History
International Rescue Committee UK was established in 1997 as a European base to support the IRC’s work around the world.
But the International Rescue Committee's European roots go back much further than that, right back to the organisation's beginnings in 1933 and the work in Germany of the International Relief Association (IRA), headed by Albert Einstein.
The IRA had been helping opponents of Hitler in Europe since 1931. However, in 1933 Hitler took power in Germany. At Einstein's request an American branch of the IRA was formed in New York City to support the work of the IRA assisting Germans suffering under Hitler and, later, refugees from Mussolini's Italy and Franco's Spain.
In 1940, the Emergency Rescue Committee (ERC) was formed to aid European refugees trapped in Vichy France. The IRA and ERC joined forces to aid these refugees with a mission based in Marseille.
Some two thousand individuals marked for death by the Nazis were saved.
In 1942, the IRA and ERC joined forces under the name International Relief and Rescue Committee, later shortened to the name we use today: the International Rescue Committee.
We've been helping people fleeing war, persecution and violence ever since.
