The Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People at the National Library of Israel announced on April 16 that it now houses documents from La Colonie Scolaire, an organization that began caring for immigrant children in 1926.
When World War II broke out, the organization went underground and renamed itself “Rue Amelot,” after its address.
It also transformed its mission to save as many Jewish children as possible. Many of the children were recent orphans, whose parents had been sent to concentration camps, Yochai Ben-Ghedalia, director of the Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People, wrote on the National Library of Israel website.
“One of the most significant steps the organization undertook to deal with this challenge was the hiding of Jewish children from Paris with Christian families in rural France, as well as in French monasteries and orphanages,” he added.
La Colonie Scolaire’s archivists destroyed much of the archives after Gestapo raids, but many materials survived, according to Ben-Ghedalia.