Om het joodse kind

Describes the struggle between Jewish and non-Jewish organizations for custody of ca. 1,000 orphaned Jewish children who survived in hiding in the Netherlands. Relates their experiences in hiding, including attempts at conversion, actual conversion, and antisemitism. The government's Commissie voor Oorlogspleegkinderen (OPK), consisting of a majority of non-Jewish members, received temporary custody and the authority to decide on final custody. Ca. 400 children were placed in non-Jewish custody since they had had a Christian education. Ca. 600 were placed in Jewish custody. (Ca. 1,900 other children had been returned to their families). At the end of 1948 the Jewish members of the OPK resigned in protest; in May 1949 the OPK was liquidated. Some resistance groups which previously provided hiding addresses for Jews refused to reveal the whereabouts of Jewish children. Mentions actions by the Jewish Brigade which led to their discovery. Chs. 15 and 16 (pp. 177-204) discuss the cases of two Jewish girls, Anneke Beekman and Rebecca Meljado (both born in 1940), who were converted to Catholicism, and were separately kidnapped in 1947, taken to monasteries, and "protected" by the clergy. Meljado was discovered in 1954, and Beekman in 1961. Discusses the legal and political controversy which these cases aroused, leading to the dismissal of F. Hollander, the Jewish prosecutor who discovered Meljado, by Minister of Justice L.A. Donker. Includes bibliographical references (pages 221-264) and index. 279 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm