Children climb a jungle gym in the playground at the Le Petit Monde children's home near Paris.

Photograph | Photograph Number: 80216

Date: 1946
Locale: Meudon-Bellevue, [Hauts-de-Seine] France
Photo Designation: DISPLACED PERSONS/RETURN TO LIFE -- Orphans/Children's Homes/Summer Camps -- France -- Petit Monde
Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Simone Weil Lipman

Event History: Le Petit Monde, also known as Melbourne House, was an OSE (Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants) children's home in Paris, which sheltered some 30-35 Jewish pre-school children, ages 2-6. These children had been recovered from the homes of French families, where they had been hidden during the war. The home was established and directed by Simone Weil, who had trained as an early childhood educator in Strasbourg before the war, and had been active in the wartime French-Jewish underground. Adopting the Montessori educational approach she studied in Strasbourg, Weil organized the orphans at Le Petit Monde into small family units consisting of children of various ages. Each group was headed by an early childhood educator-in-training. Le Petit Monde operated for approximately two years before all the children were placed with families in France or emigrated abroad.
Keyword: ASSISTANCE COMMITTEES
CHILDREN (4-12 YEARS)
CHILDREN'S HOMES
CHILDREN'S HOMES (PETIT MONDE)
CHILDREN/YOUTH
DPS (JEWISH)
JEWS IN HIDING
JEWS IN HIDING (AFTER THE EXPERIENCE)
ORPHANS
OSE (OEUVRE DE SECOURS AUX ENFANTS)
RECREATION
Photo Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Copyright: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Provenance: Simone Weil Lipman

Source Record ID: Collections: 1990.184.61
: Record last modified: 2000-08-18 00:00:00
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1047411

Search Our Collections