Ida Sterno, a Jewish social worker well known for her wartime activities in the Jewish underground organization, the Committee for Jewish Defense, died here today of a heart attack. Using the alias, “Madamoiselle Jeanne,” Miss Sterno acted with exceptional courage and devotion in helping to save Jewish children from deportation and placing them with non-Jewish families or institutions.
She was arrested by the Gestapo in 1944 and imprisoned for four months at a camp in Malines but was saved from deportation with the liberation of Belgium by the Allies. Until her death, she had been in communication with many she had rescued.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
