September 8, 2026 • 10 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, in 1940, 26-year-old Roswell and Marjorie McClelland put aside the academic and professional lives they had planned and sailed for Europe with the Quakers' American Friends Service Committee. War had already engulfed the continent, and the young American couple soon found themselves helping Jewish and political refugees fleeing the Nazis.
For our ongoing series The Six Percent, Deborah Dwork, author of Saints and Liars, shares the story of the McClellands and the agonizing decisions that came with trying to save lives during the Holocaust. Marjorie was eventually given an especially difficult task: choosing which refugee children would be evacuated to the United States. Every name she selected meant a chance at safety for one child, while countless others would remain behind.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories.
When World War II broke out in Europe, between 88
and 94 percent of Americans opposed entering it. After all,
we were an ocean away from the conflict. What threat
could Hitler possibly pose? Here to share another story of
a member of the 6% who disagreed is Deborah Dwork,
(00:33):
author of Saints and Liars. Today, Deborah shares the story
of a couple, Marjorie and Ross McClelland. Take it away, Deborah.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Marjorie and Ross McClelland stumbled into refugee relief work. Ross,
a doctoral student in comparative literature at Columbia University, had
been awarded a fellowship run by the Quakers American Friends
Service Committee to conduct archival research in Geneva. It was
(01:11):
a wonderful opportunity that came at the wrong time. In
late spring 1940, After the German invasion of Poland and
Western Europe, the U.S. government no longer issued passports to
travel to Europe for academic study. The AFSC, the service
(01:36):
arm of a Protestant denomination dedicated to pacifism, promptly repurposed
the fellowship and suggested that Ross take over their refugee
relief office in Rome. Marjorie, a child psychologist with an
undergraduate degree from Stanford University, gave up her position as
(02:00):
director of the Manhattanville Day Nursery in Harlem to join
her husband. They were 26 years old, married for 20 months,
and eager to undertake meaningful work together. The McClellans were
charged with running the AFSC's modest relief operation to help
(02:24):
Central European Jewish and political refugees hoping to sail to
the Americas from Italian ports. The office opened just three
weeks before Italy, with its fascist government, entered the war
on Germany's side and civilian shipping ceased. Still, The United
(02:48):
States was not a belligerent. Quaker delegates from the United
States could continue to operate in Italy. This work really
breaks your heart, Marjorie wrote to her family. It's as
though we were a small blotter trying to absorb a
large pond of water.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Still, she was learning a great deal.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
This opportunity to work together is a very precious one
to me, as I think it is to Ross. Our work,
our new experiences shared, and our sense of aloneness in
a world somewhat alien draw us even closer together. Their
(03:35):
scope to help narrowed, and the Home Office in Philadelphia
suggested redeploying the McClellans to Marseilles, a useful posting for
someone who aimed, as Ross did, for a university position
in French literature.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
And as the Marseille office.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Was doing a lot of work with children, Marjorie assumed
that her education and experience would stand her in good stead.
However logical their reasoning, the driving motivation was emotional. They
found refugee relief work riveting, and their former life plan
(04:13):
paled in comparison. Indeed, Marjorie admitted, the thought of the
scholastic life really seems rather remote.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
And somewhat uninspiring. By the time Marjorie and Ross joined the.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Marseille office in August 1941, 475,000 refugees crowded in unoccupied France.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
All were desperate to emigrate.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
The German invasion of the Soviet Union in June had inaugurated.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
The Holocaust in the East.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Nearly one and a half million Russian Jews were shot
that summer. The AFSC staff in unoccupied France did not
know that Berlin had committed genocide. The Jews in unoccupied
France did.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Not know either.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
But the assaults they suffered spurred them to prize spots
for their children on convoys to the U.S. organized by
the United States Committee for the Care of European Children,
called USCOM. Rumors swirled that Americans in the unoccupied zone
(05:33):
would be repatriated. They certainly lived under lean conditions. Still,
unfazed by their poor diet, the arduous process of keeping clean,
and their much-mended attire, Marjorie and Ross remained in Marseilles.
It was, she said, impossible to pull out of the work.
