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Jeanne Daman (center) poses with Jewish children under her care in the Nos Petits kindergarten.

Photograph | Photograph Number: 38708
Jeanne Daman (center) poses with Jewish children under her care in the Nos Petits kindergarten.

Jeanne Daman (center) poses with Jewish children under her care in the Nos Petits kindergarten.

Date
Circa 1942
Locale
Brussels, [Brabant] Belgium
Variant Locale
Brussel
Bruxelles
Photo Designation
INVASION & OCCUPATION -- Belgium -- JEWS -- Children's/Old Age Homes
Photo Credit
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Jeanne Daman Scaglione

About This Photograph

Biography
Jeanne Daman (later Scaglione) was a young Roman Catholic Belgian school teacher when the war began. After Jewish children were no longer permitted to attend regular public schools, Fela Perelman approached her and asked whether she would be willing to join the staff of Nos Petits, a Jewish kindergarten in Brussels. Jeanne was only 21 at he time. Not only did she respond positively, but she eventually became the headmistress of the school. When the deportation of Belgian Jews began in 1942, she helped find hiding places for 2,000 children. She also helped rescue many Jewish men by obtaining false papers for them. At the end of the war she became actively involved with the Belgian resistance transporting arms on her bike and providing intelligence for them. Immediately after the war she helped care for orphans, reunite families and raise funds for the United Jewish Appeal. She married University of California, Berekely professor Aldo Scaglione. She was honored for her work both by the king of Belgium and by Yad Vashem, who in 1971 recognized her as a Righteous Among the Nations.

Keywords and Subjects

Rights and Restrictions

Photo Source
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Copyright: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Provenance: Jeanne Daman Scaglione
Source Record ID: Collections: 2007.14
 
Record last modified: 2013-03-19 00:00:00
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1167795