Records of the Stockholm office of the American Joint Distribution Committee, 1941-1967

The Stockholm Collection contains the records of JDC’s Stockholm office during the years 1941-1967. The majority of the materials focus on the Stockholm office’s activities during World War II and in the postwar period from 1944-1949. In wartime, JDC’s Stockholm office, strategically located in neutral Sweden, was well-placed to coordinate the delivery of supplies to survivors and refugees in Europe, collaborate in wartime rescue operations, and to establish contact with and coordinate searches for survivors after the war ended. These records also chronicle JDC’s collaborations with other organizations to assist survivors, such as its work with the Red Cross on the White Buses. This project, headed by Count Folke Bernadotte, a Swedish diplomat and then-president of the Swedish Red Cross, provided packages and medical care to survivors in concentration camps, as well as bringing some concentration camp inmates to safety in Sweden during the last months of the war. JDC also cooperated with the local Swedish Jewish community, the Mosaiska Församlingen, to assist Holocaust survivors who had arrived in Sweden from Denmark, Norway, Hungary, and concentration camps. After the war, JDC representatives in Stockholm arranged for shipments of supplies distributed by JDC offices to survivors in Germany, Poland and Austria. These were referred to as the Felix Convoys, coordinated by Mrs. Kerstin Felix. JDC also provided care and maintenance for refugees with tuberculosis and other diseases who were sent to sanatoria in Sweden to recuperate. In addition, the Stockholm office also corresponded with Jewish communities in South America and South Africa who sought to send money and other aid to survivors, and with other Jewish communities requesting assistance, such as the Jewish community in Prague.

The collection is divided into four subcollections: Administration, Organizations, Subject Matter, and Countries and Regions. Subject Matter is the most extensive subcollection with 109 files, followed by Administration (47 files), Organizations (20 files), and Countries and Regions (19 files). Each subcollection is further divided into topical record groups. Many files contain a mix of topics or correspondents. Out of respect for this original arrangement, many files have been catalogued under Subject Matter: Various; Administration: General; and Organizations: Various. A detailed description of each folder appears under the collection's finding aid.