Timeline of Events
- 1942
- January 16
- January 20
- March 1
- March 21
- May 27
- June 9
- June 28
- July 15
- July 23
- August 25
- September 5
- October 26
- December 17
- 1943
- February 1
- February 2
- March 13
- April 19
- August 3
- September 20
- October 14
- October 19
- November 3
- December 28
- 1944
- January 16
- January 22
- March 19
- May 15
- May 15
- June 6
- June 18
- July 9
- July 11
- July 20
- July 23
- August 1
- August 2
- August 9
- October 7
- November 25
- November 25
- December 11
- 1945
- January 17
- January 27
- February 4
- February 13
- February 13
- March 7
- April 2
- April 4
- April 11
- April 11
- April 11
- April 12
- April 13
- April 15
- April 17
- April 20
- April 23
- April 25
- April 27
- April 29
- April 30
- April 30
- May 4
- May 4
- May 5
- May 7
- June 4
- August 15
- September 2
- November 20
- November 21
- November 29
- December 1
- December 11
- December 22
Creation of War Refugee Board
John Pehle, executive director of the War Refugee Board. —US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Franklin D. Roosevelt Library
January 22, 1944
US president Franklin D. Roosevelt issues Executive Order 9417, creating the War Refugee Board (WRB). The board is tasked with the “immediate rescue and relief of the Jews of Europe and other victims of enemy persecution.”
John Pehle was appointed to act as the WRB’s first director. He immediately gathered a staff (never more than 30 people) to help run the office in Washington. General William O’Dwyer served as the director of the WRB from January 1945 until the dissolution of the board in September 1945. The board's administrative funding came from the President’s Emergency fund. Funding for relief and rescue projects came largely out of donations from private aid organizations, most of them Jewish organizations.
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