Records of the Czechoslovakia Offices of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, 1945-1950

A set of the digital files is also held by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC. The files of the JDC offices in Czechoslovakia, located in Prague and Bratislava, constitute the record of JDC’s activity in that country from the end of World War II until the Czech government ordered JDC to leave the country in 1950. During this postwar period, JDC sustained Jewish survivors by providing financial assistance, distributing relief parcels, maintaining soup kitchens, and supporting orphanages, homes for the elderly, and Jewish education. Especially noteworthy is the work of the JDC Emigration Service, which assisted thousands of Jews to leave for countries in North and South America, Australia, and elsewhere, as documented in 191 boxes of case files within the collection. Other files document the Bricha, a JDC-supported clandestine movement that saw thousands of mostly Polish Jews cross through the Czech border on their way to the American Zone of occupied Germany. JDC provided food, lodging, and transport to the refugees en route. Many other files contain financial and other records of the Accounting Departments in Prague and Bratislava, including monthly reports to JDC’s European headquarters in Paris, travel costs for emigration assistance, and social assistance to the sick and needy. Shipping Department records document the transport, receipt, and transshipment of clothing, food, and other relief supplies from the United States. Other record groups detail communication with other Jewish organizations and local communities and reconstruction efforts through support for cooperatives and loan kassas.