Holocaust Rescue and Relief: Digitized Records of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee

New outfits for an entire Spanish family at the Toulouse Clothing Distribution Center in France. Photo (credit: Walter Rosenblum): bMS 16076/2.

In 1939, the Rev. Waitstill Sharp, a Unitarian minister in Wellesley, Massachusetts, and his wife, Martha, a social worker, agreed to travel to Prague to investigate reports of a humanitarian crisis. From these humble but brave beginnings, the Unitarian Service Committee was born. Throughout and after World War II, the Service Committee aided hundreds of displaced persons in Europe. They established food and clothing distribution centers, hospitals, and homes for children. They also aided hundreds of people in their efforts to leave war-torn Europe and establish new lives for themselves in the United States.

The Andover-Harvard Theological Library is the official archive for the records of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC). In partnership with the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., we have undertaken a massive digitization project of roughly 257 boxes of archival material dated from 1939 to 1967. The project includes selections from 32 collections of the Unitarian Service Committee and 2 collections of the Universalist Service Committee. When complete, the digital collection will include more than 243,000 exposures. By digitizing this material, we ensure it is available to researchers throughout the world and preserved for future generations.

The extensive digitization effort is jointly funded by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Centre de Documentation Juive Contemporaine in Paris. Both organizations collect materials and resources related to the Holocaust and serve as influential centers for Holocaust research.

As collections are digitized and processed, they will be added to this page. To view the digital folders, click on the collection name, read the Scope and Content note, go to the Container List, and browse the folders that have been digitized. Click on the "See digital images" link to open a folder. Once you are in a folder, use the red forward and back arrows to view the contents.

Library staff working on this project are: Michael Bradford, Fran O'Donnell, Jessica Suarez, Laura Wood, and Clifford Wunderlich. Vitaly Zakuta of the Harvard University Library Office for Information Systems is the technical advisor. If you have further questions about this collection, please contact the Manuscripts and Archives Department (617.496.5153).

Executive Director Files

• Unitarian Service Committee. Executive Director. Records, 1940-1951 [bMS 16007, boxes 1-12, 14-27]
• Unitarian Service Committee. Executive Director. Records, 1941-1953 [bMS 16024, boxes 1-7]
• Unitarian Service Committee. Executive Director. Records, 1947-1948 [bMS 16020, boxes 1-4]
• Universalist Service Committee. Executive Director. Records, 1942-1957 [bMS 16001, boxes 1-8, 11-12]

General Administrative Records

• Unitarian Service Committee. Administrative Records, 1941-1957 [bMS 16031, boxes 1-2]
• Unitarian Service Committee. Administrative Records, 1943-1947 [bMS 16034, boxes 1-2]
• Unitarian Service Committee. Administrative Records, 1946-1950 [bMS 16029, boxes 1-4]
• Unitarian Service Committee. Administrative Records, 1948 [bMS 16028, boxes 1-2]
• Unitarian Service Committee. Administrative Records, New York Office, 1944-1949 [bMS 16027, boxes 1-2]
• Unitarian Service Committee. Administrative Records, 1948-1953 [bMS 16011, boxes 10-15, 18, 32]

Case Files

• Unitarian Service Committee. Case Files, 1938-1951 [bMS 16004, boxes 1-28]

Special Initiatives

• Unitarian Service Committee. Records on Relief Work in Czechoslovakia, 1938-1946 [bMS 16003, boxes 1-2]