IRO “Care and Maintenance” Program

Scope and content

The documents contained here were amassed by the International Refugee Organization (IRO) and its predecessor organizations between 1947 and 1952. They document the care and maintenance of Displaced Persons (DPs) in the Western-occupied zones in Germany as well as in Italy, Austria, Switzerland and England.
The foremost document type is the “Application for Assistance” questionnaire. Displaced Persons were required to complete this questionnaire in order to apply for support from the IRO. The form is also referred to as “CM/1,” where “CM” stands for “Care and Maintenance” and “1” for the respective form type. The majority of the applicants were Holocaust survivors, former concentration camp inmates and Nazi forced laborers. There were also persons who had fled the sphere under Soviet control for political reasons.
In addition to the CM/1 forms, the collection also encompasses questionnaires for DPs, confirmations of eligibility for assistance, applications for change of status (CM/3 forms), photos of the applicants, correspondence, memos and health records. The last-named were excluded from the online publication on account of their sensitive content but can be viewed at the ITS on request. The records in 3.2.1.5 document appeal procedures filed with IRO headquarters in Geneva.

Individual documents were missing during the digitisation of these holdings. These were previously added to the ITS case files and will be processed as the case files are digitised.