Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus

Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus were an American couple known for rescuing 50 Jewish children prior to the beginning of World War II.

[1] After Austria was annexed to Nazi Germany through the Anschluss in 1938, conditions became difficult for Jews and they lost their rights.

[7] After meeting with Louis Levine, who originally proposed the idea, and Kraus, Messersmith issued a memo to the American embassy consul general Raymond H. Geist and the State Department officials in charge of visas about the plan.

[8] With the support of B'rith Sholom, they went to Nazi-occupied Austria and rescued children between the ages of five and fourteen in Vienna before the outbreak of World War II, which required them to work with Jewish leaders in their community who opposed the effort and American immigration policy that made the effort difficult.

[8][9] They then traveled to Hamburg, where they set sail for New York aboard the S.S. President Harding[7] and arrived on June 3, 1939.

[8] Their story was made into the documentary 50 Children: The Rescue Mission of Mr. and Mrs. Kraus - the movie (2013) by Steven Pressman, the husband of their granddaughter Liz Perle.

The foundation’s cofounders, Peter (the grandson of Gilbert and Eleanor), and his wife, Jill Kraus, funded the program with a multi-year gift to the URJ of more than one million dollars to galvanize people to action around the immigration and refugee crisis in the United States.

[11] “What Jill and I are trying to say with regard to this gift,” Peter Kraus stated in an interview, “is the power of everyday individuals.

The more we everyday individuals commit to being part of the immigration process, the more successful our country will be in finding an answer to the trauma that is being visited upon refugees.” [12]