Selected records of the Worker's Society of Children's Friends. Main Board in Warsaw Robotnicze Towarzystwo Przyjaciół Dzieci. Zarząd Główny w Warszawie (Sygn. 783)

The Workers' Society of Friends of Children (Robotnicze Towarzystwo Przyjaciół Dzieci), a socialist organization of childcare, was founded in 1917 in Warsaw by the Polish Socialist Party as the Worker's Department of Children's Education and Care. The association operated in the Kingdom of Poland, engaged in orphans, half orphans, poor and homeless children. It organized clubs, care and education centers, health clinics and schools. In 1949 the Workers' Society of Friends of Children merged with the Peasant Society of Friends of Children, creating one organization: the Society of Friends of Children (Towarzystwo Przyjaciół Dzieci, TPD). Jewish Orphanages after WWII: Jewish orphanages after the war: at the founding meeting of Central Committee of Jews (Centralny Komitet Żydów) in Poland, Wydział Opieki nad Dzieckiem was set up, which organised Jewish orphanages. The orphanage in Lublin (later in Petrolesie in the Lower Silesia) existed from the summer of 1944 and was inhabited by 140 children. In 1945, 8 orphanages were set up for healthy children (in Otwock, Helenówek near Łódź, Chorzów, Bielsko, Zatrzebie, Częstochowa, Cracow and Przemyśl) and 3 therapeutic and educational centres (in Rabka, Zakopane and Szczyrk). Approximately, 1,000 children resided in those orphanages. Not only orphans were accepted in orphanages, but also children of poor parents, who could not afford to support them. In relation to the repatriation process of Polish citizens from the USSR, new orphanages were set up in 1946 in Śródborów, Świder, Niemcza and Legnica. Zionist organisations, such as Ichud, He-Halutz, Ha-Shomer ha-Tsair, also established orphanages, where they prepared children to live in Palestine by teaching them Hebrew and bringing them up in national spirit. Such institutions were in Łódź, Warsaw, Szczecin, Sosnowiec, Zabrze, Wrocław and Wałbrzych. Zionist activists, who were the members of Central Committee of Jews in Poland, tried to incorporate Zionist ideology elements while teaching in the institutions governed by the Committee. This caused conflicts with Bund members and communists, who were active in the Committee. According to the Committee directives, youth was to be brought up in the spirit of socialism and the attachment to Poland. Zionists made orphans take part in the illegal emigration actions to Palestine through Czechoslovakia, the so-called Bricha. As a result 10,000 Jewish children left Poland. During the 1948-1950 years, the Committee was gradually dissolved and joined with Polish institutions. Copyright Holder: Naczelna Dyrekcja Archiwów Państwowych Statutes and regulations, organizational structure, circular letters, instructions, correspondence, preliminary budgets, minutes and protocols of conferences, lists of children, various questionnaires and official forms, photographs and other records from various Children's Homes, 1945-1950. Included are the “Tutelary Institution Circular Gazette” (Gazetka Międzyzakładowa) of 1947 from the Orphanage in Zatrzebie, 20 articles written by children and refer to their experiences during the Holocaust, e.g. “Warsaw ghetto uprising”, “The hero of human race” (about Janusz Korczak) or “The Korczak’s Path”, and documents relating to temporary camps for children from foreign countries.