Metadata: Nationaal Werk voor Kinderwelzijn - NWK (National Agency for Child Welfare) (bis)
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 12
- Title:
- Nationaal Werk voor Kinderwelzijn - NWK (National Agency for Child Welfare) (bis)
- Title (official language):
- Nationaal Werk voor Kinderwelzijn – NWK (bis)
- Creator/accumulator:
- Nationaal Werk voor Kinderwelzijn; Œuvre Nationale de l’Enfance
- Date(s):
- 1907/1994
- Extent:
- 4 linear metres
- Scope and content:
- In this fonds we note the file no. 43, related to “activities of members of the NWK concerning the rescue of Jewish children”, probably used to write a historical study on the subject. The file contains i.a. notes, texts and other working documents, photocopies of documents, correspondence but also other interesting items such as minutes of meetings and statutes of the Amicale des Anciens du CDJ.
- 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.)
- Subject terms:
- Children
- Holocaust
- Holocaust--Hiding
- Holocaust--Rescue 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
