Ida Sterno (1902-1964) was a Jewish social worker well known for her work with the

Comité de Défense des Juifs The Committee for the Defence of Jews (, or CDJ; , JVD) was a group within the Belgian Resistance, affiliated to the Front de l'Indépendance, founded by the Jewish Communist Hertz Jospa and his wife Have Groisman (Yvonne Jospa) of ''Solidarit� ...

(CDJ) in

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Early life

She was born in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

, Romania in 1902. Sterno was Jewish. She immigrated to Belgium in 1914. She was a social worker for children during the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

World War II work

At the beginning of the war, Sterno was hired for a social work position in

Charleroi Charleroi (, , ; ) is a city and a municipality of Wallonia, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. It is the largest city in both Hainaut and Wallonia. The city is situated in the valley of the Sambre, in the south-west of Belgium, not ...

, Belgium. However, she was fired soon after because of her Jewish identity. Sterno was the head of the CDJ's children placement section. She met Andree Geulen in the CDJ. The two were responsible for protecting Jewish school children from the Nazis in Brussels, Belgium. They relocated Jewish children using complicated codes to hide their identities. Sterno and Geulen shared an illegal residence in Brussels, in which Sterno kept records of the children and their hosts hidden under a rug. Sterno did her work under the pseudonym Madamoiselle Jeanne. Ida was arrested by the

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...

in May 1944 and imprisoned in

Malines Mechelen (; ; historically known as ''Mechlin'' in EnglishMechelen has been known in English as ''Mechlin'', from where the adjective ''Mechlinian'' is derived. This name may still be used, especially in a traditional or historical context. T ...

. She was tortured for months, but she never revealed the names of the relocated children. Sterno was finally freed when the Allies liberated Belgium in September 1944, but the months of torture left her health compromised.

Post-war life and death

Both Sterno and Geulen reconnected through the years with many of the children they had rescued. She died at the age of 62 on 14 May 1964 in Brussels, Belgium, of a heart attack.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sterno, Ida 1902 births 1964 deaths 20th-century Romanian Jews 20th-century Romanian people 20th-century Romanian women Jewish resistance members during the Holocaust People from Bucharest Romanian expatriates in Belgium Romanian women in World War II Women in the Spanish Civil War