Centralne Towarzystwo Opieki nad Sierotami I Dziećmi Opuszczonymi

  • Central Organization for Orphan Care
  • CENTOS
Identifier
318
Type of Entity
Corporate Body

Dates of Existence

Founded in 1924

History

The Centralne Towarzystwo Opieki nad Sierotami I Dziećmi Opuszczonymi was a voluntary organization set up in 1924 to unite voluntary child-care organizations throughout Poland under one agency. CENTOS operated aid organizations for children and youth, including orphanages, boarding and trade schools, day-care centers, food- and clothing-distribution centers, and children’s camps. It also provided funding to foster families. Prior to the German invasion of Poland, CENTOS functioned more than two hundred Policies cities and cared for tens of thousands of children. CENTOS was very active in the Warsaw ghetto, operating over one hundred care institutions for forty-five thousand children, among them Janusz Korczak’s well-known Orphan’s Home. Dr. Adolf Bergman and Józef Barski assumed the directorship of CENTOS in the Warsaw ghetto in 1940-01.

Places

  • Founded in Poland.

Sources

  • Children during the Holocaust / P. Heberer. - Plymouth, 2011. - p. 457