Danielle Willard-Kyle Lectures on A Children’s Paradise? The JDC and Selvino, Italy, 1945-48

Danielle Willard-Kyle, a Research Affiliate in the Department of History at the University of Glasgow, gave her public lecture, which examined Selvino, the rehabilitation center for hundreds of Jewish children, primarily foreign orphans, in Northern Italy from 1945 to 1948. Heralded as a rousing success in the years that followed its closure, Selvino nevertheless struggled during its existence to please all the parties involved in its operation. Dr. Willard-Kyle explored the role of JDC as a major funder backing the children’s center and its work in conjunction with the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) the Jewish Agency, and the Youth Aliyah to provide for and eventually resettle the children.

The lecture was the second program in the JDC Archives series on Young Lives in Turmoil and Transformation: JDC’s Work with Jewish Children in the Twentieth Century, and was cosponsored by the Centro Primo Levi.