The Paris office of the OSE, the Jewish Health Society, was formally re-opened here today at a ceremony attended by representatives of the Ministries of Health, War and the Interior, Grand Rabbis Isaye Schwartz and Julian Weil and other dignitaries. Senator Justin Godart, Acting Mayor of Lyon, who presided, paid tribute to the rescue work performed by the OSE during the occupation and hailed the resumption of its activities “in the service of the nation.”
Joseph Millner, secretary of the OSE, reviewing its underground work during the occupation, disclosed that 5,000 Jewish children were saved from deportation, of when 1,500 were smuggled into Switzerland. Many were snatched from trains on which they were to be deported and concealed by OSE workers, 31 of whom were captured by the Germans.
George Garol, head of the underground child rescue program, who is now the director of the French OSE, outlined plans for the extension of its activities. Since the liberation of France, the OSE, he said, has opened 24 medical aid centers and 13 children’s homes and is planning to open homes for students and infants.
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