Mrs. Viola Bisno, Director and/or Supervisor of the Summers Children’s Bureau in St. Louis, was interviewed two separate times. These interviews center on Jewish children who, between the years approximately 1934 to 1937, came to the United States as refugees from the persecution of the Jews by the Third Reich in Germany. Sent by parents and/or family members, they were alone and needed homes. Either by HIAS or the Joint Distribution Committee, they were sent to a placing agency in New York and then sent to other cities. The St. Louis Jewish Federation was financially involved and took care of all of their financial needs through the Summers Children’s Bureau.
Mrs. Bisno said, “The children seemed willing to allow themselves to be planned for and they felt they were coming to a country that was to take the place of their parents.” When it was known that there was no family to which they could return or that would join them here, efforts were made (if need be, to as far as their home at that time) to find them a permanent home that would continue on far past their childhoods. At the very end of the Prince interview, Mrs. Bisno talked of how the separation from their parents was so difficult.