Author: JDC Archives

Rescue, Relief, and Renewal: 100 Years of “the Joint” in Poland, an exhibit of rare archival photographs originally presented at the Galicia Jewish Museum in Krakόw in 2014, will open at the Osher Marin JCC in San Rafael, California on March 6th. The exhibit features almost 100 images from the JDC Archives image collection which portray JDC’s extensive social welfare and humanitarian activities in Poland through the decades to the present day. The exhibit highlights early relief shipments of food, medicine, and supplies during World War I; extensive work in the interwar years, the Holocaust era and its aftermath;...

Q: How long have you been doing genealogy research and what got you started? A: I have been researching my family’s history for over 40 years. I became interested by finding photos in my parent’s house and figuring out who the subjects were. It became like a puzzle, an obsession. Q: Do you have any tips for people just getting started on their family trees? A: You should always start your research in the country you live in, and then seek to go backwards. In the United States you would look at census records, passenger arrival records and vital...

Veerle Vanden Daelen’s interest in the post-Holocaust reconstruction of Antwerp Jewry was piqued in 2001. She was working in Brussels at the Commission of Spoliation of Jewish Assets. The sharp contrast between the almost-total destruction of Antwerp’s Jewish community and the “vibrant Jewish life” of the city today sparked many questions. In 2002, Vanden Daelen submitted a dissertation proposal to the Institute of Jewish Studies at the University of Antwerp to study post-WWII reconstruction of Antwerp’s Jewish life. Upon learning that local archives on welfare activities in Belgium were closed or had been destroyed, Vanden Daelen identified various archival...

  There is much to learn from eyewitness testimonies from Jewish survivors of World War II, explained Dr. Uta Larkey of Goucher College at a recent “Lunch and Learn” session for staff at JDC’s headquarters in NY.  The Central Historical Commission in Munich (Tsentrale Historishe Komisye) collected thousands of testimonies from Jewish survivors immediately after the Holocaust.The testimonies were recorded for historical purposes, yet subjects often felt psychologically rewarded by having had the opportunity to share their stories and those of their murdered relatives. While there is much to gain from authenticity of a first-hand account, the territory of...