LETTER: Typed letter signed, to Mrs. Gertrude Roens.
Roosevelt, Eleanor. Typed Letter Signed (to Mrs. Gertrude Roens, October 25, 1950).
Single sheet, 8 x 10-3/8”; letterhead of the United States Delegation to the General Assembly of the United Nations; creased where folded and slightly age-toned; very good.
Mrs. Roosevelt told a reporter shortly after President Roosevelt’s death, “The story is over.” In fact, much of Mrs. Roosevelt’s important work lay ahead rather than behind her. President Truman appointed her to the United States Delegation to the United Nations. Due to her persistence and diplomacy a Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which very directly affected thousands of World War II refugees, was approved by the General Assembly. The Declaration, largely authored by her, was perhaps her single greatest achievement; but, her work in the United Nations as the Cold War congealed foreign relations was also critical. Here she responds to a request with businesslike dispatch, but nonetheless the letter touches upon key Roosevelt concerns: “Dear Mrs. Roens: I am enclosing a pamphlet entitled 'The Convention on Genocide', which I hope will help you. If you desire further information, I suggest you write to the United Nations Department of Public Information...” Mrs. Roosevelt often had served as an advocate for Jewish refugees vis-a-vis the State Department during her husband’s administration; and, Nazi policy of extermination was a determining factor in her pursuit of a “Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” While correspondence from Mrs. Roosevelt as First Lady is relatively accessible, autograph material while a United Nations delegate is far less so. As brief and formal as this letter is, it offers a glancing reflection of a key aspect of Mrs. Roosevelt’s formidable career.
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