A female caregiver helps a group of little girls to wash their hands in the Petit Monde children's home.

Photograph | Photograph Number: 71168

Photographer: Walter Limot/ Photo Limot
Date: Circa 1945 - 1950
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 Andre Limot

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: BATHING/SHOWERS/WASHROOMS
CHILDREN (0-3 YEARS)
CHILDREN'S HOMES
CHILDREN'S HOMES (PETIT MONDE)
DP CAMPS/CENTERS
DPS (JEWISH)
OSE (OEUVRE DE SECOURS AUX ENFANTS)
WOMEN
Photo Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Copyright: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Provenance: Andre Limot
: Record last modified: 2006-06-27 00:00:00
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1158164

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