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.
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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.
