In her function as Vice President of the Antwerp Committee Voor Het Joodsche Kind van Duitschland (For the Jewish Child from Germany), Jenny Fink made it possible for numerous Jewish children from Germany to enter Belgium.
Jenny Sender, born 1886 in Biebrich near Wiesbaden, was the daughter of the merchant Moritz (Moses) Sender and his wife Marie née Dreifuß. Jenny grew up with her siblings Benno, Tony and Rachel, in a religious household. Her sister Tony Sender, who was later a member of the Reichstag (the German parliament), reported in her memoirs in 1939 that the Sender family children were expected to be “absolutely submissive and disciplined”.
In 1913, Jenny Sender married David Fink, a diamond merchant born in Hamburg and living in London. The Fink couple initially lived in London and had two daughters and one son. In 1920, David Fink moved to Belgium for professional reasons and his family relocated to Antwerp.
There Jenny Fink volunteered in the Centrale, the umbrella organisation of Jewish welfare institutions in Antwerp. One of her tasks, for example, was to enable children from poor families to go on holiday and relax.
In November 1938, the committee Voor Het Joodsche Kind van Duitschland was founded in Antwerp under the umbrella of the Centrale. It was chaired by Daniel Siwa and its vice-president was Jenny Fink. The committee, working together with the Comité d’Assistance aux Enfants Juifs Refugiés (Assistance Committee for Jewish Refugee Children, CAEJR) in Brussels, had the task of organising Kindertransports from Germany. Among the Antwerp founding members were the educator Rosi Rothschild and the lawyer Dr. Anne Rosenzweig, both recent German-Jewish refugees.
The Administrator of Public Safety authorises Mrs. Sender, Jenny, wife of Fink, David, born in Biebrich on 28 August 1886, of British nationality, to enter Belgium together with a group of sixteen children whose names appear on the lists attached to this letter. The present certificate serves as a pass and exempts the said children from the obligation to obtain visas from the consulate for entry into Belgium.
Brussels, 24 November 1938: Jenny Fink is authorised to accompany the children of the first transport to Belgium. © Belgian State Archives
Jenny Fink’s copious correspondence with various institutions and organisations are a testimony to her multifaceted commitment for the Kindertransports. She also took care of the children’s onward journey to other host countries such as Palestine or Great Britain.
... we brought a large number of children to Belgium who were not requested by their own families. In addition, we have a list of children who were requested by their families. These families guarantee that the children will never be cared for in an institution in Belgium. We ask you to allow us to bring, as a last transport, the children mentioned in the following list. We would be very grateful if you could answer in the affirmative and ask you to agree, with our thanks in advance and the assurance of our highest appreciation.
Antwerp, 12 May 1939: After the last Kindertransport to Antwerp on 18 April 1939, Jenny Fink lobbied the Ministry of Justice for the continuation of the Kindertransports. © Belgian State Archives
As vice-president, she worked in close cooperation with Isidore Lipschutz, an important donor from Antwerp. At the end of 1938, this diamond trader put his former factory building at 45 Avenue Margrave at the disposal of the committee as a first place for children and young people to stay when arriving from Germany.
In December 1941, the Fink family, whose members were all British citizens, managed to leave Belgium and they later lived in New York. Jenny Fink died in 1984. AP