From Assistance
to Resistance
Several Jewish aid associations joined forces to create a joint committee. Until 1943, the Amelot Committee conducted activities that were simultaneously legal and clandestine—the legal face of the committee ran cafeterias and a dispensary (situated at 36 de la Rue Amelot) that served the Jewish population of the city, which was profoundly impoverished by Nazi and Vichy policies. The committee received aid from the Germans' official Jewish agency, the Union générale des Israélites de France (UGIF) [General Union of the Isrealites of France], as well as the Red Cross. The Committee conducted parallel clandestine activities, concealing children whose parents had been deported, distributing families among secure locations, and helping them to cross the line of demarcation. These activities were financed by the Joint Distribution Committee and by the Quakers. The work of the Amelot Committee went entirely underground beginning in 1943 after a number of its members had been deported.
