Herman Yablokoff papers
Extent and Medium
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Creator(s)
- Herman Yablokoff
Biographical History
Herman Yablokoff (1903-1981) was born in Grodno (then Russian Poland, now Belarus). He became a singer and actor at a young age, immigrated to the United States in 1924, and added writing, producing, and directing to his credentials, becoming one of the most prominent personalities in Yiddish entertainment. In 1947, he made a seven-month tour of refugee camps in Germany, Austria, and Italy, giving reportedly 104 performances in 94 camps for 180,000 Jewish refugees. The tour was organized by the Hebrew Actors Union and supported by the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS).
Archival History
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Anita Willens
Funding Note: The cataloging of this collection has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
Anita Willens, Herman Yablokoff’s stepdaughter, donated the Herman Yablokoff papers to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1989 on behalf of the Yablokoff family.
Scope and Content
The Herman Yablokoff papers include correspondence, photographs, and printed materials documenting Yablokoff’s 1947 tour of displaced persons camps in Germany, Austria, and Italy, his visit to Cuba later in the year, and, more broadly, the work of the American Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) with displaced persons. Correspondence includes letters of introduction, gratitude, and praise for Herman Yablokoff and his performances at displaced persons camps from survivor committees, displaced persons, and JDC offices in Hallein, St. Ottilien, Bergen‐Belsen, Frankfurt, Salzburg, Rome, and Munich. Photographs Herman Yablokoff onstage, with JDC staff, and with displaced persons; Jewish scouts; children; memorials, monuments, and cemeteries; and Zionist demonstrations. Additional JDC publicity photographs depict the JDC’s work with displaced persons in Austria, Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, and Poland. Printed materials include an April 1947 edition of The Week in Munich: A Weekly Entertainment Guide published by the military government in Bavaria, the October‐November 1947 issue of "The JDC Digest" including an article about Yablokoff’s performances, a November 1947 program for an event Yablokoff attended in Havana, and clippings about Yablokoff’s 1947 tour and about his wife, Bella Meisel.
System of Arrangement
The Herman Yablokoff papers are arranged as three series: I. Correspondence, 1947-1964, II. Photographs, approximately 1918-1950s, III. Printed materials, 1940, 1947
People
- Yablokoff, Herman, 1903-1981.
- Herman Yablokoff
Corporate Bodies
- American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
- Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society of America
Subjects
- Jewish actors.
- Theater, Yiddish.
- United States.
- World War, 1939-1945--Refugees--Europe.
- Vocational education--Europe--1940-1950.
- Jewish labor unions.
- Refugee camps--Europe--1940-1950.
- Jewish refugees--Europe.
Genre
- Document
- Photographs.