JDC HQ and local offices worked unstintingly to rescueand provide relief for Jews fleeing Nazi Europe. The organization'sp rior experience and relationships with local communities and international and local agencies werea dvantagest hathelped JDC galvanize aid wherep ossible. Prior familytracing and search activities laid the groundwork for its extensive networkinge fforts in the Second World Ware ra with US relativeso fr efugees in Europe who required assistance and survivors searchingf or

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... irf amilies. Thesee fforts helped reunite families. JDC and CentralLocation Index staff pursued familysearch with expertise, empathy, and as ense of personal and communal mission, collaborating with the IRC and UNRRA. Discussions beginning in 1947a bout establishinga centralized International Tracing Service made CLI and JDC leaders uneasy. Would am ore distant and standardized ITS have the necessary knowledge,e xpertise, and sense of urgency?Nevertheless,JDC leaders cooperated with efforts to establish the IRO International Tracing Service. Beginning in August 1948, JDC began closing its tracing bureaus and transferring records to the ITS. In May 1949,t he CLI ceased operations. OpenAccess.