Polish Jewish refugees outside the Rothschild Reception Center in Vienna

To meet the needs of a large influx of refugees, primarily from Poland and Romania, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (“the Joint”) supported the conversion of the former Rothschild Hospital into the Rothschild Reception Center and urged the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) to accept the facility as a displaced persons camp. Normally housing 600, every inch of space was used to make room for the thousands of refugees heading towards the more permanent camps in Austria or Germany.