CENTOS (charity)

CENTOS (Polish: Centralne Towarzystwo Opieki nad Sierotami, also Związek Towarzystw Opieki nad Dziećmi i Sierotami; Yiddish: Farband far Kinder Szuc un Jatomim Ferzorgung; literally, Central Society for the Care of Orphans, or Central Union of Associations for the Care of Jewish Children and Orphans) was a Polish-Jewish children's-aid society.

Founded in 1924, it became a "leading organization for Jewish childcare" in the Second Polish Republic[1][2] and was highly active in the Warsaw Ghetto during The Holocaust in Poland.

[3][4][5][6] CENTOS was founded in April 1924 by Jewish activists who sought to help children who had become orphaned in the aftermath of World War I.

Other major interwar activists included Witold Wiesenberg, Maks Schaff, Anzelm Halpern, and Józef Kohn.

[12] CENTOS was also present in the Brzesko Ghetto, along with Jewish Social Self-Aid (JSS, Żydowska Samopomoc Społeczna, Jüdische Soziale Selbsthilfe) and the Committee for Aid to Refugees and the Poor.

[19] CENTOS was not the only Jewish humanitarian aid organization that sought to operate in the early years of the German occupation.

Others included Jewish Social Self-Aid and Aid to Jews (Centrala Pomocy dla Żydów, Jüdische Unterstüzungsstelle für das Generalgouvernement, JUS).