bMS 16003
Unitarian Service Committee. Records on relief work in Czechoslovakia, 1938-1946.
Summary Information:
- Call Number: bMS 16003
- Title: Unitarian Service Committee. Records on relief work in Czechoslovakia, 1938-1946.
- Repository: Andover-Harvard Theological Library, Harvard Divinity School, 45 Francis Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138-1911
- Quantity: 2 boxes
Administrative Information:
- Access: There are no restrictions on access to this collection.
Historical Note:
The Unitarian Service Committee was formed as a standing committee of the American Unitarian Association in May 1940. Its purpose was to be a committee to investigate opportunities both in America and abroad for humanitarian service. During and after World War II, The Unitarian Service Committee aided hundreds of displaced persons in occupied countries, allowing many of them to find passage to the United States. The present-day Unitarian Universalist Service Committee continues to endeavor to advance human rights and social justice throughout the world.
Scope and Content Note:
This collection is comprised largely of the files of Frederick May Eliot, who was the president of the American Unitarian Association from 1937 to 1958. Eliot was on the Committee on Relief in Czechoslovakia, which was an early effort on behalf of several agencies to aid the victims of war-torn Europe. The collection also includes considerable correspondence to and from Robert Dexter, who was on the executive committee of a later group called the Commission for Service in Czechoslovakia. The collection includes some case file information on individuals who the Service Committee tried to assist, including children and several well-known artists and writers.
Container List:
- bMS 16003/1 (1) Case Committee reports and memos, 1941-1944
- bMS 16003/1 (2) Case distribution, (list of names), 1938-1942
- bMS 16003/1 (3) Committee on Relief in Czechoslovakia, 1938
- bMS 16003/1 (4) Czechoslovakia, information on Czechoslovak church, expenses, correspondence, etc., 1939-1942
- bMS 16003/1 (5) Czechoslovakia — Refugees (includes photographs)
- bMS 16003/1 (6) Czech Relief activities, 1938-1940
- bMS 16003/1 (7) Eliot Telegram to Cordell Hull (November 19, 1938)
- bMS 16003/1 (8) How Americans Helped a Nation in Crisis: Report of the Commission for Service in Czechoslovakia, 1939
- bMS 16003/1 (9) Howlett, Duncan — Czechoslovak refugees in Poland, reports and correspondence. Includes a report entitled "The Activity of the General Aid Committee for Jewish Refugees from Germany in Poland, 1938-1939."
- bMS 16003/1 (10) Lost Children — Lidice
- bMS 16003/1 (11) Commission for Service in Czechoslovakia, agendas, minutes, reports, 1938
- bMS 16003/1 (12) Refugees, Czech, correspondence (Dexter, Sharp, Eliot, etc.), 1938-1940
- bMS 16003/1 (13) American Commission for Relief in Czechoslovakia
- bMS 16003/2 (1) Commission for Service in Czechoslovakia — General, 1938-1939
- bMS 16003/2 (2) Commission for Service in Czechoslovakia — General, 1939
- bMS 16003/2 (3) Commission for Service in Czechoslovakia — General, 1939-1940
- bMS 16003/2 (4) Commission for Service in Czechoslovakia — tea in honor of Jan Masaryk, former Czechoslovakian minister to Great Britain, and son of T.G. Masaryk, founder and first president of the Czechoslovak republic
- bMS 16003/2 (5-6) General refugee information, 1939-1940
- bMS 16003/2 (7) Correspondence concerning the formation of the USC, 1939
- bMS 16003/2 (8) Notable people assisted by the USC, lists and reports
- bMS 16003/2 (9) Stransky, Charles, case file information, 1941-1945
- bMS 16003/2 (10) Theis family, case file information