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- Andree Geulen Herscovici
Andree Geulen Herscovici
When Andrée was 17, the war broke out in 1939. At first, Belgium was safe from the Nazis, but a year later they invaded. Andrée helped out with some teaching at the local school. Before long, she noticed that something strange was happening – children were disappearing from her class. When she asked about this, she discovered that they were Jewish children who had been taken away by the Nazis.
Adolf Hitler and his Nazis were racists, who believed that their own sort of people (whom they called ‘Aryans’) were superior to everybody else. They thought there was no room in Germany or the surrounding countries for anyone apart from Aryans. Everyone else was called ‘subhuman’. In particular, Hitler had blamed Jewish people for everything that was wrong with Germany and was determined first to move them out and then to destroy them all. The children from Andrée’s school were taken away to a prison camp; later they would be sent off somewhere worse.
Carefully, Andrée asked around among people she trusted. She managed to find 2 women who were trying to help Jewish children escape the clutches of the Nazis. Andrée wanted to help too.
The women told her quite plainly that, if she did help, she would have to take young children away from their parents and make a dangerous journey with them to another part of the country. She would have to change her name, obtain false identity papers and risk being deported to Germany and imprisoned, at the very least. It was a difficult task, but Andrée was determined to help.
The Nazi police – the Gestapo – had a list of all the Jews in Brussels. The women had a copy of the same list. It was like a terrible ‘race’, as Andrée tried to rescue children and hide them safely before they were taken away by the Nazis.
Sometimes parents found it almost impossible to give up a child to Andrée. Most people could not imagine that the Nazis would want to kill their children and so did not always appreciate the danger. However, for more than two and a half years, Andrée was able to continue this work.
When a child was placed safely with a non-Jewish family in the country, his or her name was crossed off the list. Almost 1,000 names have been crossed off the list, having been rescued. Some of the parents who were still alive at the end of the war, came to Andrée to help locate their children. Unfortunately, most children were orphaned.
Although Andrée was very afraid throughout the war, she grew very self reliant and confident. As she put it herself, ‘I grew up very fast’.
Work to do
Q. How did Andrée first find out that Jewish children were being taken away by the Nazis?
A. Andrée first found out that Jewish children were being taken away by the Nazis because, when she was teaching at the school …
Q. Why do you think she wanted to help?
A. She wanted to help the children because …
Q. Do you think Andrée was brave? Why?
A. I think she … brave
because …
Things to find out:
- Who were Adolf Hitler and the Nazis?
- The Second World War began in 1939. When did it end?
- Check on the map where Belgium is. They speak 2 main languages there: what are they?
Extra thoughts:
- Why do you think Andrée could only hide children and not all their families?
- How did Andrée change during this time?
- What do you think Andrée meant when she said that she ‘grew up very fast’?
- Andree Geulen Herscovici (pdf)
