Jarecki, Natalie

Natalie Jarecki was born on 25.2.1908 in Berlin and died on 7.5.1997 in Kibutz Mizra. Natalie worked as a kindergarten teacher in 1928. Between 1932 and 1933, she trained as a youth leader Jugendleiterin at the Sozialpädagogisches Seminar of the Verein Jugendheim Berlin-Charlottenburg. There, she was trained by the renowned educator Janusz Korczak. She also became a member of a non-Jewish socialist-communist association of kindergarten teachers, educators, psychologists and social workers, that was banned after the Nazis came to power. After completing her studies in 1933, Natalie headed a Jewish kindergarten. Natalie was a member of the Zionist movement Hachalutz in Germany. In 1936, she immigrated to Kibbutz Mizra in Palestine with a friend as part of a youth group. There she worked in agriculture, and later headed the Beit Yeladim, or children's house of the kibbutz. In her later years, she worked in the archives of the kibbutz. One of Natalie’s sisters was Hilde Jarecki, who also attended the Jugendheim before emigrating to England, where she developed the concept of playgroups. In England, Hilde lived and worked together in the field of education with Sophie Friedländer.