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From the end of hostilities, the first committee of leaders responsible for caring for Jewish orphans was led by Joseph Minc. It comprised four former M.O.I. resistance fighters—Cécile Cerf, Sczmulek Farber, Jeanne Pakin, Sophie Schwartz—and two educators, Isidore Bernstein and Louba Pludermacher. The new organisation, created in 1945, took the name Central Commission for Children within the UJRE and the Union of Jewish Women. It became more commonly known as the CCE.
In 1946, Joseph Minc, Secretary General, was succeeded at the head of the CCE by Sophie Schwartz, then by Anna Vilner, until the Commission was dissolved. A first Home for the children of those executed and deported initially received the orphans in Montreuil-sous-Bois (in what is now Seine-Saint-Denis), but very quickly eight other children’s homes, known as foyers, were created between 1945 and 1956. The last home closed in 1958. The most emblematic was the Denouval manor in Andrésy, in the Paris region.
These nine homes housed Jewish orphans, from early childhood through adolescence. Between 500 and 600 children were taken in and educated there. The homes operated thanks to numerous fundraising drives and occasional assistance.
A progressive spirit animated the CCE children’s homes: a revolutionary and secular ideal; innovative pedagogy (close to the ideas of Makarenko, Korczak, Montessori and the New Education movement); and the celebration of the heroes of the Resistance, embodied by the fighters of the Jewish section of the M.O.I. Holiday camps were spread across France. Each year, 2,500 Jewish children, orphaned or not, attended these camps, where they were introduced to the great Yiddish-language writers and encouraged to dream of “the bright days ahead”.
One of the most representative camps was that of Tarnos (Landes), with a health-focused mission.
At the same time, the CCE organised youth clubs, while the Yiddish language could still be heard at the headquarters on Rue de Paradis (Paris 10th arrondissement).
A large annual fête was organised in support of social and solidarity initiatives. Within the CCE, committed support for a just and democratic world went hand in hand with an attachment to a humanist Jewish identity, free of any communitarianism.
The CCE ceased its activities in 1988.
References:
— Collective work, 2022, The Central Commission for Children, From Tears to Laughter, History and memory of a Jewish, secular and progressive organisation, 1945–2020. Le cherche midi-AACCE.
— Wolikow Serge and Lassignardie Isabelle, 2015, Growing Up After the Shoah, Éditions de l’Atelier.
— Hazan Katy, 2003, The Orphans of the Shoah, the Homes of Hope (1944–1960). Les Belles Lettres.
