IRC - European Jewish Archives Portal

Collection

Scope and content:: This fonds consists of 211 individual files, arranged alphabetically by family name. They generally contain applications for financial assistance, or aid for the purpose of emigration, correspondence, naturalisation applications, applications submitted in order to obtain a scholarship, but also minutes of meetings of the Comité of the IRC, numerous reports and press clippings. These individual files do not exclusively concern individuals of Jewish origin. We also point out the sub-fonds “Philantropic fund”, consisting of 27 individual files, mainly of Jewish individuals. (See boxes 15 to 44, and 47.)

Administrative/biographical history:: The International Rescue Committee (IRC) originated from the fusion of the International Relief Association founded on the initiative of Albert Einstein to support the German, Italian and Spanish refugees from 1933 onwards, and the Emergency Rescue Committee, created in 1940 to rescue victims of the Vichy regime in France. Created in New York in 1942, the organisation established local branches, including one in Belgium in 1946. This Belgian branch was directed by Hans Schoemann until his resignation in 1959. The Brussels office responded in particular to applications of refugees from communist countries such as Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, the Soviet Union, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania and Cuba. The organisation attempted to help all refugees, regardless of their religion or ethnicity. The Belgian IRC branch supported the emigration of these refugees. Lastly, the organisation also awarded many scholarships, notably to Hungarian students who arrived en masse after the uprising of 1956. The Belgian branch closed in 1964 but continued its work on behalf of refugees for another two years. (J. Mlsova Chmelikova, "L’expérience d’un réfugié marque pour toute la vie. Trois fonds d’archives du Musée Juif de Belgique", in MuséOn, no. 1, avril 2009, pp. 58-67.)

Subject terms:: Aid and relief; Aid and relief--Philanthropy and charity; Education; Education--Students; Financial matters; Holocaust; Holocaust--Survivors; Migration; Migration--Emigration; Newspaper clippings; Refugees

Access, restrictions:: Access requires the authorisation of the archivist of the Jewish Museum of Belgium.

Finding aids:: There is a preliminary inventory at the Jewish Museum of Belgium. An inventory (by J. Mlsova Chmelikova) is in progress at the time of writing.