Joseph Perkins Chamberlain Papers

Joseph Perkins Chamberlain (1873 - 1951) was born in Cleveland, Ohio and brought up in Santa Barbara, California. Graduating from Hastings Law School in 1893, he obtained a Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1923 and an L.L.D. in 1929. In 1902 he was admitted to the California bar and practiced in San Francisco until 1905. He subsequently became a lecturer in law and was Professor of Public Law at Columbia University from 1923 to 1950.

Chamberlain was the director of the Legislative Drafting Research Fund at Columbia University and in that capacity contributed to the improvement of statute law. A consultant to various Federal and State agencies, he was also counsel and draftsman for the New York City Charter Revision Commission of 1935-1936.

His publications on law include Regime of International Rivers: Danube and Rhine (1936), Index-digest of State Constitutions (1915) and numerous articles on legislation and international relations.

Besides his career in law, Chamberlain took an active part in the work of refugee agencies, private and government, national and international, Jewish and non-Jewish, which were originally established to deal with the German-Jewish refugee problem provoked by the rise to power of the Nazi party in 1933. His involvement with this problem spanned all its aspects, including both the immigration and resettlement stages.

On many occasions Chamberlain assumed the role of spokesman for the refugee organizations, interceding on their behalf with the State Department or representing the refugee cause at public functions.

His activities in refugee work lasted from 1933 until 1950, starting with his appointment in 1933 as American member of the Intergovernmental High Commission for Refugees (Jewish and others) Coming from Germany. In 1934 because of his position on the High Commission he was asked to serve as Chairman of the National Coordinating Committee, established by the Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) at the suggestion of the State Department. The National Coordinating Committee was to coordinate the work of affiliated private agencies, minimizing duplication of effort, so that the High Commission could work with them more efficiently.

Chamberlain participated in the organization and development of these agencies. He was involved in the establishment of the German Jewish Children's Aid in 1934 and was in direct contact with the Emergency Committee in Aid of Displaced Foreign Physicians from 1934 to 1939. He also took part in the founding of local groups, such as the Greater New York Committee for Refugees in 1934.

In 1939 the National Coordinating Committee was reorganized and its named changed to the National Refugee Service. Chamberlain was again appointed chairman.

In the spring of 1938, Chamberlain was asked by President Roosevelt, along with eight other leaders of organizations of religious congregations, to serve on a President’s Advisory Committee on Political Refugees. Its function was to serve as a liaison between American private agencies and the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees created at the Evian Conference, July 1938. The President’s Advisory Committee on Political Refugees was active throughout the Roosevelt years.

In June 1944 President Roosevelt established a temporary haven at Oswego, N.Y., for about 1000 refugees, called the Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter. As a representative of the National Refugee Services and member of the President's Advisory Committee on Political Refugees, Chamberlain interceded with the War Refugee Board to improve conditions at the shelter, and was involved in both the handling of specific cases as well as major operations such as the final resettlement plan.

In August 1946 the National Refugee Service and the Service to Foreign Born Section of the National Council of Jewish Women consolidated their services and the successor organization was called the United Service for New Americans. Chamberlain was asked to be Honorary Chairman of the Board.

Throughout his period of activity as chairman of the National Coordinating Committee and National Refugee Services and member of the President's Advisory Committee on Political Refugees, Chamberlain was asked to deal with all kinds of cases which were too difficult to be solved through the regular channels. Among these were individuals with difficult visa cases, distinguished scholars displaced by events in Germany and Austria, or German-Jewish children with legal problems in the public schools. Chamberlain's case work entailed maintaining correspondence with institutions, companies, government and immigration authorities.