(05:55):
The need constantly increases, but we still struggle against constantly
growing ads. Indeed, we got a cable telling us to
prepare another convoy and recommending me, as a trained psychologist,
to select the children, she wrote to her family. Whom
(06:20):
to Choose In the face of such misery, what criteria
to apply? It fell to Marjorie to decide who would
be granted the opportunity to escape. She was, as she said,
the formidable Dame Americaine who had the life and death
power of deciding whether a child could have a future
(06:43):
in America or must stay where he was with no
future whatever to look forward to. Marjorie set certain criteria.
I had in mind two basic considerations, the necessity for
(07:07):
emigration and the desirability of immigration.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Of each child.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
I wished to satisfy myself of the child's desirability as
an immigrant to America by that he was a normal,
at least averagely intelligent, adaptable child who would be able
to fit into an American family without too much difficulty.
I also took into consideration the situation of the child
(07:35):
here in France.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
I considered the.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Children who had lost one or more parents, children whose
parents had remained in Germany or had been deported to Poland.
Children who were all alone have less future here and
therefore have greater need for immigration to America than children
of families.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
Who are all here.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Rational as these considerations were, the essentially emotional nature of
her decisions courses through short biographies she wrote about about
each of the children she selected for the convoy. Her
descriptions reveal that she chose children who appealed to her,
prizing the physically attractive, docile, and, if Jewish, not orthodox.
(08:30):
Hannelore Bernay, aged 11, is an attractive child with lots
of personality. Henri Boleslavsky, 12, is obedient and cooperative. very
realistic and practical in the approach to life, and should
be easily adaptable. Twelve-year-old Savelli-Sherman's manner and behavior show that
(08:55):
he comes from a background of.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Cultivation and education.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Doris Durlacher, age 11, was a pretty, sweet-looking girl who
was obedient and docile, very easy to manage.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
A fifth convoy soon followed.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Ernest and Richard Weilheimer were among those included.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Their father, Max, wrote.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
To Marjorie from an internment camp after they set sail,
his words a stark reminder of what was at stake.
Holding no hope of seeing his sons again, he thanked
her for what you have done for my boys. He
cherished the thought that his son's will go towards their
(09:43):
happiness free from perils, and that they will never in
their lives have to submit again to so much unhappiness.
At the safe distance of nearly a century, we see
the past and the people who lived in that past
(10:04):
as two-dimensional and in black and white.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
We flatten them and what they did.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Marjorie's record offers a fresh lens on the complexity of
the decisions and choices she and others made. Age is Gender,
degree of religious observance, social class, all of these played
a role in the calculus of selection. And so, too,
(10:30):
did visceral reactions and emotional connections to the people who
sought help.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
A remarkable story of Christian courage and sacrifice, here on
Our American Stories.
This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories.
When World War II broke out in Europe, between 88
and 94 percent of Americans opposed entering it. After all,
we were an ocean away from the conflict. What threat
could Hitler possibly pose? Here to share another story of
a member of the 6% who disagreed is Deborah Dwork,
(00:33):
author of Saints and Liars. Today, Deborah shares the story
of a couple, Marjorie and Ross McClelland. Take it away, Deborah.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Marjorie and Ross McClelland stumbled into refugee relief work. Ross,
a doctoral student in comparative literature at Columbia University, had
been awarded a fellowship run by the Quakers American Friends
Service Committee to conduct archival research in Geneva. It was
(01:11):
a wonderful opportunity that came at the wrong time. In
late spring 1940, After the German invasion of Poland and
Western Europe, the U.S. government no longer issued passports to
travel to Europe for academic study. The AFSC, the service
(01:36):
arm of a Protestant denomination dedicated to pacifism, promptly repurposed
the fellowship and suggested that Ross take over their refugee
relief office in Rome. Marjorie, a child psychologist with an
undergraduate degree from Stanford University, gave up her position as
(02:00):
director of the Manhattanville Day Nursery in Harlem to join
her husband. They were 26 years old, married for 20 months,
and eager to undertake meaningful work together. The McClellans were
charged with running the AFSC's modest relief operation to help
(02:24):
Central European Jewish and political refugees hoping to sail to
the Americas from Italian ports. The office opened just three
weeks before Italy, with its fascist government, entered the war
on Germany's side and civilian shipping ceased. Still, The United
(02:48):
States was not a belligerent. Quaker delegates from the United
States could continue to operate in Italy. This work really
breaks your heart, Marjorie wrote to her family. It's as
though we were a small blotter trying to absorb a
large pond of water.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Still, she was learning a great deal.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
This opportunity to work together is a very precious one
to me, as I think it is to Ross. Our work,
our new experiences shared, and our sense of aloneness in
a world somewhat alien draw us even closer together. Their
(03:35):
scope to help narrowed, and the Home Office in Philadelphia
suggested redeploying the McClellans to Marseilles, a useful posting for
someone who aimed, as Ross did, for a university position
in French literature.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
And as the Marseille office.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Was doing a lot of work with children, Marjorie assumed
that her education and experience would stand her in good stead.
