Nationaal Werk voor Kinderwelzijn - NWK (National Agency for Child Welfare)

Collection description

Collection

Country:: Belgium

Holding institution:: Archive and Research Centre for Women’s History

Holding institution (official language):: Centre d’Archives pour l’Histoire des Femmes

Postal address:: Middaglijnstraat 10 / Rue du Méridien 10, 1210 Brussel (Sint-Joost-ten-Noode)

Phone number:: +32 (0)2 229 38 31

Web address:: http://www.avg-carhif.be/

Email:: avg.carhif@amazone.be

Reference number:: ARCWH-Brussels-ONE 11

Title:: Nationaal Werk voor Kinderwelzijn - NWK (National Agency for Child Welfare)

Title (official language):: Nationaal Werk voor Kinderwelzijn - NWK

Creator/accumulator:: Nationaal Werk voor Kinderwelzijn; Œuvre Nationale de l’Enfance

Date(s):: 1919/1988

Extent:: 35 linear metres

Scope and content:: File no. 548 (1950-1973) contains correspondence of Yvonne Nevejean (director of the NWK) with Jewish organisations such as the Aide aux Israélites Victimes de la Guerre and its successor the Service social juif, concerning Jewish children during the war. The correspondence mainly relates to requests for confirmation that a certain individual was hidden, as a child, by the Comité de Défense des Juifs. Apart from correspondence we also note other documents, such as an activity report (1958) of the AIVG, minutes of meetings of the SSJ (from 1971), etc.

Archival history:: The fonds was deposited in 2000.

Administrative/biographical history:: The Nationaal Werk voor Kinderwelzijn / Œuvre Nationale de l’Enfance (‘national agency for child welfare’) was created by virtue of the law of 5 September 1919 with the aim of promoting child protection. The law stipulated, among others, the creation of initiatives to increase child hygiene and the coordination and support of public and private organisations that carried out such activities. The office was known for its health centres and home visits and for the distribution of milk. From the 1970s, the office was progressively handed over to the Communities. It was eventually dissolved in 1984. In 1987 its duties, goods and rights were transferred to Kind & Gezin and the Office de la Naissance et de l’Enfance, respectively. Thanks to the intervention of its president Yvonne Nevejean (1900-1987), some 4000 Jewish children were hidden with families and institutions, and survived the Second World War. In 1965, Nevejean was distinguished for her actions with the title “Righteous Among the Nations”. (“Nevejean, Yvonne”, in Righteous Among the Nations – Lexicon Entries, available on http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/holocaust/resource_center/index.asp; K Velle & F. Strubbe, “Parastatalen van de FOD Volksgezondheid, Veiligheid van de Voedselketen en Leefmilieu (voormalige Ministerie van Volksgezondheid)”, in P. van den Eeckhout & G. Vanthemsche (ed.), Bronnen voor de studie van het hedendaagse België 19de – 21e eeuw. Tweede herziene en uitgebreide uitgave, Brussel, Koninklijke Commissie voor Geschiedenis, 2009, pp. 575-576.)

Access points: locations:: Belgium

Access points: persons/families:: Nevejean, Yvonne

Subject terms:: Children; Holocaust; Holocaust--Hiding; Holocaust--Righteous Among the Nations; Holocaust--Survivors; Jewish self-defence and resistance

Access, restrictions:: Access requires the authorisation of the AVG-Carhif.

Finding aids:: There is an unpublished inventory.

Yerusha Network member:: State Archives of Belgium

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