Report of Herbert J. Seligmann, Director of Public Information, Offices of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) in Paris

Seligmann expresses concern that text alone may not be sufficient to communicate to a gentile audience the severity of conditions faced by Eastern European Jews. Citing Vishniac’s “extraordinary” images “narrating in pictorial form the work of the JDC,” he suggests that commissioned photographs conveying the terrible reality could be of greater utility in persuading the public of the urgency of the organization’s mission, a discussion that contributed to Vishniac’s commission to create the maquette on view in a case in this room.