Exhibition Resource Guide: "They Were Children: Rescue as Resistance"

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal publishes empirical and theoretical work that deals with collective violence- with a focus on genocides. It promotes the scholarly discussion of concepts and cases that address the causes (roots) occurrences, consequences, and the prevention and punishment of such violence. This peer-reviewed journal publishes articles on the latest developments in policy, research, and theory from various disciplines and fields including anthropology, criminology, education, gender studies, history, law, literature, philosophy, political science, psychology, religious studies, social theory, sociology, and visual culture. It features full research and state of the field articles, (legal) case studies, field notes, translations of important works from languages other than English, as well as book and film reviews.

Journal of Genocide Research is a cross-disciplinary journal that promotes the scholarly study of genocide and related phenomena, like crimes against humanity, war crimes, and violence against civilians. It publishes articles on the history of these phenomena from all periods.

Jews from France, the Netherlands and Belgium begin to migrate for safety to the Swiss border in 1942, when the “final solution” is triggered by the Nazi authorities. Switzerland has legally shut its borders, but nevertheless accepts a quota of refugees, while turning some of them away. A first migration goes directly from the Netherlands and Belgium towards the Swiss northern border. A larger one reaches, from the whole of non-occupied France, the area round Geneva, Lake Léman and Valais, as soon as the roundups of the Vichy government have taken place.

Ernst Papanek (1900-1973) was an Austrian pedagogue who, between 1938 and 1940, was responsible for children's homes in France he directed for the OSE (OEuvre de secours aux en-fants). In these children's homes at Montmorency, close to Paris, Papanek tried to treat the traumatized children who had lost their homes, their parents, and those who struggled with their own identities that had been called into question by ideological propaganda and personal experiences alike. Papanek decided to give their souls a new home and not only intended to keep them physically alive but also to use a new form of therapy that was supposed to treat the children as a group.This paper describes this transatlantic "struggle of ideas" when it comes to the role of group therapy for traumatized children and the positive impact of such children living collectively in homes.