Creation of War Refugee Board

US President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9417, which created the War Refugee Board (WRB). The WRB was tasked with rescuing "the victims of enemy oppression who are in imminent danger of death."

John Pehle was appointed to act as the WRB’s first director. The board's administrative funding came from the President’s Emergency fund. Funding for relief and rescue projects came largely from private aid organizations, most of them Jewish.