The World War II collection at the Daughters of Charity Archives, Province of St. Louise documents the American community and its efforts to assist the refugees of the War alongside the Catholic War Relief Services on the European front and its sisters’ time as nurses in the interior of China on the Pacific front. The collection is 1 box measuring 0.5 linear feet, including correspondence, personal accounts, photographs, and small artifacts.
In August 1944, American Daughters of Charity fled St. Margaret’s Hospital in Shanghai in the face of the takeover of the city. With travel across the Pacific impossible, they traveled inward instead, seeking refuge with the U.S. Army Kunming, where they became nurses for the remainder of the War.
On the European front, the American provinces of the Daughters were cut off from their Motherhouse in Paris until the liberation of the city. When travel was again allowed and news could return home once more, they saw the refugee crisis that the War had wrought. Sister Madeleine Morris, who traveled from St. Louis to Paris, was the primary reporter of the shortages in France. She began to organize distribution centers for the War Relief Services until her sudden death in 1945, after which American Daughters worked with the Red Cross to ensure these these centers remained supplied.
Contacts
Scott Keefer, CA
Provincial Archivist
[email protected]
301-447-6067 (office)
Daughters of Charity
Province of St. Louise Archives
341 South Seton Avenue
Emmitsburg, MD 21727
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