On verso of Vaad stationary in faded pencil.

Desperate letter to the Va’ad Hahatzala in New York

Edward Horowitz of New Hyde Park NY writes the Vaad to find out if his sister Hermine Goldbaum survived the Holocaust and is among the list of 1200 survivors published by the Vaad. The front of the letter is a response to an inquiry advising the recipient that his relative was not on the list of survivors.

The Va’ad Hazzalah, a group organized by Rabbi Eliezer Silver and the American Rabbinate to rescue survivors and provide sustenance until their resettlement. Rabbi Silver established the group when the refugee yeshiva pupils reached Vilna in 1939–40 following the Nazi invasion of Poland. During the ensuing years he applied the same body to rescuing European rabbis, scholars, and students. In 1946, Rabbi Silver visited Europe and Erez Israel as an official representative of the United States government to assist the war refugees. 

EJ