UNRRA selected records AG-018-006 : Balkan Mission and Middle East Office.

Copyright Holder: United Nations Archives and Records Management Section Selected records of the Albania Mission, Bureau of Relief Services, 1944-46: correspondence, registration cards, statistics, policy and procedures, repatriation, and tracing and inquiry forms and other records relating to displaced persons, Albanian Prisoners of War, Albanians employed during the war, forced labors and deportees; Records of the Bureau of Requirements and Supply-Greek Relief Series-Joint Relief Commission 1944-1949: reports on medical supplies, food and care; Records of the Bureau of Finance and Administration-Central Registry Series, 1944-1949: correspondence, and intelligence bulletins relating to the welfare division, policy, refugee camps, monthly and weekly reports of the Greek, Yugoslav, and Albanian Mission. Also included are records of the Historical Section, and Middle East Office: cables, newspaper clippings, reports, correspondence, related to displaced persons, refugees, UNRRA personnel, relation with Palestinian Government, the Egyptian Government, and UNRRA Jerusalem Office, Italian Mission, Greece Mission. The collection consists also of lists of Albanians in Flossenbürg Concentration camp, registration cards for Albanian Prisoners of War at Stalag X, the copy of the Death Book of Neckargerach labor camp, and records of Albanian nationals in Germany during the war. The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) was an international relief agency representing 44 nations, but largely dominated by the United States. Founded in 1943, it became part of the United Nations (UN) in 1945, and it largely shut down operations in 1947. Its purpose was to "plan, co-ordinate, administer or arrange for the administration of measures for the relief of victims of war in any area under the control of any of the United Nations through the provision of food, fuel, clothing, shelter and other basic necessities, medical and other essential services." Its staff of civil servants included 12,000 people, with headquarters in New York. Funding came from many nations, and totaled $3.7 billion, of which the United States contributed $2.7 billion; Britain $625 million and Canada $139 million. The Administration of UNRRA at the peak of operations in mid-1946 included five types of offices and missions with a staff totaling nearly 25,000: The Headquarters Office in Washington, The European Regional Office (London), the 29 servicing offices and missions (2 area offices in Cairo and Sydney; 10 liaison offices and missions in Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Trieste; 12 procurement offices in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and later Peru, Cuba, India, Mexico, South Africa, Southern Rhodesia, Turkey, Uruguay, Venezuela; 6 offices for procurement of surplus military supplies in Caserta and later Rome, Honolulu, Manila, New Delhi, Paris, Shanghai), the sixteen missions to receiving countries (Albania, Austria, Byelorussia, China, Czechoslovakia, the Dodecanese Islands, Ethiopia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Korea, the Philippines, Poland, Ukraine, Yugoslavia), and the Displaced Persons Operations in Germany. UNRRA cooperated closely with dozens of volunteer charitable organizations, who sent hundreds of their own agencies to work alongside UNRRA. In operation only three years, the agency distributed about $4 billion worth of goods, food, medicine, tools, and farm implements at a time of severe global shortages and worldwide transportation difficulties. The recipient nations had been especially hard hit by starvation, dislocation, and political chaos. It played a major role in helping Displaced Persons return to their home countries in Europe in 1945-46. Its UN functions were transferred to several UN agencies, including the International Refugee Organization and the World Health Organization. As an American relief agency, it was largely replaced by the Marshall Plan, which began operations in 1948. [Source: UN Original finding aid of records of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA)]