"Schwartz is the J.D.C - the J.D.C is Schwartz" (Dr. Joseph (Joe) Schwartz and the J.D.C Aid and Rescue Operations during WW2)

Rabbi Dr. Joseph (Joe) Schwartz served as director of the Joint Distribution Committee (the Joint) in Europe, as well as in North Africa, the Middle Eastern countries, and Mandatory Palestine during World War II and in its immediate aftermath. This study tells the story of a nearly unknown hero’s decisive contribution to the Jewish people in this fateful period and examines his involvement in Jewish rescue efforts during World War II: overt and covert; “legal” and “illegal”; in organizing the migration of tens of thousands of Jews who managed to get to France and from there to Spain and Portugal, and then to any country that opened its gates to them; in various ransom schemes to rescue the Jews of Europe; in different programs to save children; and more. Schwartz also played a central role in addressing the needs of the displaced persons camps and their inhabitants, as well as in the Zionist movement’s political struggle against the repatriation of all refugees to their countries of origin. He drafted the principal version of the report submitted to President Truman on the question of Mandatory Palestine and steered the Joint toward active participation in Aliyah Bet and the Bricha, including the organization of overt and covert immigration operations from Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. This account, while centered on Schwartz, also serves as an organizational biography of the Joint, whose mission and character he reshaped into a commitment to aid every Jew, by every means, wherever they are in distress.