Refugees at Indiana University
During the 1930s and 1940s, Indiana University offered refugee scholarships to help provide education and housing to European refugees. Student organizations such as the Student Refugee Committee and Cosmopolitan Club organized benefit dances and raffles to cover room and board.
In these 1939 letters, the Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity discusses Henry H. H. Remak, a refugee student from Berlin they had been hosting. The university had remitted his tuition fees and the fraternity was providing him with free room and board. In these letters, the fraternity offers to continue hosting Remak if the university will continue remitting his fees. Remak went on to a lifelong career as a professor and administrator at Indiana University.
This document lists the four students who recieved refugee scholarships from Indiana University during the 1939-1940 school year - Rudolph Grunfeld, Max Meyer, Lotte Lederer, and Henry Remak.
Charlotte (Lottie) Lederer Freedland was a Jewish student from Austria. She started her education at Indiana University in 1939, shortly after Hitler annexed Austria. She recieved a refugee scholarship and studied Psychology.
In this letter, the Student Refugee Committee requests that Indiana University President Herman B Wells issue a statement on whether or not his administration approves of IU joining the Intercollegiate Committee to Aid Student Refugees.
Students selling Herman B Wells a ticket to the 1940 Refugee Ball, thrown to raise funds for refugee students.
In this 1942 letter, the Refugee Committee requests permission from the Committee on Student Affairs to host a dance to benefit student refugees.