Welfare, Relief, Political Power

The chapter shows how different political and social circumstances shaped Zionist opportunities for influence in local communities. Relief work constituted the main battleground between the various parties and determined how Zionists worked to gain respect and credibility through their engagement. Welfare and relief were not only essential to reduce the suffering of the Jewish population but also became the primary field of activism for all Jewish political movements. Using local examples from German-occupied Poland and Ober Ost, from Galicia, Vienna, and Prague, the chapter investigates struggles for control over relief funds and the building of welfare institutions, as well as their connection with Zionist political ideas. It analyses welfare work for refugees in Vienna, soup kitchens in Białystok, and attempts to find work for unemployed Jews in Warsaw. Within months after the outbreak of the war, relief work became the only area in which activists were engaged. The ramifications of these efforts were often contradictory. Whereas in the Ober Ost region, for example, Zionists were integrated into the German administration and applied top-down, authoritarian policies towards local communities, in the Generalgouvernement Warschau, they remained outside the administration and had to rely on grassroots activities and on the energetic efforts of their members. The chapter also analyses relief efforts for refugees in Vienna and Prague, and shows how Zionist activists in Galicia acquired positions as leading figures in communities, taking over communal responsibilities after the Austrian order had disintegrated.

THE AMERICAN RED CROSS HUMANITARIAN EFFORTS IN MONTENEGRO (1915–1919) ХУМАНИТАРНИ РАД АМЕРИЧКОГ ЦРВЕНОГ КРСТА У ЦРНОЈ ГОРИ (1915–1919)

This article considers the relief work of the American Red Cross in wartime and postwar Montenegro, between 1915 and 1919. It is based on primary sources of American provenance, such as reports submitted by the American Red Cross field workers. Many U.S. sanitary officers, doctors, nurses, and social workers arrived in Serbia and Montenegro during WWI, and a great many more after the signing of the armistice. Their notes and reports, along with the official documents, represent valuable sources on the humanitarian situation in the war-torn countries in the Balkans. У раду је размотрен хуманитарни рад Америчког црвеног крста у ратном и послератном периоду у Црној Гори, између 1915. и 1919. године. Заснован је на примарним изворима америчке провенијенције, попут извештаја са терена хуманитараца Америчког црвеног крста. Бројни амерички санитетски официри, лекари, медицинске сестре и социјални радници дошли су у Србију и Црну Гору током Првог светског рата, а још већи број њих стигао је после закључења примирја. Њихове белешке и извештаји, уз званичне документе, представљају вредне изворе о хуманитарној ситуацији у ратом разореним земљама на Балкану.

Svenska judars berättelser om flyktingar, överlevande och hjälpverksamheter under och efter Förintelsen

Swedish Jews’ supposed inactivity over Europe’s persecuted Jews during the Holocaust has been a prevalent discourse during the post-war period. This article ponders the origins of that discourse and how it affects how and what Swedish Jews narrate about aid and relief work, and Jewish refugees and survivors, when recounting their memories from the 1930s and 1940s. This investigation also examines how previous research has addressed and represented the aid efforts of the Jewish minority in Sweden and discusses what new empirical knowledge about Swedish Jewish aid and relief work during the Holocaust we can ascertain by using oral history. Hence, it is also a contribution to the ongoing debate in the research field of ‘refugee studies’, initiated by the historians Philip Marfleet and Peter Gatrell, who emphasise both the importance of working with historical perspectives and asking questions about the sources at the disposal of historians and what sources they choose to work with when writing about aid, relief work and refugees.