Unknown to most genealogists, Jewish Labor Committee documents in the Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives in New York University’s Tamimet Library represent a remarkable cache of genealogically rich Holocaust-era records. Estelle Guzik devotes two lines to the collection in her compendium Genealogical Resources in the New York Metropolitan Area (New York: Jewish Genealogical Society, 1989), noting that it includes case files on World War II refugees and orphans. Until Jerusalem resident and AVOTAYNU “Ask the Experts” columnist Randy Daitch sent us a query recently, asking if someone might obtain a specific record for him, we had never heard of the collection.

Created to Help European Jews

The Jewish Labor Committee (JLC) was formed in New York City in February 1934 by Yiddish-speaking immigrant trade union leaders (and leaders of such groups as the Workman’s Circle/Arbeiter Ring, the Jewish Labor Bund and the United Hebrew Trades) in response to the rise of Naziism in Germany. Prior to World War II, the JLC tried to help beleaguered Jews escape from Europe to the United States and elsewhere. After the war, labor unions assisted refugees—both Jewish and non-Jewish—to relocate in the United States and other countries. They did so by locating relatives who would sponsor the refugees. Sometimes the union itself acted as a sponsor. In addition, the unions promoted legislation in Congress to make immigration to the U.S. easier for the refugees. All this information is the content of the record groups identified above. In the case of refugees trying to immigrate to the U.S., case files provide all correspondence between the JLC and the refugee—often in Yiddish. All of the papers documenting JLC activities from 1934 to the mid–1950s are held by the Wagner Labor Archives.

Lists of names with more or less extensive information about the individuals lace the collection, interspersed with administrative correspondence, newspaper clippings and news reports. Affidavits of support for individuals seeking U.S. visas appear in the late 1930s. Supporting documents include names, birth dates and places of residence (in Europe) for the applicant as well as accompanying relatives. Some are already designated as DPs (displaced persons). Most individuals on pre-war and early war year documents likely perished in the Holocaust—although not all. Those on a list identified as DPs—Japan, 1940, probably are among those whom the Japanese government shipped to the United States before its December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.

Post-War Files Richest for Genealogists

Files from the immediate post-war years have the richest genealogical content. Here one finds hundreds, perhaps thousands, of case files of survivors seeking admission to the U.S. and elsewhere. Included are photographs and family data from relationships taken from questionnaires completed in European DP camps. A large portion of the collection concerned abandoned children living in orphanages across Europe, many later adopted by Americans.

No index of names exists for the collection. Researchers must work with the 200-page finding aid to the collection (Guide to the Records of the Jewish Labor Committee—U.S.) available online at <www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/research/tam/fa.index.html>. Click on “J” (for Jewish Labor Committee) on the collection’s alphabetical list. Daitch found his man because the survivor’s name happened to be the identification for a file. Some—but not many—individual names may be found this way; a Google search will reveal them. The great majority may be found, however, only by painstaking searches of the 166 reels of microfilm, reel by reel, frame by frame. All material is available to researchers; no restrictions are placed on access. But the research can be done only onsite, either in New York or in Washington at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Among the subject headings in the post-war collection are:

• Arrivals (Name, Ship, Dates) (1949)
• Australian Applicants for Visas (1948)
• Displaced Persons Arrival Notices (1949)
• Immigrations (some subheaded ‘children’) (1948–56)
• Landsmanschaftn (1948–56)
• Polish Refugees in USSR
• Questionnaires: Refugees in New York (1953)
• Relative Search (Aufbau, radio, press) (1948–56)
• Displaced Persons Files
• Claims Conference Files

USHMM Collection Has Drawback

Research at the USHMM archives has one drawback not found in New York. USHMM acquired its microfilms in two segments. The first (RG67.001M) covers material from 1934 to 1947. A detailed finding aid, complete with reel, box and folder numbers, exists for this record group. No finding aid, however, exists for the second, more genealogically valuable batch of films (RG 67.002M and RG 67.003M), which cover 1948 to the mid-1950s. For this section, researchers must rely on the “Bibliographic Data” in the Museum’s computer, the only description it has for this portion of the collection. Readers who plan to access the collection at USHMM would do better to consult the online guide in advance of arriving at the museum.

Because so much of the genealogically useful information was developed in post-war displaced person’s camps, one might expect to find duplicate information in the USHMM’s microfilms of the International Tracing Service’s (ITS) holdings. Not surprisingly, a few randomly chosen pre-war names also showed up in the ITS files, according to USHMM’s Bill Connolly, who works with the ITS records.

Organization of the Papers

According to Bobst Library archivist Gail Malgreen, the Wagner Archives has divided Jewish Labor Committee (U.S.) Records as a whole into three parts, each of which has been processed separately: Part I: Holocaust-Era Files, 1934–47 (microfilmed); Part II: Holocaust-Era Files, 1948–56, mostly documents rescue and relief work and overseas political contacts (microfilmed); and Part III: Administrative Files, 1957–90s, and Anti-Discrimination Department Files, 1943–60s (not microfilmed), document organizational activities in general from the late 1950s to the 1990s and domestic anti-discrimination activities from the mid-1940s through the 1990s.

The JLC’s Holocaust-related records for 1948–56 (Part II) include survivors’ biographical files, minutes, convention proceedings, reports, press releases, correspondence, financial records and a wide range of printed material. Documented in detail are the JLC’s efforts to sustain and resettle victims of the Holocaust, continuing contacts with socialist and trade union leaders in post-war Europe, campaigns against communism in the U.S. and on behalf of the rights of Soviet Jewry, proposals for liberalizing U.S. immigration policy and anti-discrimination work.

Part II Divided Into Subseries

Part II is divided into four series, with a number of sub-series. Considerable correspondence and many reports, flyers, clippings and other documents are in Yiddish. From the standpoint of the genealogist, Series IV is the most important. Entitled “Immigration, Resettlement and Refugee Aid,” it is composed of files relating to location of surviving relatives, procurement of visas, aid to child survivors in Europe and Israel, and efforts to secure reparations for survivors from the German and Austrian governments. Sub-series D and E are made up of biographical files of child survivors (mostly in France and Italy) and card files of biographical information on survivors in DP camps. Sub-series F consist of JLC financial ledgers, with entries for expenditures on both foreign and domestic aid to refugees, among other expenses and receipts.

Series I: Administrative and Organizational Records is comprised of a constitution, minutes, convention records, incoming and outgoing correspondence of JLC officers and staff, general subject files, division records, clippings and scrapbooks.

Series II: American Cities is composed of incoming and outgoing correspondence, as well as clippings and notices documenting JLC activity and contacts in U.S. cities and towns. The files are arranged alphabetically by state and by town or city within each state.

Series III: Foreign Countries is comprised of incoming and outgoing correspondence (much of it in Yiddish) with survivors, refugees, political sympathizers and others in many countries. Canadian files document activity of JLC branches in that country. The files for France, Israel, Italy, Poland and Sweden include considerable correspondence relating to JLC aid efforts directed at Eastern European survivors in those countries. The files for Germany are largely devoted to correspondence with two JLC representatives in the Displaced Persons camps, Nathan Gierowitz and Bella Meiksin.