Metadata: Records concerning aid to Jewish refugees and Holocaust survivors
Collection
- Country:
- Sweden
- Holding institution:
- Regional State Archives in Gothenburg
- Holding institution (official language):
- Regionarkivet i Göteborg
- Postal address:
- Box 2154, 403 13 Göteborg
- Phone number:
- 031-701 50 00
- Reference number:
- Judiska församlingen i Göteborgs arkiv, E, 5, E: 9–E: 12
- Title:
- Records concerning aid to Jewish refugees and Holocaust survivors
- Title (official language):
- Handlingar om hjälpverksamhet för flyktingar och överlevande efter Förintelsen
- Creator/accumulator:
- Jewish community of Gothenburg
- Date(s):
- 1943/1957
- Language:
- Swedish
- English
- French
- German
- Norwegian
- Danish
- Extent:
- 0.4 linear metres (5 archival boxes and 2 folders)
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
This collection contains records concerning Jewish refugees or liberated Jewish concentration camp prisoners and the different committees and functions in Gothenburg that helped different kinds of refugees. These were the Refugee Committee of Gothenburg, the Refugee Office of Gothenburg, the Post-war Aid Office associated with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (AJJDC) and the Regional Committee for the Victims of the Nazi Concentration Camps.
In the volume E 1: 5 there are minutes from meetings and other records concerning cooperation between the Jewish community of Gothenburg and its counterparts in Stockholm and Malmö, primarily regarding refugee aid. The E 9 series consists of two volumes of records concerning survivors of the Nazi concentration camps as well as records from the Regional Committee for the Victims of the Nazi Concentration Camps, written between 1945 and 1949. The records are divided into two archival boxes. They are typewritten and are in either English or French. The series contains the following: A list of children who came to France on 8 June 1945 after being liberated from Buchenwald and other German concentration camps. The list is alphabetical and gives the name, date of birth, birthplace and nationality. A list of liberated prisoners who came to Switzerland, without dates. The list is alphabetical and gives the name, date of birth, birthplace and nationality. A bound volume with lists of liberated Jews who came to Sweden between 1 May and 25 June 1945, compiled by the Jewish Community of Stockholm. The individuals are arranged by nationality and then listed alphabetically. Their name, date of birth and birthplace is recorded as well as the name and location of the people they want to be contacted. There are also alphabetically sorted lists of liberated Jews who came to Sweden after 26 June 1945. The volume also contains various records from the Regional Committee for the Victims of the Nazi Concentration Camps, such as different accounts, newspaper clippings, receipts, letters asking for help for the victims, advertisements of the committee's various activities and so forth.
Volume E10 (in fact part of volume E 5) contains a few records, 10 loose papers, concerning the activities of the Refugee Office of Gothenburg (Flyktingkontoret i Göteborg) between 1949 and 1956. The records are held in a thin folder and are typewritten in Swedish. Most of the records are accounts of the office’s activities, as well as calculations of how many refugees have emigrated to different countries, such as the USA. There are also accounts of the location of the office (Stigbergstorget 4, Gothenburg) and the director (Dr Otto Schütz).
Series E11 contains records concerning different aids for Danish refugees between 1943 and 1946. All of the records are typewritten in either Danish or Swedish. The records are accounts of different forms of relief for Jewish refugees from Denmark, including descriptions of the Danish school in Gothenburg and accounts of how Danish Jewish students were aided in finishing their higher education while in exile in Sweden. There are also descriptions of how the different forms of aid changed over time. These descriptions also state that E. M. Weis is appointed manager of the refugee aid. Other members of this board were Mr Schytt, Consul General Julius Hüttner, Superintendent Uno Hernroth and Mr Ture Andersson of the Norden Association (Föreningen Norden). The Swedish historian Curt Weibull was also part of the local board for Danish refugee aid. The aid was coordinated from the former hotel Göta Källare in Gothenburg.
Series E12 contains records concerning the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee’s refugee activities between 1944 and 1957. The records are typewritten in English, Swedish, German and Norwegian. Most of the records are accounts of the different activities the Swedish part of the committee undertook, as well as accounts of how many prisoners were liberated from concentration camps and when. The series also includes a lot of correspondence between the Swedish branch of the AJJDC and other parts of the committee. Many of the letters are addressed to Julius Hüttner, who was the chairman the Refugee committee [of the Jewish Community] in Gothenburg. Among these letters are a couple concerning 150 Turkish-Jewish refugees who travelled aboard the ship SS Drottningholm bound for Liverpool, and the correspondent’s efforts to sort out the refugees’ identification papers and travel documents.
- Archival history:
- The records were preserved by the Jewish Community of Gothenburg and were transferred to the Regional Archive in Gothenburg in 1980.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- This collection was created by the different relief committees that carried out aid to refugees and survivors of Nazi persecutions and the Holocaust in cooperation with the Jewish community of Gothenburg as well as other organisations. The most important driving force in the refugee aid and post-war relief to Holocaust survivors were the Consul General Julius Hüttner and Rabbi Herman Löb. In 1933, the Jewish Community of Gothenburg, like many of its counterparts elsewhere, formed a relief committee in order to raise funds and carry out relief work of different forms for refugees from Nazi Germany. Until 1936 nearly all of its funds were spent on so-called travel aid, i.e. grants given to refugees to assist in them leaving Sweden to emigrate further. However, from 1936 the majority of the funds were being used to support refugees in Sweden. Individual members of the Jewish Community in Gothenburg also helped refugees privately and through other organisations, like the Refugee Office in Gothenburg (Flyktingkontoret i Göteborg). After the war a joint local non-confessional committee was formed in order to carry out aid and help rehabilitate Holocaust survivors who had come to the Gothenburg area at the end of the war and shortly thereafter, the Regional Committee for the Victims of the Nazi Concentration Camps (Göteborgs länskommitté för koncentrationslägrens offer). These local committees also received financial support from the Swedish government, the Gothenburg municipality, the Jewish community of Stockholm and American organisations, not least the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, which had a branch office in Stockholm.
- Access, restrictions:
- Permission is required and should be obtained in advance. Applications are made to the Jewish Community of Gothenburg.
- Finding aids:
- An index is available on request from the Regional State Archives in Gothenburg.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Jewish Museum in Stockholm
- Author of the description:
- Johanna Eek
