The Post-War Jewish Orphanage

In November 1944, as Poland was in the process of being liberated from Nazi oppression, the Polish Committee of National Liberation established the Provisional Central Committee of Polish Jews. After Warsaw too was liberated, the Committee’s headquarters was moved to Warsaw and became the Central Committee of Jews in Poland (Centralny Komitet Żydów w Polsce – CKŻP).

One of the organisation’s aims was to provide care to children, particularly orphans, through the setting up of nurseries, kindergartens and orphanages. The CKŻP established a regional office in Częstochowa and, in 1945, it created a Jewish orphanage to take in children who had been orphaned, or semi-orphaned or who were awaiting the return of their parent(s) to claim them.

According to Liber Brener, Chairperson of the CKŻP in Częstochowa:

Children came from the camps and from bunkers. They came from their Polish carers and from convents. They came from having survived in the country, minding flocks of animals. There were those who had wandered from village to village, often in a poor physical, spiritual and emotional state. Several were severely disturbed, suffering from phobias. Some did not want to admit that they were Jewish. Some stole and were inclined to robbery. Children rescued from convents had adopted the Catholic faith and continued to secretly pray to the Virgin Mary, even once they were in the Jewish orphanage.

The new orphanage was set up in the building of the former Perec Workers Nursery School at ul. Krótka 23.

Following the pogrom in Kielce in 1946, Jews were worried that a similar event may occur in Częstochowa. Many Jews took up arms to stand guard over Jewish buildings, including that of the new Jewish orphanage.