GERMAN AMERICAN RESETTLEMENT SERVICES, INC. - The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History

GERMAN AMERICAN RESETTLEMENT SERVICES, INC. organized 29 Feb. 1952 as the Federated German American Relief for Expellees Organizing Committee but incorporated under the later name. It formed "to aid and assist needy displaced persons of German ethnic origin" whose lives were disrupted by political changes in postwar Europe. The group was organized and headed by Rev. John Foisel, its first president, Robert A. Baerwalde, vice-president, and M. A. Schneider, secretary. Both Foisel and Schneider were officers in the Lutheran Relief for Transylvanian Saxons, Inc., formed in Nov. 1945, which called a meeting at the East Side Sachsenheim to form "a local committee of all German American Societies" to aid refugees of German ethnicity. At its March meeting the group changed its name to German American Resettlement Services, Inc. Membership was open to any local church, lodge, club, singing society, or dramatic group with "a membership of predominantly German origin." The organization provided financial and material donations to refugee camps in Europe and helped Cleveland immigrants. It closed in 1960.

German American Resettlement Services, Inc. records, WRHS

See also GERMANS and IMMIGRATION AND MIGRATION.

Related Article(s)

• IMMIGRATION AND ETHNICITY