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Hidden Children of the Holocaust: Belgian Nuns and Their Daring Rescue of Young Jews from the Nazis, by Suzanne Vromen. Oxford: Oxford University Press: 2008. 178 pp. $24.95.
If scholars, historians, and survivors could live another hundred years, their stories about their World War II experience would still only be partially told. As we find more stories about what occurred during World War II, we realize that there is so much more yet to be uncovered about those dark years. There are hundreds of thousands of pages that have been written about the Holocaust already. Bad Arolsen, located in Northern Germany, is reported to have fifty million pages of documents dealing with the horrors of Nazi occupation in every corner of the occupied lands. Only recently have these documents become available to scholars and museums.
The author, Emeritus Sociology Professor Suzanne Vromen, a French-speaking Belgian, has been able to use her knowledge of both the French language and Belgium in her research to produce a major contribution to the study of the rescue of children by nuns in Belgium during the Holocaust. Fifty of these heroic nuns were honored by Yad Vashem as the righteous among the nations. While there are many studies on the Holocaust and why and when it occurred, there is still an inadequate amount of research about heroism and goodness during World War II. We know of many individuals who have risked their lives to save Jewish victims, but there are few studies of institutions such as convents, hospitals, and schools that devoted much of their effort to save Jewish victims, especially children.
Vromen has interviewed sixteen women and twelve men who were hidden as children, eight nuns, and one priest, as well as other individuals who escorted children to the convents. The rescue was undertaken to a large extent by the Committee of the Defense of Jews, which was organized by Ghert Jospa, a Jewish engineer, as well as six other Jews and one non- Jew. This rescue effort was increased in 1942, when the Nazis introduced a policy of sending Belgians into forced labor in Germany, a development that impelled many Belgians to go into hiding and to intensify their resistance against the Nazis. A number of these people hid in convents and monasteries.
Belgium had approximately 56,000–60,000 Jews at one point in 1942; when the roundup took place half the Jews went to their death and the other half went into hiding. Despite the existence of an antisemitic Flemish Nazi organization called the Flemish National Front, established in 1933, the Belgian people were sympathetic and cooperated in hiding and rescuing Jewish people.
The book focuses largely on the experiences of the Jewish children hidden in these convents as well as on heroic nuns. These children had to cope with changing identities and names; many children had to be wise and careful to be sure they would not betray their new identity. Some of the hidden children were willing to be baptized, others refused to. Generally speaking the Catholic Church did not force any of the children to be baptized. However, some of the children felt that by being baptized their security and survival might be enhanced. The important connections and contacts by certain non-Jewish individuals with nuns and convents were vital for this rescue to succeed. Mothers superior in the hierarchy of the convent were the most important because frequently they were able to make decisions on their own to accept Jewish children. The author maintains that very few convents rejected Jewish children. Because the convents, which also served as schools, also had non-Jewish children, it was somewhat easier to provide camouflage, so to speak, for Jewish children in those classes. Some of the children became very attached to the nuns, their substitute mothers. Frequently to comfort these children, nuns would tell them their parents were deported. This, of course, was a euphemism for extermination, but the nuns tried to shelter the Jewish kids from knowing the truth. Escorts were individuals consisting of nuns, Jews, and others who were risking their lives to bring children to these convents. They were important because they also knew other hiding places. A few lucky Jewish children’s parents who were hiding near-by came to visit them in their hiding places. A list of hiding places was provided by then Cardinal of Malines through escorters and other resistance individuals.
After the liberation, Jewish leaders struggled to retrieve those children from the convents and other hiding places. It is also interesting to note that some children chose to remain Catholics. However, most of them did return to parents who have survived or the Belgian Jewish community.
Professor Vromen informs us that she was advised against doing a comparative study in countries such as in convents in Poland, France, and other places where Jewish children were also rescued. It would have been interesting to have a comparative analysis of the Poles, the French, and the Italians, and how they have dealt with the rescue of Jewish children during the Holocaust. It is known that antisemitism was prevalent in Poland and even in France. Did this antisemitism serve as an impediment to the rescue of Jewish children?
More research is needed on decent, compassionate, and courageous people who risked their lives to save innocent victims in World War II. Professor Vromen’s study adds to heroism in these evil days. It is an easy read and should appeal not only to scholars, but also to the general population. I highly recommend this book, which should be in every library.
Samuel P. Oliner
Emeritus Professor of Sociology
Humboldt State University
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