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HERMAN YABLOKOFF PAPERS, 1918‐1980s 1989.58.152

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives 100 Raoul Wallenberg Place SW Washington, DC 20024‐2126 Tel. (202) 479‐9717 e‐mail: [email protected]

Descriptive summary

Title: Herman Yablokoff papers

Dates: 1918‐1980s

Accession number: 1989.58.152

Creator: Yablokoff, Herman, 1903‐1981

Extent: 0.5 linear foot (1 box)

Repository: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives, 100 Raoul Wallenberg Place SW, Washington, DC 20024‐2126

Abstract: The Herman Yablokoff papers include correspondence, photographs, and printed materials documenting Yablokoff’s 1947 tour of displaced persons camps in Germany, , and Italy, his visit to Cuba later in the year, and, more broadly, the work of the American Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) with displaced persons.

Languages: English, , Spanish, French

Administrative Information

Access: Collection is open for use, but is stored offsite. Please contact the Reference Desk more than seven days prior to visit in order to request access.

Reproduction and use: Collection is available for use. Material may be protected by copyright. Please contact reference staff for further information.

Preferred citation: (Identification of item), Herman Yablokoff papers, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives, Washington, DC

Acquisition information: Anita Willens, Herman Yablokoff’s stepdaughter, donated the Herman Yablokoff papers to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1989 on behalf of the Yablokoff family.

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Related materials: Anita Willens also donated three handcrafted wooden pictures and two painted plaster casts Herman Yablokoff received during his tour of displaced persons camps in 1947 to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1989 on behalf of the Yablokoff family. Dora Russek, Yablokoff’s niece, donated a photograph of Yablokoff holding Dora Russek’s son upon their immigration to the United States after surviving (2003.55.1)

Accruals: Accruals may have been received since this collection was first processed, see archives catalog at collections.ushmm.org for further information.

Processing history: Julie Schweitzer, February 2015

Biographical note / Administrative history Herman Yablokoff (1903‐1981) was born in (then Russian , now ). He became a singer and actor at a young age, immigrated to the United States in 1924, and added writing, producing, and directing to his credentials, becoming one of the most prominent personalities in Yiddish entertainment. In 1947, he made a seven‐month tour of refugee camps in Germany, Austria, and Italy, giving reportedly 104 performances in 94 camps for 180,000 Jewish refugees. The tour was organized by the Hebrew Actors Union and supported by the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS).

Scope and content of collection The Herman Yablokoff papers include correspondence, photographs, and printed materials documenting Yablokoff’s 1947 tour of displaced persons camps in Germany, Austria, and Italy, his visit to Cuba later in the year, and, more broadly, the work of the American Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) with displaced persons.

Correspondence includes letters of introduction, gratitude, and praise for Herman Yablokoff and his performances at displaced persons camps from survivor committees, displaced persons, and JDC offices in Hallein, St. Ottilien, Bergen‐Belsen, Frankfurt, Salzburg, Rome, and Munich.

Photographs Herman Yablokoff onstage, with JDC staff, and with displaced persons; Jewish scouts; children; memorials, monuments, and cemeteries; and Zionist demonstrations. Additional JDC publicity photographs depict the JDC’s work with displaced persons in Austria, Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, and Poland.

Printed materials include an April 1947 edition of The Week in Munich: A Weekly Entertainment Guide published by the military government in Bavaria, the October‐November 1947 issue of "The JDC Digest" including an article about Yablokoff’s performances, a November 1947 program for an event Yablokoff attended in Havana, and clippings about Yablokoff’s 1947 tour and about his wife, Bella Meisel.

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System of arrangement The Herman Yablokoff papers are arranged as three series:  Series 1: Correspondence, 1947‐1964  Series 2: Photographs, approximately 1918‐1980s  Series 3: Printed materials, 1940, 1947

Indexing terms Yablokoff, Herman, 1903‐1981.

American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society of America. Idisher aktyoren yunyon (U.S.)

Jewish actors. Theater, Yiddish. Jewish refugees‐‐Europe. World War, 1939‐1945‐‐Refugees‐‐Europe. Refugee camps‐‐Europe.

Photographs.

CONTAINER LIST

Series 1: Correspondence, 1947‐1964

Box Folder 1 1‐2 Correspondence, 1947, 1950, 1959, 1964 (2 folders)

Series 2: Photographs, approximately 1918‐1980s

Box Folder 1 3 Audiences, approximately 1947 1 4 Children, approximately 1918, 1947 1 5 Concentration camp inmates boarding a train, approximately 1945 1 6 General Patton at the Rhine, approximately 1945 1 7 Group in front of a fountain, approximately 1947 1 8 Herman Yablokoff, approximately 1947 1 9 Herman Yablokoff, at a reunion of Displaced Persons in Winnipeg, approximately 1950s 1 10 Herman Yablokoff, onstage, 1947 1 11 Herman Yablokoff, with others at a Grodno Holocaust memorial, approximately 1980s 1 12 Jewish scouts, approximately 1947 1 13 Joint Distribution Committee events in Havana, 1947

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1 14 Joint Distribution Committee publicity photographs, Austria, 1948 1 15 Joint Distribution Committee publicity photographs, Czechoslovakia, 1948 1 16 Joint Distribution Committee publicity photographs, France, approximately 1948 1 17 Joint Distribution Committee publicity photographs, Germany, 1948 1 18 Joint Distribution Committee publicity photographs, Hungary, 1947‐1948 1 19 Joint Distribution Committee publicity photographs, Italy, 1948 1 20 Joint Distribution Committee publicity photographs, Poland, 1946 1 21 Memorials, monuments, and cemeteries, approximately 1947 1 22 School room, approximately 1947 1 23 Zionist demonstrations, approximately 1947 1 24 Miscellaneous, approximately 1936, 1947‐1948

Series 3: Printed materials, 1940, 1947

Box Folder 1 25 Printed materials, 1940, 1947

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