CENTOS ( pl, Centralne Towarzystwo Opieki nad Sierotami, also ''Związek Towarzystw Opieki nad Dziećmi i Sierotami'';

Yiddish Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...

: ''Farband far Kinder Szuc un Jatomim Ferzorgung''; literally, Central Society for the Care of Orphans, or Central Union of Associations for the Care of Jewish Children and Orphans) was a

Polish-Jewish The history of the Jews in Poland dates back at least 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Ashkenazi Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the lon ...

children's-aid society. Founded in 1924, it became a "leading organization for Jewish childcare" in the

Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of ...

and was highly active in the

Warsaw Ghetto The Warsaw Ghetto (german: Warschauer Ghetto, officially , "Jewish Residential District in Warsaw"; pl, getto warszawskie) was the largest of the Nazi ghettos during World War II and the Holocaust. It was established in November 1940 by the G ...

during

The Holocaust in Poland The Holocaust in Poland was part of the European-wide Holocaust organized by Nazi Germany and took place in German-occupied Poland. During the genocide, three million Polish Jews were murdered, half of all Jews murdered during the Holocaust. ...

Interwar Poland

CENTOS was founded in April 1924 by Jewish activists who sought to help children who had become orphaned in the

aftermath of World War I The aftermath of World War I saw drastic political, cultural, economic, and social change across Eurasia, Africa, and even in areas outside those that were directly involved. Four empires collapsed due to the war, old countries were abolished, ne ...

. It was formed by the integration of hundreds of smaller regional institutions, mostly focused on caring for Jewish orphans. In addition to its headquarters, it had nine regional committees. It was affiliated with the

American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, also known as Joint or JDC, is a Jewish relief organization based in New York City. Since 1914 the organisation has supported Jewish people living in Israel and throughout the world. The organization i ...

, which provided it with financial support. It also received support from Polish central and local governments. Another major source of income was individual donors, estimated at between 40,000 and 50,000. CENTOS' first chairman was Polish politician and social activist . Other major interwar activists included Witold Wiesenberg, Maks Schaff, Anzelm Halpern, and Józef Kohn. CENTOS aided disadvantaged families and ran orphanages, schools, and clinics. It also organized summer and winter holidays for children of poor families. CENTOS published several monthly magazines for social workers, teachers, and other professionals involved in child care, two of them in Yiddish (''Unzer Kind'', which later merged with the similar ''Dos Kind'' and ''Dos Szucloze Kind'';) and the Polish-language ''Przegląd Społeczny''.Szczygieł, Mirosława.
Formy opieki nad sierotami żydowskimi w Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej w latach 1918-1939 (wybrane przykłady i aspekty),„Prace Naukowe Akademii Jana Długosza
" Pedagogika 15 (2005): 173-185. Scholars and activists who wrote for them included Stefania Wilczyńska, who in the late 1930s also worked as a CENTOS inspector. Another author who published in those outlets was

Janusz Korczak Janusz Korczak, the pen name of Henryk Goldszmit (22 July 1878 or 1879 – 7 August 1942), was a Polish Jewish educator, children's author and pedagogue known as ''Pan Doktor'' ("Mr. Doctor") or ''Stary Doktor'' ("Old Doctor"). After spending ma ...

, whose Warsaw orphanage, with which Wilczyńska was also affiliated, was also supported by CENTOS. CENTOS was present throughout the

, but was most active in the

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

and

Lwów Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine ...

Provinces. In 1928, of some 4,500 orphans in CENTOS' care, the two committees responsible for those two regions each cared for some 1,500 orphans, while the committees responsible for the seven remaining regions cared for the remaining 1,500. CENTOS is estimated to have employed at least 1,000 people. In the 1930s CENTOS sought to aid

German Jews The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321, and continued through the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries CE) and High Middle Ages (''circa'' 1000–1299 CE) when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish ...

facing growing discrimination in Nazi Germany. In 1938 an estimated 15,000 children were aided by CENTOS, more than half relying on CENTOS infrastructure such as orphanages. That year, CENTOS-affiliated institutions included 26 orphanages, 75 day-care facilities, 3 clinics, and over 30 holiday resorts. CENTOS functioned in over 200 Polish municipalities.

