Consistoire central israélite de Belgique - Centraal Israëlitisch Consistorie van België. Collection

In 1938, the Comité d’Assistance aux Réfugiés Juifs [Jewish Refugee Assistance Committee] succeeded the Comité d'Aide et d'Assistance aux Victimes de l'Antisémitisme en Allemagne [Committee for Aid and Assistance to the Victims of Antisemitism in Germany], created in 1933 and chaired by professor Max Gottschalk. The Committee was located at Rue Roger Van der Weyden 25-27 in Brussels and strived to welcome Jews in Belgium who had fled from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia to escape national-socialism. The organisation played a major role in providing shelter and financial, social, medical and legal support to refugees, and helped them to obtain residence certificates which were often transit visa for people with the intention to re-emigrate (mainly to British mandate Palestine, the United States of America or South America). Language courses (French, English, Spanish) were organised for this purpose. Thousands of people were assisted by the Committee, which was subsidised solely by private funds. About 70 people were employed by the Committee, most of them as volunteers.

On 16 October 1996, members of the Consistoire central israélite de Belgique - Centraal Israëlitisch Consistorie van België kindly donated the two original documents in this collection to the Jewish Museum of Deportation and Resistance, predecessor of Kazerne Dossin. On 18 May 2005, the original clothing was also donated.

Consistoire central israélite de Belgique - Centraal Israëlitisch Consistorie van België, 1996 and 2005