Author: JDC Archives

The JDC Archives Names Index now includes Hungarian Refugee Cards from 1956-57 from JDCs office in Vienna. Researchers and interested family historians can access these cards via the Names Index. The JDC Archives holds 10,000 Hungarian refugee registration cards, which contain biographical information, including birthplace and nationality, profession, temporary address in Austria, and destination, and country of destination. Over 4,000 of these cards are available in the Names Index, with more cards added regularly! Some 170,000 refugees, among them more than 18,000 Jews, fled from Hungary to Austria after the Hungarian Revolution in October 1956. Voluntary agencies were called...

Collection highlights from the JDC Archives major 1933-44 collection, documenting JDCs global rescue efforts in the Nazi era, are now available online! The collection comprises over 1100 files from JDCs New York Headquarters which chronicle the years between Hitlers rise to power as 1933 and the end of the Second World War. These records describe JDCs extensive efforts to sustain individuals and communities struggling for survival in Europe and across the globe and to provide life-saving emigration aid for tens of thousands of Jews fleeing the Nazis. In addition, JDC supported local welfare committees and communal organizations and collaborated...

Drs. Georgette Bennett and Leonard Polonsky, who provided the lead $1 million gift for the JDC Archives digitization project, have been featured in todays Wall Street Journals Donor of the Day column. Bennett and Polonsky are visionary leaders and major philanthropists in the field of archival digitization around the world. The grant to the JDC Archives has enabled the digitization of 1.8 million historic documents, and the development of the JDC Archives website. The historic records digitized include topics as significant as JDCs liife-saving medical work fighting epidemics in Poland and Soviet Russia as a result of poor medical...