How to house a child: providing homes for Jewish children in interwar Poland

Abstract

After World War I Jewish community leaders in Poland addressed the increasing number of orphans due to the war and continued violence by placing children in foster care and building orphanages run by local non-governmental organisations. The care of children in private homes was seen as the most practical solution to the crisis and a real alternative to the establishment of institutions. The records of these non-governmental organisations and the writings of Jewish community leaders reveal that the discussion regarding institutions and private care reflected a desire to provide effective and efficient services but was also a sign of the institutional immaturity of the organisations that had emerged to address the needs of children. Proponents of both institutions and private care advocated greater supervision of these services and, if not institutionalisation, more organisation of those working in child welfare and of children's lives. Believing that such supervision would make the children under their care into more productive, responsible adults, the leaders of Jewish children's aid associations in Poland viewed positively the increasing involvement of non-governmental organisations and the state in the intimate lives of families.