War Refugee Board
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The War Refugee Board, established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in January of 1944, was a U.S. executive agency created to aid civilian victims of the Nazi and Axis powers. Created largely at the behest of Roosevelt's Secretary of Treasury Henry Morgenthau, Jr., Roosevelt "stressed that it was urgent that action be taken at once to forestall the plan of the Nazis to exterminate all the Jews and other persecuted minorities in Europe." [1] Subsequently credited with rescuing as many as 200,000 Jews from Nazi occupied countries, through the efforts of Raoul Wallenberg and others, the commission has nevertheless received mixed praise because of the failure of the United States to act sooner despite clear evidence of ongoing atrocities in Nazi-occupied Europe.[2]
[edit] Composition
John W. Pehle, the assistant to the secretary of treasury, was appointed executive director of the board, which was directly responsible to the president. Its members included the secretary of state, the secretary of the treasury, the secretary of war, and a staff of approximately 30. Brigadier General William O'Dwyer later succeeded Pehle as executive director until its dissolution at the end of the war.
The board was represented internationally in Turkey, Switzerland, Sweden, Portugal, Great Britain, Italy, and North Africa.[3]
[edit] External links
- Yad Vashem Shoah Research Center
- Jewish Virtual Library Entry on War Refugee Board
- Executive Order Creating War Refugee Board at the Jewish Virtual Library
- Yad Vashem Chronology of the Holocaust 1942-1945)
- PBS America and the Holocaust
- Lexis Nexis Papers of the War Refugee Board
- Lexis Nexis Papers of the War Refugee Board Part 2
- PBS Establishment of the War Refugee Board
 |
This United States government-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
