Album of Personnel. “Search Bureau for Missing Persons.” Containing 53 original snapshot photographs, each captioned with name and departmental office. Compiled by the Jewish Brigade Personnel attached to the Bureau.

Auction 90 | Tuesday, July 21st, 2020 at 1:00pm
Fine Judaica: Printed Books, Manuscripts, Graphic & Ceremonial Arts

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Lot 139
(HOLOCAUST).

Album of Personnel. “Search Bureau for Missing Persons.” Containing 53 original snapshot photographs, each captioned with name and departmental office. Compiled by the Jewish Brigade Personnel attached to the Bureau.

Dedicated to Col. J.R. Bowring, founder of the Bureau. <<Likely one of just a bare handful of copies produced.>> ff. 24. Original printed stiff wrappers. Oblong 4to.

(Frankfurt?): May 1946

Est: $2,000 - $3,000
PRICE REALIZED $2,800
“This album is dedicated to all members of the Search Bureau for Missing Persons, which, by the true understanding between its various nationalities, remains a proof of a lasting basis for the humane task for which it was created.” (Introduction). In 1943, the international section of the British Red Cross was asked by the Headquarters of the Allied Forces to set up a registration and tracing service for missing people. The organization was formalized on February 15, 1944 under the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Forces and named the Central Tracing Bureau. As the war continued, the Bureau was moved from London to Versailles, then to Frankfurt am Main, and finally to Bad Arolsen, which was considered a central location among the areas of Allied occupation and had an intact infrastructure unaffected by war. On July 1, 1947, the International Refugee Organization took over administration of the Bureau, and on January 1, 1948, the name was changed to its current “International Tracing Service.”