Jeanne Daman
Jeanne Daman is one of the Righteous Among the Nations.[1] She helped rescue two thousand Jewish children from the Nazis by taking them to shelters.[2][3] After the war she helped to find the children so they could be brought back to their families, and helped care for children who had survived the concentration camps.[3][1] Daman also took Jewish women to be maids in Belgian households, giving them false identity papers and ration cards, and attempting to keep them informed of where their children were hiding.[1]
She also helped find collaborators and coordinate the timing so that they could be killed.[1] After this she took on a new identity and worked as a social worker with Winter Help, a German welfare organization.[1] Near the end of World War II she transported arms to Mouvement Royal Belge, and she also worked as an intelligence agent in the Brussels corps of the Belgian Partisans Army.[1]
In 1946 she immigrated to the United States, where she fundraised for Israel through the United Jewish Appeal.[1] In 1971 Yad Vashem recognized her as Righteous Among the Nations.[1] In 1972 she was awarded the Medal of the Righteous People on behalf of Yad Vashem. In 1980 she was awarded the ‘Entr’aide’ medal from the Belgian Jewish Committee 1940-45, under the patronage of the King of Belgium.[1]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i "Jeanne Daman-Scaglione - Stories of Women Who Rescued Jews During the Holocaust - Righteous Among the Nations - Yad Vashem".
- ^ "Former Catholic Teacher Honored for Saving 2000 Jewish Children from Nazis". Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
- ^ a b Dan Mikhman (1998). Belgium and the Holocaust: Jews, Belgians, Germans. Berghahn Books. pp. 310–. ISBN 978-965-308-068-3.