UNRRA selected records AG-018-002 : Controller and Public Information (S-0554)

Identifier
irn601607
Language of Description
English
Alt. Identifiers
  • 2015.248.1
  • RG-67.046M
Dates
1 Jan 1943 - 31 Dec 1949
Level of Description
Item
Languages
  • English
  • French
  • Portuguese
  • Spanish
  • Italian
Source
EHRI Partner

Extent and Medium

4,948 digital images, JPEG

1 microfilm reel, 16 mm

Creator(s)

Biographical History

The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) was an international relief agency representing 44 nations, but largely dominated by the United States. Founded in 1943, it became part of the United Nations (UN) in 1945, and it largely shut down operations in 1947. Its purpose was to "plan, co-ordinate, administer or arrange for the administration of measures for the relief of victims of war in any area under the control of any of the United Nations through the provision of food, fuel, clothing, shelter and other basic necessities, medical and other essential services." Its staff of civil servants included 12,000 people, with headquarters in New York. Funding came from many nations, and totaled $3.7 billion, of which the United States contributed $2.7 billion; Britain $625 million and Canada $139 million. The Administration of UNRRA at the peak of operations in mid-1946 included five types of offices and missions with a staff totaling nearly 25,000: The Headquarters Office in Washington, The European Regional Office (London), the 29 servicing offices and missions (2 area offices in Cairo and Sydney; 10 liaison offices and missions in Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Trieste; 12 procurement offices in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and later Peru, Cuba, India, Mexico, South Africa, Southern Rhodesia, Turkey, Uruguay, Venezuela; 6 offices for procurement of surplus military supplies in Caserta and later Rome, Honolulu, Manila, New Delhi, Paris, Shanghai), the sixteen missions to receiving countries (Albania, Austria, Byelorussia, China, Czechoslovakia, the Dodecanese Islands, Ethiopia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Korea, the Philippines, Poland, Ukraine, Yugoslavia), and the Displaced Persons Operations in Germany. UNRRA cooperated closely with dozens of volunteer charitable organizations, who sent hundreds of their own agencies to work alongside UNRRA. In operation only three years, the agency distributed about $4 billion worth of goods, food, medicine, tools, and farm implements at a time of severe global shortages and worldwide transportation difficulties. The recipient nations had been especially hard hit by starvation, dislocation, and political chaos. It played a major role in helping Displaced Persons return to their home countries in Europe in 1945-46. Its UN functions were transferred to several UN agencies, including the International Refugee Organization and the World Health Organization. As an American relief agency, it was largely replaced by the Marshall Plan, which began operations in 1948. [Source: UN Original finding aid of records of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA)]

Archival History

United Nations Archives and Records Management Section

Acquisition

Source of acquisition is the United Nations Archives and Records Management Section (UN-ARMS), UNRA records AG-018-002, the Controller and Public Information (S-0554). The collection was initially filmed onto a microfilm and copied through a cooperative agreement between the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Mémorial de la Shoah, France and the UN-ARMS. The USHMM Archives received the filmed collection via the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum International Archival Programs Division in 2015 and accretion of digital copies in June 2016.

Scope and Content

Routine administrative files and preliminary drafts of releases and other publicity materials, accounting files, reports and correspondence of international organizations; reports from particular missions and displaced persons camps, UNRRA administrative organization charts and statistics. Much of records were destroyed by UNRRA or later by the Archives Section.

System of Arrangement

Selected records arranged in four series: 1. Office of Public Information, 1943-1949. Press Releases (S-0554) [microfilm reel]; 2. Executive Office, 1943-1949 [Digital images]; 3. Assistant Controller for Budgetary Accounting and Statistics, 1943-1949 [Digital images]; 4. Fiscal Accounting, 1943-1949 [Digital images]. Original records of the entire fond arranged in five series: 1. Executive Office (S-0521, S-1170 to S-1172); 2. Assistant Controller for Budgetary Accounting and Statistics (S-1173 to S-1175); 3. Internal Audit Executive Office (S-1176); 4. Fiscal Accounting (S-1177 to S-1183); 5. Office of Public Information (S-0554)

Conditions Governing Reproduction

Copyright Holder: United Nations Archives and Records Management Section

Corporate Bodies

Subjects

Genre

This description is derived directly from structured data provided to EHRI by a partner institution. This collection holding institution considers this description as an accurate reflection of the archival holdings to which it refers at the moment of data transfer.