Łódzkie Żydowskie Towarzystwo Opieki nad Sierotami i jego działalność na rzecz dzieci i młodzieży w latach I wojny światowej

Abstract

The origins of the Łódź Jewish Society for Providing Care to Orphans (Łódzkie Żydowskie Towarzystwo Opieki nad Sierotami – ŁŻTOS) date back to the period before the World War I and are related to the initiative of the Jewish community, which, in July 1907, applied for a registration of a charitable organization aimed at providing aid to children and young people. The statute of the Society was drawn up. According to the statute, the Society was supposed to take care of material, moral, and intellectual condition of Jewish orphans. The history of the Society is also related to the history of the Jewish family of Henryk and Zofia Hirszberg, as they were the founders of the building which became the offices of the Society just before the World War I and was supposed to serve the orphans looked after by the organization. The Orphans’ Home, as that was the name of the centre for children and young people, was located in Łódź at Północna 38. In the face of the numbers of orphans, half-orphans, the abandoned, and the homeless growing day after day in 1914-1918, the mission and the tasks of the Society gained a new meaning. The organization intensified its actions and took children and young people aged 3-18 under the roof of the Orphans’ House. Apart from day-to-day care of their material situation, the issue of education and upbringing of the orphans was still the goal of the Society’s actions, even during the difficult times of the war. The conditions of living in the Orphans’ Home were specified by the rules adopted by resolution of the Society’s Board on 30 January 1916. During the whole period of the World War I, app. 170 children and young people lived in the Orphans’ Home.