Wartime Wednesday: The War Refugee Board

 

Wartime Wednesday: War Refugee Board

Dozens of government agencies were created in America during World War II, but according to historian Rebecca Erbelding, the War Refugee Board (WRB) is “the only time in American history that the US government founded a non-military organization to save the lives of civilians being murdered by a wartime enemy.”

After significant publicity, pressure, and public outcry, President Roosevelt created the WRB on January 22, 1944 by Executive Order 9417. The board was composed of the Secretaries of State, Treasury, and War, and led by Director John Pehle, an attorney and assistant to the Secretary of the Treasury. He reported directly to President Roosevelt. On paper, the organization was limited to a maximum staff of thirty, but through “detailing” employees from other agencies, that number ultimately rose to seventy by the summer of 1944.

Responsibilities of the WRB were primarily to 1) rescue, transport, and relieve victims of enemy oppression, and 2) establish havens of temporary refuge for such victims. By coordinating activities and

programs with foreign governments through diplomats, international refugee and rescue organizations, and resistance groups, and setting up bases in neutral countries such as Switzerland, Sweden, and Turkey, the WRB was able to finance operations and communicate with individuals in enemy territory. An estimated $20M funded the board’s activities.

Efforts included obtaining blockade clearances for food shipments by private relief organizations that were distributed by the International Red Cross to prisoners in Nazi concentration camps. In North Africa refugee camps were set up, and safe haven was provided in Palestine, Switzerland, and Sweden. In August 1944, the Fort Ontario Emergency Relief Shelter was created in Oswego, New York to house refugees who would return to their countries after the war ended (provided the Allies were successful).

Some sources indicate that the WRB may have used its influence to rally European countries into action such as Hungary’s cessation of deportation of its Jews to Auschwitz in July 1944. Subsequently, the board funded diplomat Raoul Wallenberg’s rescue mission to Budapest where it is through his actions protected tens of thousands of Jews.

It is unknown exactly how many Jews were saved by the WRB’s work because of the clandestine nature of its activities; however, historian David Wyman gives an estimate of 200,000. The WRB itself indicated they may have saved “tens of thousands.” However, many it was, WRB Director Pehle commented years later that their results were “too little, too late” compared to the millions of lives lost during the Holocaust.

With the war’s end, Executive Order 9614 was issued abolishing the WRB on September 15, 1945.

______________________

Eye of the Beholder: An Apron Strings Tea Tale

Shunned for his appearance, a disfigured veteran encounters acceptance and love where he least expects it.

Left with physical and emotional scars after the Great War, Hank Drake has been shunned by polite society as the Ugly Duckling. Fine by him. He’d much rather be alone. Until he meets the kind proprietress of a tea stand at New York’s World’s Fair who isn’t repulsed by his appearance. Can he hope for acceptance…or even love?

Grace Sutton has no interest in marrying and is tired of her parent’s snide comments that she’s still single on the eve of her 40th birthday. After she loses her job thanks to budget cuts, she decides it’s time to follow her dream of feeding others. Armed with Mrs. Canfield’s cookbook, she opens a refreshment stand at the World’s Fair unaware how one man will turn her life upside down and upset the apple…er, tea cart.

Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3Pz88KO

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Refugee_Board
https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/executive-order-9417-establishing-war-refugee-board
https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/war-refugee-board
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-war-refugee-board
https://archives.jdc.org/topic-guides/jdc-and-the-u-s-war-refugee-board-1944-45/

Photo Credits:

Newspaper: National WWII Museum

Children: JDC Archives

Father and Daughter at Fort Ontario: US National Archives

Traveling Tuesday: The White House During WWII

 Traveling Tuesday: The White House During WWII

Courtesy: whitehouse.gov

Having lived in Maryland and then Northern Virginia for nearly thirty years, I often visited Washington, DC, and never tired of seeing the monuments and various government buildings scattered throughout the city. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the White House has been the official residence and workplace of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800 when the nation's capital was moved from Philadelphia. A competition was held to determine who the designer would be, and Irish-born James Hoban won. Other structures he designed include The Octagon House in Washington, DC, and the Charleston County Courthouse.

When President Franklin Roosevelt arrived in January 1933, repairs from the 1929 fire in the White House had long been completed. However, several changes and additions were made after he moved in:

• Air conditioning was added to the second-floor private quarters
• An indoor pool was installed featuring water circulation and therapy for his polio
• Broadcasting equipment was moved into the Diplomatic Reception Room for his fireside chats
• The electrical system was rewired
• The large and small kitchens were remodeled to include hotel-sized ranges and ovens, refrigerators and warming ovens, and electric dumbwaiters.
• After the war in Europe began, National Geographic provided special wall-mounted map cabinets that held maps on rollers that were organized by hemisphere, region, and theater of operation.

Visitors were not uncommon, and one of the first to arrive after the onset of WWII was British Prime

Public Domain
Photo

Minister Winston Churchill. He arrived on December 22, 1941, and his meetings with FDR were code-named the Arcadia Conference.  Staff were not told who was coming, but according to former White House usher J.B. West, they were prohibited from being in the corridors on the day. "It didn't take long for the cigar smoke to announce his {Churchill's} presence." That would be his first of five journeys to the U.S. to meet with FDR, staying at the White House four times, as well as Camp David (formerly Camp Shangri-La).

