel cases were formally taken over by the Jewish Community of Stockholm's Second Social Section but were handled separately until March 1966, when their administration was taken over by the community's director, David Köpniwsky, and a social counselor. The head of the department was Dr. Jur. Wilhelm Michaeli until he took over the management of the Office for Legal Aid (later the URO Office), set up in 1953, then Ruth Liebenthal. After its formal termination in 1956, she managed its activities alongside her work at the URO until Michaeli retired from his post as head of the URO in March 1966.

The archives of the Emigration Department cover the formation of the archives from the handling of emigration issues from the fall of 1945 until 1966, i.e., from before and after the formal existence of the department (1946-1956)—the oldest documents in the archive date from around 1940.