World War II

CENTOS continued to operate following Germany's

occupation of Poland Occupation commonly refers to: *Occupation (human activity), or job, one's role in society, often a regular activity performed for payment *Occupation (protest), political demonstration by holding public or symbolic spaces *Military occupation, th ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. In 1940 CENTOS was still active in 74 locations in the

General Government The General Government (german: Generalgouvernement, pl, Generalne Gubernatorstwo, uk, Генеральна губернія), also referred to as the General Governorate for the Occupied Polish Region (german: Generalgouvernement für die be ...

. In 1940-1941 CENTOS directors included

Adolf Bergman Adolf Bergman (14 April 1879 – 14 May 1926) was a Swedish policeman and tug of war competitor who won a gold medal at the 1912 Summer Olympics The 1912 Summer Olympics ( sv, Olympiska sommarspelen 1912), officially known as the Games of the ...

and . Most notably, CENTOS was highly active in the

during

the Holocaust in Poland The Holocaust in Poland was part of the European-wide Holocaust organized by Nazi Germany and took place in German-occupied Poland. During the genocide, three million Polish Jews were murdered, half of all Jews murdered during the Holocaust. ...

. There were 20 day centers in that Ghetto to look after thousands of children. CENTOS was also present in the

Brzesko Ghetto Brzesko Ghetto was a Nazi ghetto during World War II in occupied Poland. The ghetto was created by the Third Reich in 1941 in the Polish town of Brzesko located in the Kraków District about 40 miles from Kraków. The ghetto was open when it was f ...

, along with Jewish Social Self-Aid (JSS, ''Żydowska Samopomoc Społeczna'', ''Jüdische Soziale Selbsthilfe'') and the Committee for Aid to Refugees and the Poor. In 1940 CENTOS helped some 130 children. By one estimate, without CENTOS, Jewish orphans in the ghettos would have starved to death within a few months. CENTOS was also active in the ghettos' Jewish resistance, not only in its official capacity of providing food and shelter, but clandestinely, helping provide cover for resistance operatives, smuggling weapons into the ghettos, and helping maintain communication and smuggling channels between the Jewish and Polish resistance. CENTOS was not the only Jewish humanitarian aid organization that sought to operate in the early years of the German occupation. Others included Jewish Social Self-Aid and

Aid to Jews In international relations, aid (also known as international aid, overseas aid, foreign aid, economic aid or foreign assistance) is – from the perspective of governments – a voluntary transfer of resources from one country to another. Ai ...

(''Centrala Pomocy dla Żydów'', ''Jüdische Unterstüzungsstelle für das Generalgouvernement'', ''JUS''). Most of the children cared for by CENTOS perished in

Nazi German concentration camps From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany operated more than a thousand concentration camps, (officially) or (more commonly). The Nazi concentration camps are distinguished from other types of Nazi camps such as forced-labor camps, as well as concen ...

in the final stage of

the Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

, following the liquidations of the

Nazi ghettos Beginning with the invasion of Poland during World War II, the Nazi regime set up ghettos across German-occupied Eastern Europe in order to segregate and confine Jews, and sometimes Romani people, into small sections of towns and cities furtheri ...

and the relocation of survivors to the concentration camps. Many CENTOS personnel, including Korczak and Wilczyńska, accompanied the children to the camps and also perished there.

References

External links

CENTOS school in Warsaw Ghetto
YIVO Archives {{Authority control 1924 establishments in Poland Humanitarian aid organizations Organizations for orphaned and abandoned children Warsaw Ghetto Charities based in Poland Children in the Holocaust

Interwar Poland

World War II

See also

References

Further reading

External links