A Story of American Intervention: Roswell and Marjorie McClelland 's Humanitarian Work in World War II Europe

The history of US intervention to rescue Jews from Nazi persecution during World War II has mostly focused on the work of the War Refugee Board (WRB) created in 1944 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Roswell and Marjorie McClelland's wartime experience as humanitarians reflects a different form of American intervention in the Holocaust. The years spent in Europe as delegates of the Quaker‐based American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) opened a door for them and changed the course of thousands of lives. During his years abroad, Roswell McClelland became an influential nongovernmental leader in humanitarian affairs, coordinating relief with other organizations and government officials. During the last year of the war, he worked as an official representative of the WRB rescuing Jews from Nazi persecution. Tracing Roswell and Marjorie McClelland's humanitarian work during World War II represents a form of humanitarian intervention through rescue and relief.