Villa Jeanette, located in the small village of Heide near Antwerp, was a Jewish orthodox children’s home. Only Jewish boys who had reached Belgium with a Kindertransport organised by the Comité d’Assistance aux Enfants Juifs Réfugiés (Assistance Committee for Jewish Refugee Children, CAEJR) or the Committee Voor Het Joodsche Kind van Duitschland (For the Jewish Child from Germany) in Antwerp were admitted. The home existed from June 1939 until its dissolution in May 1940 and was financed by the CAEJR. Jonas Tiefenbrunner became its director.
Heide was a popular holiday resort for Jewish families from Antwerp. Often involved in the diamond trade, these people built holiday homes there or lived in one of the numerous guest houses, often run by Jews. A yeshiva (religious school) had existed in Heide since 1929, and a
synagogue was built in the same year.
When the Villa Jeanette first opened at the beginning of June 1939, the CAEJR could welcome 21 boys to the home in Thillostraat. Seven of them arrived in Belgium with the Kindertransport from the Dinslaken Orphanage.
Their daily routine started at 7 a.m. with gymnastics. During the in-house lessons, subjects such as French, English, Mathematics, History, Geography and Hebrew were taught as part of the curriculum. The boys also did housework, gardening and stable work. The afternoons were reserved for homework.
Jonas Tiefenbrunner took care of all the children’s needs, which ranged from the purchase of a pair of glasses to corresponding with the authorities. He often asked the committee for clothing and linen. At the end of July 1939, the committee gave the boys a chess set and a football, and their thank-you letter followed immediately.
In his annual report for the year 1939, Jonas Tiefenbrunner wrote how well the boys got on with each other. He also mentioned that contact was maintained with the boys who had already left the home and emphasised the home’s good relations with the village community.
In Heide you lead a simple, rather primitive life in the middle of the countryside. You get up at 7 a.m., breakfast at 8.30 a.m. (morning gymnastics in the garden in fine weather). The majority of the boys pursue their occupations, such as field, garden and stable work. The other pupils follow their lessons, which consist of French, English and maths. Each of these subjects comprises five courses per week. Then there is history, a little geography and Hebrew. Part of the afternoon is reserved for homework, as well as for the children's private activities. The youngest children go to bed at nine o'clock; the older ones follow half an hour later.
Normally, there were 18 boys in the home and the committee was kept constantly informed about their well-being. The boys celebrated their first Hanukkah festival in Belgium in the hall of a guest house in Heide, where they also performed a play about their new home.
After the invasion of the German Army on 10 May 1940, Jonas Tiefenbrunner was arrested as an “undesirable alien” and the boys fled to stay with friends or relatives. After only a few days, however, the Belgian authorities released the stateless teacher. As soon as was possible he started to search for the where-abouts of the boys. By the end of June 1940, he had successfully accommodated most of the residents of the Villa Jeanette in a former Jewish retirement home at 64 Generaal Drubbel Straat in Antwerp. AP