Metadata: Central Zionist Archives WJC Geneva Dr. Gerhart Riegner Archives Microfilm holdings
Collection
- Country:
- Switzerland
- Holding institution:
- Archives of Contemporary History at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich
- Holding institution (official language):
- Archiv für Zeitgeschichte der ETH Zürich
- Postal address:
- Hirschengraben 62, CH-8092 Zurich
- Phone number:
- +41 44 632 40 03
- Web address:
- https://www.afz.ethz.ch/
- Email:
- afz@history.gess.ethz.ch
- Reference number:
- CZA Gerhart Riegner Archives
- Title:
- Central Zionist Archives WJC Geneva Dr. Gerhart Riegner Archives Microfilm holdings
- Title (official language):
- CZA Archives WJ Geneva Dr. Gerhart Riegner Archives Mikrofilmbestand
- Creator/accumulator:
- Riegner, Gerhart; World Jewish Congress
- Date(s):
- 1932/2002
- Language:
- German
- English
- Extent:
- 249 microfilms
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
- Dr. Gerhart M Riegner (1911-2001) shaped the activities of the World Jewish Congress in Geneva for decades. Hence, the collection can also be described as the “Riegner Archives“. Individual documents from Riegner's personal estate were added to the archives after his death. The “Riegner telegrams“ from the summer of 1942 are of particular importance for the history of the Holocaust. They persuaded the Western Allies to publicise the systematic genocide of the Jews.
- Archival history:
- In the summer of 1940, in fear of Germany’s possible conquest of Switzerland, most of the files were destroyed. However, all subsequent documents were stored in the Geneva Office of the Jewish Congress. When they were handed over to the Central Zionist Archives (CZA) in Jerusalem in 1999, they comprised more than 180 shelf metres. In 1999, the holdings were arranged in Geneva by Ruth Fivaz-Silbermann in collaboration with the AfZ and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington and then transferred to the CZA in Jerusalem. In 2003, the AfZ received around 250 microfilms covering the entire holdings from 1938 to 1980.
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
The Geneva Office of the World Jewish Congress (Gerhart Riegner Office) was founded in 1936. Initially, this office was primarily responsible for the relations of the World Jewish Congress with the League of Nations. Gerhart M Riegner was appointed managing secretary of the branch. Until 1945, Prof. Dr. Paul Guggenheim assisted him in an advisory capacity. During the Second World War, Dr. Adolf Abraham Silberschein and Myra Becker were among the most important staff members. In 1940, the Geneva office remained the only branch of the World Jewish Congress on the European continent.
The Geneva Office of the World Jewish Congress became one of the most important places for the spreading of information on the fate of persecuted Jews within National Socialist Germany’s sphere of power and its allies. One of the main tasks of the Office was to collect and disseminate information on the political situation of the Jews (e.g. antisemitism, legal discrimination, expropriation and persecution of the Jews as well as the various stages of the Holocaust). After the Second World War, the Geneva Office was particularly committed to matters of refugees and displaced persons as well as reparations.
- Subject terms:
- Holocaust
- World Jewish Congress
- Access, restrictions:
- No open access. Subject to application.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Jewish Museum Hohenems
- Author of the description:
- Severin Holzknecht; Jewish Museum of Hohenems; 2019
