Jewish war orphans

The two children in this photograph, dressed in rags, are orphans in Dubno, Poland (currently Ukraine). The devastation of World War I and the subsequent Russo-Polish War of 1919-1920 resulted in tens of thousands of orphaned Jewish children in Poland. These orphans could find shelter in numerous child care facilities operated by the Centralne Towarzystwo Opieki nad Sierotami (Federation of Associations for Orphans and Abandoned Children; CENTOS), an umbrella organization embracing more than 200 Jewish orphanages, boarding schools, and other educational facilities. CENTOS was funded primarily by local Jewish communities and by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (“the Joint”), which had formed to provide wartime relief to Jewish communities, including support for the establishment of Jewish hospitals, child care institutions, and food distribution stations throughout Poland.