Germany and the Second World War Materials in Haverford Special Collections: Assistance and Resistance (HC)

This collection contains the papers of Marlis Gildemeister, a graduate of Haverford College's master's program in Relief & Restoration program and a volunteer with American Friends Service Committee in Austria after World War II. The materials in this collection span the years 1946 to 2007, and are mostly related to relief work and aid to refugees in the turmoil following the second world war. Some of the materials are in German.

Single volume scrapbook of Josiah P. Marvel, which includes Nazi documents, such as certificates and letters, from Marvel's time in occupied France during the summer of 1940 while working with American Friends Service Committee.

Leonard Stout Kenworthy's "Quaker Berlin Diary." In his entries, Kenworthy describes his experiences in Germany during World War II working with German Quakers to assist unaffiliated German Jews to leave Germany.

Howard and Anna both worked with the American Friends Service Committee in its feeding program in Germany and Poland.

Clarence Pickett was the executive secretary of the American Friends Service Committee from 1929 to 1950.

Douglas Steere helped to organize Quaker relief efforts in Finland, Norway and Poland after World War II, and throughout the 1940s to 1960s the Steeres traveled under the auspices of the American Friends Service Committee to oversee relief work around the world.

Rufus Jones founded the American Friends Service Committee. In 1938, along with two other Quakers, he went to Germany to confront the Nazis after Kristallnacht.

Gilbert MacMaster (1869-1967), a Quaker, went to Germany in 1919 under the aegis of the American Friends Service Committee to work in child feeding. In 1925, he arranged the first peace conference between Poland and Germany, again under the auspices of the A.F.S.C. During the 1930s, MacMaster was active on behalf of Germans in prison and Jews in concentration camps. In 1946, he organized sending food parcels to Germany for Quakers and others.

This collection includes photocopies and reproductions related to Leonhard Friedrich, and includes: an exhibition copy of an indictment notice from the Gestapo, in German, dated September 18, 1942, citing the reason for arrest as his “politically negative attitude to the National Socialist state, evidenced by his pacifist and pro-Jewish attitudes, particularly in the context of his prominent role in the Society of Friends (Quakers),” a translation of that notice by Paul Oestreicher, June 11, 1986, “Notes of a talk given to an audience in Bad Pyrmont in the autumn of 1947, reprinted in “Der Quaker,” July 1975, 50th Anniversary Edition,” chronicling time spent as an inmate in the concentration camp Buchenwald from 1942-1945. Also included in the speech are the lyrics to a song written by a Jewish inmate

This collection includes the personal materials of Stephen G. Cary, including photographs taken throughout his life, materials from his years of foreign service with the AFSC as a conscientious objector during and after World War II, correspondence and newspaper clippings about his activism, including his protests against the Vietnam War, writings and clippings about his time as the acting president of Haverford College, and materials from his wife and children. Also included within the collection are historical materials related to relatives of Cary, including photographs, letters, and documents

The Steeres were involved with relief work through the American Friends Service Committee after World War II, and helped to organize aid to Finland, Norway, and Poland. A section of the collection is devoted to relief work in Africa, Finland, Germany, and South Africa in the 1940s-1960s. The sections of notebooks/diaries and travel (mostly correspondence) may also be of interest.