The Untold Story: The World Jewish Congress Operation to Rescue Children in Portugal During the Holocaust

Relates the little-known story of the rescue in 1943-44 by the World Jewish Congress of several thousand Jewish children, mainly from France and Belgium. Ca. 700 of the children, joined by some 200 parents, were clandestinely transferred, through French and Spanish territory, to Portugal. A vital role in this operation was played by Isaac Weissman, an emissary of the WJC in Lisbon. He laid the infrastructure for the rescue operations by setting up a clandestine system for communication among the WJC offices around the world, working with resistance groups in France and Belgium, and taking steps to formalize the legal status of the Jewish refugees in Portugal. The rescue operation began in 1943 when the French resistance informed the WJC of an ongoing Nazi operation to apprehend Jewish children hiding in private homes and Catholic institutions. Hundreds of Jewish children were transferred to Portugal, and 1,350 to Switzerland. The WJC, from its establishment in 1936, was a philanthropic body unaccustomed to underground activities