Adler, Michael, and Max R. G. Freeman. British Jewry Book of Honour (London: Caxton Pub. Co., 1922). 000059136
Filderman, Wilhelm. Adevarul Asupra Problemei Evreesti din Romania: In Lumina Textelor Religioase si a Statisticei [includes lists of Romanian Jewish soldiers dead, wounded, taken prisoner, missing, and decorated] (Bucuresti, Romania: Tipografia "Triumful," 1925). 000060562
Jewish Legion. Bulletin - Veterans Jewish Legion (עלון ותיקי הגדודים העבריים) (Baltimore, MD: Jewish Legion, 1900). 015009604
Adler, Michael, and Max R. G. Freeman. British Jewry Book of Honour (London: Caxton Pub. Co, 1922).
Courtesy of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
AJDC Search Department Records, 1921 (RG 335.4)
In 1921, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee established a Search Department to help World War I refugees from Eastern Europe find relatives in the United States and other countries. The Department’s records are comprised of questionnaires filled out by individuals seeking to locate relatives in the United States.
AJDC War Orphans Bureau, 1919-1923 (RG 335.3)
In 1919, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee established a War Orphans Bureau to provide relief to Jewish war orphans, predominantly from Eastern Europe. The Bureau’s activities included building orphanages and placing children in foster families in the U.S., Canada, South Africa and Palestine. Bureau records consist of the adoption records of some 1,500 Jewish orphans from Soviet Russia for whom foster families were found abroad.
Autobiographies of Jewish Youth in Poland, 1932-1939 (RG 4)
The autobiographies contained within this collection are derived from competitions that were organized by the YIVO Institute in Vilna in 1932, 1934, and 1939. All 3 competitons were open to young men and women between the ages of 16 and 22, regardless of educational, religious, political, or socio-economic background. One of the major themes was the specific effects that World War I had on Jewish youth and their families. Although most of the autobiographies are in Polish or Yiddish, the collection's guide (available only on-site at the Center for Jewish History) contains English summaries of about 80% of them.
HIAS Foreign Relations Department (Family Search Case Records), 1915-1923 (RG 245.3)
The outbreak of World War I prompted the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, already a dominant force in facilitating Jewish immigration to the U.S., to expand its activities to include family search services for U.S. residents looking for relatives in Europe. HIAS’ family search case files consist of initial letters of inquiry, HIAS search application forms, correspondence with inquiring parties and the U.S. government, and financial support affidavits.
The photographs in People of a Thousand Towns constitute a visual record of thousands of pre-World War II Jewish communities in Poland, Lithuania, Russia, Ukraine, Latvia, Estonia, Romania, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia. Most photographs were drawn from YIVO's Territorial Photographic Collection (RG 120). A keyword search for “World War I” yields 152 results. Most of these are photographs of towns, but they include some individual, family, and organization portraits. Free registration is required.
Vilna Jewish Community Council, 1800-1940 (RG 10)
Beginning in the 16th century, the Jewish community of Vilna, Lithuania, was governed by an autonomous administrative body, called the Kehillah (or Kahal). The Vilna Jewish Community Council Archive includes documents related to the activities of the Kehillah and its auxiliary institutions, such as The Jewish Relief Committee, which was organized in 1915 to provide relief for Jewish refugees and the local Jewish population during the German occupation. Documents pertaining to civilians severely impacted by World War I (dating from 1918- early 1920’s) include search forms for missing relatives, lists, questionnaires, and case files of war orphans and abandoned children, a list of military families receiving aid, individual requests for communal assistance, and various lists of aid recipients.
Note: The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research also holds an extensive set of records of New York-based landsmanshaft (hometown association) societies, many of which organized relief efforts in their ancestral towns during and immediately following World War I. The records of these societies may include materials similar to those described above from the Vilna Jewish Community Council collection. For a complete list of landsmanshaft collections at the YIVO Institute, click here.
AJDC Search Department questionnaire from YIVO Archives’ AJDC Search Department Records collection
Call number: RG 335.4; Microfilm number: MKM 15.17
Courtesy of the JDC Archives and YIVO Institute for Jewish Research