United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) was an international relief agency, largely dominated by the United States but representing 44 nations. Founded in 1943, it became part of the United Nations in 1945, and it largely shut down operations in 1947. Its purpose was to "plan, co-ordinate, administer or arrange for the administration of measures for the relief of victims of war in any area under the control of any of the United Nations through the provision of food, fuel, clothing, shelter and other basic necessities, medical and other essential services". Its staff of civil servants included 12,000 people, with headquarters in New York. Funding came from many nations, and totaled $3.7 billion, of which the United States contributed $2.7 billion; Britain, $625 million; and Canada, $139 million.
Herbert Henry Lehman was a Democratic Party politician from New York. He served from 1933 until 1942 as the 45th Governor of New York and represented New York State in the U.S. Senate from 1949 until 1957.
Lieutenant General Sir Frederick Edgworth Morgan, was a senior officer of the British Army who fought in both world wars. He is best known as the chief of staff to the Supreme Allied Commander (COSSAC), the original planner of Operation Overlord.
George Nikolas Perazich was born in the Principality of Montenegro.
In the administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the Foreign Economic Administration (FEA) was formed to relieve friction between US agencies operating abroad on September 25, 1943.
Seagoing cowboys is a term used for men and ships used from 1945 to 1947 for United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration and the Brethren Service Committee of the Church of the Brethren that sent livestock to war-torn countries. These seagoing cowboys made about 360 trips on 73 different ships. Most of the ships were converted World War II cargo ships with added cages and horse stalls. The Heifers for Relief project was started by the Church of the Brethren in 1942; in 1953 this became Heifer International. In the wake of the destruction caused by the Second World War, the historical peace churches in the United States sponsored relief missions to war-ravaged Europe, typically in cooperation with the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA). These relief missions usually took the form of transporting farm animals, by transatlantic ship, to Poland and other countries where much of the livestock had been killed in the war. The men who tended the animals aboard these boats were called seagoing cowboys. These ships moved horses, heifers, and mules as well as chicks, rabbits, and goats. Ten seagoing cowboys died on the SS Park Victory when it sank after accidental grounding in the Gulf of Finland on December 25, 1947.
Bergen-Belsen displaced persons camp was a displaced persons (DP) camp for refugees after World War II, in Lower Saxony in northwestern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle. It was in operation from the summer of 1945 until September 1950. For a time, Belsen DP camp was the largest Jewish DP camp in Germany and the only one in the British occupation zone with an exclusively Jewish population. The camp was under British authority and overseen by the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) with camp directors that included Simon Bloomberg. Today, the camp is a Bundeswehr barracks, having been a British Army base until 2015.
The Report on the International Control of Atomic Energy was written by a committee chaired by Dean Acheson and David Lilienthal in 1946 and is generally known as the Acheson–Lilienthal Report or Plan. The report was an important American document that appeared just before the start of the early Cold War. It proposed the international control of nuclear weapons and the avoidance of future nuclear warfare. A version, the Baruch Plan, was vetoed by the USSR at the UN.
The Federal Security Agency (FSA) was an independent agency of the United States government established in 1939 pursuant to the Reorganization Act of 1939. For a time, the agency oversaw food and drug safety as well as education funding and the administration of public health programs and the Social Security old-age pension plan.
Seeds of Destiny is a 1946 short propaganda film about the despairing situation faced by millions of children in the wake of the Holocaust who were homeless, parentless, orphaned, and in poor health. The film was produced by the Defense Department of The U.S. Army War Department to keep the world's attention focused on the suffering of displaced and orphaned refugee children in transit and displaced persons camps in Europe and to champion the work of UNRRA. It was the winner of the Oscar for Best Documentary Short Subject in 1946. It was directed by accomplished short film — and later feature film — director David Miller.
Sir Frederick William Leith-Ross, GCMG, KCB was a Scottish economist who was chief adviser to the UK government from 1932 to 1945.
Florence Nellie Udell, CBE, RGN, SRN, FRSH, FSCM was a British nurse, nursing administrator and government official.
U.N.R.R.A. presents In the Wake of the Armies ... is a 13-minute 1944 Canadian documentary film, made by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), as part of the wartime Canada Carries On series. The film, directed by Guy Glover, described the work of the UNRRA during the Second World War and Canada's role in the relief agency. The film's French version title is À la suite de nos armées viendra l'entraide.
The SS Gainesville Victory was the 22nd Victory ship built during World War II under the Emergency Shipbuilding program. She was launched by the California Shipbuilding Company on June 9, 1944, and completed on July 22, 1944. The ship’s United States Maritime Commission designation was VC2-S-AP3, hull number 22 (V-22). She was operated by the Seas Shipping Company. SS Gainesville Victory served in the Pacific Ocean during World War II. SS Gainesville Victory was number one of the new 10,500-ton class of ships, known as Victory ships. Victory ships were designed to replace the earlier Liberty Ships. Liberty ships were designed to be used just for WW2, while Victory ships were designed to last longer and serve the US Navy after the war. The Victory ships differed from the Liberty ships in that they were faster, longer, wider, taller, had a thinner stack set farther toward the superstructure, and had a long raised forecastle.
SS Attleboro Victory was a Victory ship built for the War Shipping Administration late in World War II under the Emergency Shipbuilding program. It saw service in the European Theater of Operations in the Atlantic Ocean during 1945, and in the immediate post-war period. Attleboro Victory was part of the series of Victory ships named after famous cities. This particular ship was named after the city of Attleboro, Massachusetts. It was a type VC2-S-AP2/WSAT cargo ship with the United States Maritime Commission (MCV) -"Victory"; hull number 642, shipyard number 1597 and built by Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation in Baltimore, Maryland. Phyllis O'Neil of Attleboro, Massachusetts christened Attleboro Victory with a champagne bottle.
SS Morgantown Victory was a Victory ship built during World War II under the Emergency Shipbuilding program. Morgantown Victory (MCV-632) was a type VC2-S-AP2 Victory ship built by Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyards. The Maritime Administration cargo ship was the 632nd ship built. The ship is named for the city of Morgantown, West Virginia. Her keel was laid on 12 December 1944. She was launched on 5 February 1945 and completed on 28 February 1945. The 10,600-ton ship was constructed for the Maritime Commission. The States Marine Line operated her under the United States Merchant Marine act for the War Shipping Administration.
Ellen Sullivan Woodward was a federal civil servant and a Mississippi state legislator. She served as director of work relief programs for women organized as part of the Roosevelt administration's New Deal in the 1930s and continued to work in the federal government until her retirement in the 1950s.
Gabriele Rohde (1904–1946) was a Danish League of Nations official in the 1930s and, during the Second World War, a member of the Danish Council in London. She provided strong support in particular for Danish seafarers, creating a seamen's club in Newcastle. In 1943, Rohde travelled to Canada and the United States where she became an advisor to Henrik Kauffmann, the Danish ambassador in Washington. She assisted him in particular with his participation in the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) conference which was held in Atlantic City that November. Shortly after returning to Denmark at the end of the war, she died in a tragic accident.
Bessie Sudlow was the stage name of Barbara Eliza (Bessie) Johnstone, who was active in the United States as a burlesque performer from 1867 to 1874, then in Britain as an opera bouffe soprano from 1874 to 1880.
Selskar Michael Gunn was a public health expert who was a vice-president of the Rockefeller Foundation for many years. He is known for the foundation's innovative program in China that combined improvements to agriculture, education and medicine in rural areas.