ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an analysis of the World Jewish Congress (WJC) rescue activities during the Second World War to highlight the limitations and examine how the WJC operated under the conditions of diplomacy and international influence. In the absence of sovereignty and normal diplomatic channels, the WJC acted in complicated, roundabout ways in order to influence the Allied governments. At times the WJC was also obliged to make contact with the enemy and even with the Nazi ‘Devil’ in person in order to save Jews. In 1939 the WJC set up the Relief Committee for Jewish War Victims in Geneva to combine welfare activities with diplomatic-political negotiations. This organization did a great deal to bring out Jewish refugees with the help of forged passports and to get thousands of letters out of the occupied territories, setting up children’s homes and keeping constantly in touch with the Red Cross.