However logical their reasoning, the driving motivation was emotional. They
found refugee relief work riveting, and their former life plan
(04:13):
paled in comparison. Indeed, Marjorie admitted, the thought of the
scholastic life really seems rather remote.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
And somewhat uninspiring. By the time Marjorie and Ross joined the.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Marseille office in August 1941, 475,000 refugees crowded in unoccupied France.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
All were desperate to emigrate.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
The German invasion of the Soviet Union in June had inaugurated.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
The Holocaust in the East.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Nearly one and a half million Russian Jews were shot
that summer. The AFSC staff in unoccupied France did not
know that Berlin had committed genocide. The Jews in unoccupied
France did.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Not know either.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
But the assaults they suffered spurred them to prize spots
for their children on convoys to the U.S. organized by
the United States Committee for the Care of European Children,
called USCOM. Rumors swirled that Americans in the unoccupied zone
(05:33):
would be repatriated. They certainly lived under lean conditions. Still,
unfazed by their poor diet, the arduous process of keeping clean,
and their much-mended attire, Marjorie and Ross remained in Marseilles.
It was, she said, impossible to pull out of the work.
(05:55):
The need constantly increases, but we still struggle against constantly
growing ads. Indeed, we got a cable telling us to
prepare another convoy and recommending me, as a trained psychologist,
to select the children, she wrote to her family. Whom
(06:20):
to Choose In the face of such misery, what criteria
to apply? It fell to Marjorie to decide who would
be granted the opportunity to escape. She was, as she said,
the formidable Dame Americaine who had the life and death
power of deciding whether a child could have a future
(06:43):
in America or must stay where he was with no
future whatever to look forward to. Marjorie set certain criteria.
I had in mind two basic considerations, the necessity for
(07:07):
emigration and the desirability of immigration.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Of each child.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
I wished to satisfy myself of the child's desirability as
an immigrant to America by that he was a normal,
at least averagely intelligent, adaptable child who would be able
to fit into an American family without too much difficulty.
I also took into consideration the situation of the child
(07:35):
here in France.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
I considered the.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Children who had lost one or more parents, children whose
parents had remained in Germany or had been deported to Poland.
Children who were all alone have less future here and
therefore have greater need for immigration to America than children
of families.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
Who are all here.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Rational as these considerations were, the essentially emotional nature of
her decisions courses through short biographies she wrote about about
each of the children she selected for the convoy. Her
descriptions reveal that she chose children who appealed to her,
prizing the physically attractive, docile, and, if Jewish, not orthodox.
(08:30):
Hannelore Bernay, aged 11, is an attractive child with lots
of personality. Henri Boleslavsky, 12, is obedient and cooperative. very
realistic and practical in the approach to life, and should
be easily adaptable. Twelve-year-old Savelli-Sherman's manner and behavior show that
(08:55):
he comes from a background of.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Cultivation and education.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Doris Durlacher, age 11, was a pretty, sweet-looking girl who
was obedient and docile, very easy to manage.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
A fifth convoy soon followed.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Ernest and Richard Weilheimer were among those included.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Their father, Max, wrote.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
To Marjorie from an internment camp after they set sail,
his words a stark reminder of what was at stake.
Holding no hope of seeing his sons again, he thanked
her for what you have done for my boys. He
cherished the thought that his son's will go towards their
(09:43):
happiness free from perils, and that they will never in
their lives have to submit again to so much unhappiness.
At the safe distance of nearly a century, we see
the past and the people who lived in that past
(10:04):
as two-dimensional and in black and white.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
We flatten them and what they did.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Marjorie's record offers a fresh lens on the complexity of
the decisions and choices she and others made. Age is Gender,
degree of religious observance, social class, all of these played
a role in the calculus of selection. And so, too,
(10:30):
did visceral reactions and emotional connections to the people who
sought help.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
A remarkable story of Christian courage and sacrifice, here on
Our American Stories.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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