Fela Perelman

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Baroness Fela Perelman
File:Félicie “Fela” Perelman.jpgFile:Félicie “Fela” Perelman.jpg File:Félicie “Fela” Perelman.jpg
Born	Fajga Estera Liwer 20 July 1909 Będzin, Russian Empire
💀Died	17 September 1991 Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.17 September 1991
🏫 Education	Université libre de Bruxelles
💼 Occupation	Historian, writer, resistance member
Known for	Jewish resistance activities in occupied Belgium; rescue of Jewish children during the Holocaust
👩 Spouse(s)	Chaïm Perelman
👶 Children	Noémie Perelman Mattis

Félicie “Fela” Perelman, born Fajga Estera Liwer (20 July 1909 – 17 September 1991), was a Polish-born Belgian historian, writer, and member of the Belgian Resistance. During the Second World War, she helped establish the Comité de Défense des Juifs in occupied Belgium and became active in its youth section, contributing to networks that concealed Jewish children from Nazi persecution.

Early life and education

Félicie Perelman was born Fajga Estera Liwer on 20 July 1909 in Będzin, then part of the Russian Empire, into a rabbinical family from Łódź, Poland.

At the age of nineteen, she moved to Belgium to study history at the Free University of Brussels (ULB). She later obtained a doctorate with a thesis examining relations between Belgium and Poland during the 1830 revolution, published in 1948 (Bruxelles, Office de publicité, 1948) under the title La Belgique et la Pologne en 1830. Her academic work focused primarily on nineteenth-century relations between Poland and Belgium. She also earned a degree in psycho-pedagogy.

While studying in Brussels, she met philosopher Chaïm Perelman, whom she married on 13 January 1935. The couple settled in Uccle and had one daughter, Noémie Perelman Mattis.

In Brussels, Perelman remained closely attached to Jewish cultural life and joined the Jewish Students’ Association at ULB. After completing her studies, she became involved with the General Secretariat of the Council of Jewish Associations in Brussels.

Politically, she was sympathetic to socialist ideals while opposing both communism and Marxism.

Second World War and resistance activities

Following the German invasion of Belgium in 1940, Perelman's plans for an academic and teaching career were interrupted by the war. During the early years of the occupation, she started organizing aid parcels for prisoners held at Fort Breendonk. In 1942, together with her husband and resistance figures Hertz and Yvonne Jospa, Fela Perelman helped establish the Comité de Défense des Juifs (CDJ), one of the principal Jewish resistance organizations in occupied Belgium. While Chaïm Perelman focused on assisting Jewish adults and distributing underground publications, Fela became active in the CDJ's youth section with whom she organized several Jewish childcare centers in Brussels, including the nursery Nos Petits in Uccle that she founded in cooperation with the National Childhood Welfare organization (Œuvre nationale de l’enfance).

As anti-Jewish raids and deportations intensified in Belgium, these structures became part of a broader network that concealed Jewish children in Catholic families, convents, and institutions throughout the country. Perelman also recruited numerous childcare workers, including Jeanne Daman, later recognized as one of the Righteous Among the Nations. Hundreds of Jewish children were hidden through these efforts. Perelman and Daman also developed networks placing Jewish women as domestic workers in non-Jewish households in order to help them evade arrest.

Postwar activities

After the war, Perelman committed to Zionist causes and assisted Holocaust survivors seeking refuge in Mandatory Palestine. Using contacts developed during and after the war, she helped obtain visas, forged travel documents, and organized clandestine border crossings, facilitating the departure of several ships carrying Jewish refugees. Among these ships were the Hachayal Haïvri from Antwerp in July 1947 and the Tel Chai from Sète, in France. These ships carried orphaned survivors from Nazi concentration camp, Bergen-Belsen. Perelman also assisted passengers boarding the Theodor Herzl, which transported more than two thousand Jewish refugees, many of whom had transited through Belgium.

During this period, the Perelman residence in Brussels became an important meeting place for Israeli diplomats, politicians, intellectuals, and artists visiting Belgium. In 1947, Fela and Chaïm Perelman founded the Belgian Friends of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, an organization that long served as a cultural and academic bridge between Belgium and Israel.

Throughout her life, she maintained contacts with major Israeli political figures including David Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir, and Teddy Kollek.

Writing and legacy

Perelman was also active as a writer. Her first manuscript La Belgique et la Pologne en 1830, was reportedly lost during the German invasion of Belgium in 1940. In 1947, she published Dans le ventre de la baleine (“In the Belly of the Whale”), an historical account of Jewish resistance in occupied Belgium.

Following the death of her husband, she donated part of their archives to the Free University of Brussels. Additional family archives were later donated by her daughter, Noémie Perelman Mattis, to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Fela Perelman died on 17 September 1991 in Salt Lake City, where she had travelled to attend her granddaughter's wedding.

Honours and recognition

In 1983, Fela Perelman and Chaïm Perelman were granted Belgian nobility by King Baudouin and received the title of baron and baroness.

A grove of ten trees was later planted in their honour at Neve Ilan, Israel, within the Forest of Belgian Jews memorial site.

External links

Oral history interviews with Fela Perelman, by Jean-Philippe Schreiber, USHMM.[1]

References

This article "Fela Perelman" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Fela Perelman. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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