The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, or UNRRA for short, was established on 9 November 1943 in Atlantic City. Initially an independent institution, it was later incorporated into the United Nations. Its purpose was to provide aid to war-ravaged countries in Europe and Asia.
One of UNRRA’s highest priorities after the war was to assist in the relocation of populations and the return of those expelled or forcibly displaced. The UNRRA played a very important role in finding children and young people after the turmoil of war and organising their return to their country of origin.
It was with children in mind that in July 1945, just fifteen kilometres from Dachau concentration camp that had been liberated a few weeks earlier, the first international facility for minors in the American occupation zone, run by the UNRRA, was established at the DP Kloster Indersdorf International Children’s Centre. Children and young people of over 20 nationalities were cared for there. Several UNRRA employees were assisted by the Company of the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul, (known as the Grey Sisters) who were allowed to return to the convent after the war.
1. The International Children’s Centre Indersdorf, United Nations Archives and Records Centre.
International Children’s Centre DP Kloster Indersdorf (district of Dachau, Bavaria), 1945-1946. It was here that underage survivors of concentration camps and children of forced labourers found their first refuge after the war.
2. Discussion of tasks, Vancouver Holocaust Education Center.
Manager Lillian D. Robbins and her UNRRA Team 182 at the Indersdorf convent. Among her colleagues, Greta Fischer (seated second from right).
3. Grey Sister Adelgunde with young children, US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC.
UNRRA workers were assisted by the Grey Sisters. They were driven out of the convent by the Nazis in 1938 and returned after the war when the UNRRA was searching for a suitable site for a centre and invited them to help look after the children.
4. UNRRA stripes, US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC.