Jospa Yvonne

About

She was born in the village of Păpăuți, Orhei district, Bessarabia Governorate (Russian Empire), into a wealthy Jewish family. She was first enrolled at the Girls' Gymnasium in Chișinău, after which she went to Belgium with the intention of studying philosophy and literature at the University of Liège, eventually opting for a career as a social worker after studying sociology. In 1933, she married Hertz Jospa. Both became activists, first in the Communist Party of Belgium, then in 1936, in the "League against Racism and Antisemitism" (Ligue internationale contre le racisme et l'antisémitisme), the Belgian branch of the International League against Racism and Antisemitism. She participated in housing refugee children after the Spanish Civil War, and also contributed to organizing secret networks for mobilizing Belgian volunteers into the International Brigades in Spain. In September 1942, together with her husband, she founded the secret association of the Committee for the Defense of Jews, which saved thousands of Jewish children from deportation. Her husband, Hertz Jospa, was arrested in June 1943 and held in Fort Breendonk, then deported to the Buchenwald concentration camp in May 1944. He survived captivity and was liberated by American troops on May 8, 1945. In 1964, she co-founded the Union of former Jewish resistance members from Belgium (Union des Anciens Résistants Juifs de Belgique), of which she would be honorary president until her death. She would also be one of the founders of the Belgian branch of the Movement against Racism and for Friendship between Peoples, founded in Paris in 1949. The Movement would be renamed in 1966 to the Movement against Racism, Antisemitism and Xenophobia (Mouvement contre le racisme, l'antisémitisme et la xénophobie; MRAX). Her husband also died in 1966. A staunch communist, she nevertheless refused to condemn Zionism. A street in Brussels is named after the activist.