Joan V. Stiebel

Who is Joan V. Stiebel?

Joan Stiebel MBE was a Jewish relief worker in London, England, after World War II.

Joan Valentine Stiebel was born on April 23, 1911, at Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England. The daughter of Christian parents, she became increasingly active in Jewish affairs after becoming a secretary to Otto M. Schiff, CBE, in 1933. In 1939, after Schiff and others had formed what today is called the World Jewish Relief organization, Stiebel was appointed to that organization full-time.

After the end of World War II, Stiebel was responsible for making travel arrangements to bring 1,000 underaged Jewish Nazi concentration camp orphans to the United Kingdom. The children came to be known in the press as the Boys, and her involvement with them continued throughout her lifetime.

She was also instrumental in the formation of Jewish Child's Day in 1947.

In 1958 she was appointed as the United Kingdom-based Joint Secretary of the World Jewish Relief organization.

She was awarded the Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1978 for her lifetime of service to Jewish refugees.

Shortly after retiring from the World Jewish Relief organization in 1979, she was recruited by The Wiener Library to assist in establishing their Endowment Fund. She continued this pro bono work until her permanent retirement in 1989.