Even First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was kept in the dark, recounting later in The Atlantic that she was told "we would be having some guests visit us" and that she "could not know who was coming, nor how many, but must be prepared for them to stay over for Christmas. He added as an afterthought that I must see to it that we had good champagne and brandy in the house and plenty of whiskey."

Courtesy White House
Historical Association

When Churchill would visit, the Monroe Room would be converted to a map room to display troop and ship movements. The prime minister's secretaries would work out of the Lincoln Study. During one visit in September 1943, FDR had to go to Hyde Park and according to General Hastings Ismay told Churchill, "please treat the White House as your home. Invite anyone you like to any meals, and do not hesitate to summon any of my advisors with whom you wish to confer at any time you wish." Ismay went on to comment that Churchill's decision to conduct business at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue without the president in residence is striking. I would have to agree.

___________________

A Love Not Forgotten

He can't remember. She can never forget.

Allison White should be thrilled about her upcoming wedding. The problem? She's still in love with her fiance, Chaz, who was declared dead after being shot down over Germany in 1944. Can she put the past behind her and settle down to married life with the kindhearted man who loves her?

It's been nearly two years since Charles "Chaz" Powell was shot down over enemy territory. The war is officially over, but not for him. He has amnesia as a result of injuries sustained in the crash, and the only clue to his identity is a love letter with no return address. Will he ever regain his memories and discover who he is, or will he have to forge a new life with no connections to the past?

A Love Not Forgotten was formerly published in the Let Love Spring collection that is no longer in print.

Purchase Link: https://books2read.com/u/mv9xEJ

Wartime Wednesday: Government Agencies Created During WWII

Wartime Wednesday: 

Government Agencies Created During WWII

Photo: Pixabay/Jacqui

Here in the U.S. dozens of governmental agencies were formed during World War II to handle the logistics of operating during wartime. Many were disbanded at the end of the war, while others merged into other departments or grew and took on new life. Here are just a few:

Applied Mathematical Panel: Who knew there was such a need? This organization was created near the end of 1942 and headquartered in Manhattan, New York as a division of the National Defense Research Committee. Workers' responsibilities were to solve mathematical problems associated with military efforts. According to the Defense Technical Center: Investigations include statistical studies of various bombing problems, a summary of principal results of probability and statistical aspects of three torpedo studies, three mine clearance investigations, and an extensive study of the performance of heat-homing devices. 

Public Domain
Photo

The Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs, (later known as the Office for Inter-American Affairs) was responsible for promoting inter-American cooperation during the 1940s, especially in commercial and economic areas. It was started in August 1940 with Nelson Rockefeller as its head, appointed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  The agency's function was to counter Italian and German propaganda in the region. The FBI trained the secret police of friendly nations. By 1943, the OCIAA had a budget of $38 million and 1,500 employees.

The National War Labor Board was established on January 12, 1942, by an executive order ofPresident Franklin D. Roosevelt, to mediate labor disputes as part of the American home front during World War II. The twelve-member board had a tripartite structure and was comprised of four members from each of industry, labor, and the public. Acting as an arbitration tribunal, the board had the effect of replacing normal collective bargaining during the war, as it had the authority to intervene in any labor dispute that it saw as endangering "the effective prosecution of the war" and put into place a settlement. The Board also administered wage control in national industries such as automobiles, shipping, railways, airlines, telegraph lines, and mining.

Library of
Congress

Office of Strategic Services was the precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and was founded in June 1942. The organization was based largely on Britain's Special Operations Executive, and William "Wild Bill" Donovan was appointed by President Roosevelt as head. Responsibilities included coordinating espionage behind enemy lines, propaganda, subversion, and post-war preparation. More than 35,000 individuals served in the OSS and included such notables as director John Ford, baseball great Moe Berg, actor Sterling Hayden, chef and author Julia Child, and historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. 

Writers' War Board was the main domestic propaganda organization for the U.S. Interestingly, it was privately organized and run, using writers with government and quasi-government agencies. Author Rex Stout founded the organization two days after the attack on Pearl Harbor at the request of the United States Department of the Treasury. Originally part of the Section of Volunteer Talents of the Office of Civilian Defense, the WWB worked through the Office of War Information and primarily handled promoted government policy.

___________________________

A Love Not Forgotten

He can't remember. She can never forget. 

Allison White should be thrilled about her upcoming wedding. The problem? She's still in love with her fiance, Chaz, who was declared dead after being shot down over Germany in 1944. Can she put the past behind her and settle down to married life with the kindhearted man who loves her? 

It's been nearly two years since Charles "Chaz" Powell was shot down over enemy territory. The war is officially over, but not for him. He has amnesia as a result of injuries sustained in the crash, and the only clue to his identity is a love letter with no return address. Will he ever regain his memories and discover who he is, or will he have to forge a new life with no connections to the past? 

A Love Not Forgotten was formerly published in the Let Love Spring collection that is no longer in print.

Purchase Link: https://books2read.com/u/mv9xEJ