Description:

An historic scrapbook kept by an American teacher who volunteered to rescue French and other European refugee children, certainly Jews, from near certain death at the hands of the Germans. In November, 1942 Elizabeth Olesen, a teacher at Cornell, joined a group of 27 other doctors, nurses, teachers and social workers who had responded to a request from the U.S. Committee for European Children to set out on a mission to rescue "at risk" children from Vichy France. These children were to have been selected by Quaker volunteers already in France who in turn would make arrangements to transport the children to Lisbon for passage to the U.S. By July 1942, under German orders, the French police had already arrested 13,152 Jews who were led to Drancy internment camp, then crammed into box cars and shipped by rail to Auschwitz. On November 8, 1942 Operation Torch was launched as Americans landed in French Morocco. Germany immediately insisted that France close her borders to any refugee traffic. Thus, further exodus of refugees from France became impossible, but Olesen and her companions rescued German, French and Polish refugee children already in Portugal. Olesen assembled a scrapbook documenting her dangerous trips across the Atlantic, at risk of U-boat attack, the rescue of the children, photographs, and souvenirs of her three-month trip. The 100+pp. scrapbook includes the telegram proposing the mission; a leave from Cornell; instructions; expense account; "good-bye" letters; updates from the commission headquarters; 70 candid photos of Lisbon, including charcoal-burning vehicles; 16 commercial postcard photos from Lisbon; and many photographs, documents, tickets and notices from the return to Philadelphia aboard the vessel SERPA PINTA. Most poignant are the photographs at the rear of the album, 47 different 5" x 3 3/4" images of the 34 rescued children and the volunteers accompanying them. The children, whose ages vary between perhaps five and fifteen, are shown in a variety of scenes at play, in bunks, eating, and so on. One photo shows girls doing a "Palestinian dance." An important group photo bears a typed list of the names of the 34 children pictured: "Losser...Wollner...Gottfried...Bialysto...Waks...Lesser...Herzberg...Berger...Gottfried...Klipsetin...Friedman...Trapunski...Klipstein...", etc. Also present is a T.L.S. on committee letterhead, 1p. 4to., Feb. 10, 1943 from retailed and philanthropist MARSHALL FIELD III thanking Olesen for her efforts, but lamenting:...that the rescue of children from France missed by such a tragic margin..." Finally, there are six letters sent by Olesen in Lisbon to her parents, the content describing the difficulties encountered in obtaining visas fore the children, the condition of children in the camps in Spain, travel plans, etc. An important archive, in overall fine condition. The U.S. Committee for the Care of European Children (USCOM) was a quasi-governmental American body established in June 1940, with the intent to try to save mainly Jewish refugee children who came from Continental Europe, and to evacuate them to the United States. Since the U.S. was neutral until Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, USCOM was still able to operate in Vichy France from its founding in June 1940, until the Nazi occupation of Vichy France in November 1942. USCOM was co-founded by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and Louis S. Weiss. Roosevelt, from her position of influence, continued to strongly support USCOM. In actuality, she was greatly involved in the mission to rescue mainly Jewish European children through all possible relevant agencies. The binding of the album is loose, with the hinge of the rear cover broken, still a truly historic record.

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November 13, 2018 10:00 AM EST
Elkton, MD, US

Alexander Historical Auctions LLC

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