On January 23, 1944, Arthur Werner of Piqua, OH, wrote a letter to Henry Morgenthau and enclosed ten dollars for the work of the War Refugee Board. It was their very first donation—and Werner’s letter resulted in bureaucratic memos about how to handle checks and what kind of fund to create for them.  But Werner also received a personal letter from Morgenthau and the WRB wrote a press release about the donation.

Werner’s letter is sweet and heartbreaking and wonderful.  I wanted to see more about him and found a Letter to the Editor in the Piqua, OH Daily Call which he wrote in April 1945, after news came out about the liberation of Buchenwald. As a result of this letter, the Daily Call did a follow-up piece, and then he gave a few talks around his small town about his experiences.

It is wonderful and true: The War Refugee Board’s first donation came from a man who was arrested on Kristallnacht, imprisoned in Buchenwald, was released and able to emigrate to a small town with his wife.  More than anyone else, he knew of the importance of what they were doing.