ABSTRACT
In the immediate postwar period two problems in American overseas philanthropy transcended all others. The first was the necessity of adjusting to the greater governmental and intergovernmental activity. The second was the continuing pressure for organization and coordination of private voluntary agencies. The accommodation and the resistance of voluntary agencies to these main trends is a key to much that took place in the efforts to help victims of the war survive through general relief. The identification of national values and interests with universal values and interests, the sense of an American mission to promote worldwide welfare were not, of course, the only reasons for giving to help victims of the war to survive. In addition to helping the needy and strengthening workers, American voluntary aid affected German life and outlook in other ways. The voluntary approach, with a greater flexibility than was common in the official bureaucracy, conveyed a sense of individual aiding individual, people helping people.
