Suzanne Moons and Andrée Geulen. Collection

The Jewish Defence Committee (JDC) was founded in September 1942, by the Independence Front (Front de l'Indépendance / Onafhankelijkheidsfront), a communist branch of the armed resistance, after the anti-Jewish raids in Antwerp and Brussels shocked the Jewish community. Many parents sought help to save their children. Ghert Jospa and his wife Hava (Yvonne) Groisman-Jospa were founding members of the JDC. Soon, the organisation decided not only to save children, but also to save adults, to organise fake or stolen ration stamps for the people in hiding, and to print illegal newspapers. The children's ward of the Jewish Defence Committee was led by Maurice Heiber, but daily operations fell under the responsibilities of Hava (Yvonne) Groisman-Jospa. The first staff member they recruited, in 1942, was the catholic widow and mother of two Suzanne Moons, also called Madame Brigitte. She was in close contact with dozens of catholic organisations and institutes, and she would become responsible for the retrieval of requests made by parents and the recruitment of catholic institutes to hide children. Suzanne Moons-Lepetit passed away in 1946. She was recognised as a Righteous among the Nations in 1999. Andrée Geulen, a school teacher, joined the JDC in late 1942 after noticing that more and more Jewish pupils didn't come to class anymore. In her personal diary, she wrote down the names of all children she, as a courier, picked up at home to take them to their hiding place. Andrée managed to accompany hundreds of children to safety. She was recognised by Yad Vashem as Righteous among the Nations in 1989. She still lives in Brussels.

Due to the illegal nature of the Jewish Defence Committee as an organisation, not many documents have survived the war. Andrée Geulen, courier for the JDC, kept a personal diary in which she wrote down the names of all children that she accompanied to their hidingplace. After the war, Andrée also received dozens of documents related to the work done by the JDC from Suzanne Moons, stuffed in a toy suitcase.

Andrée Geulen-Herscovici, 2006