Schneller Orphanage was a Christian orphanage that operated in Jerusalem from 1860 until World War II. The orphanage grounds, located on Malkhei Yisrael Street in north-central Jerusalem, became a British military base known as Camp Schneller. After 1948, the compound housed offices of the Israel Defense Forces. The army moved out in November 2008.
In 1855, Johann Ludwig Schneller, a Lutheran missionary who came to Jerusalem at the age of 34, bought a plot of land outside the Old City walls when the area was a complete wilderness. He built a house there but was forced to move his family back inside the walls after several attacks by marauders. When the Turks erected outposts along Jaffa Road, between Jerusalem and the port city of Jaffa, and armed guards on horseback patrolled the road, the family returned.[1]
In the wake of the 1860 Lebanon conflict, when Lebanese Druze massacred 10,000 Maronite Christians in Lebanon and Syria, Schneller established a home to care for nine orphan boys. By the end of 1861, the facility, known as the "Syrian Orphanage" (German: Syrisches Waisenhaus) had taken in nearly 40 boys. Over the years, Schneller bought more land and built additional buildings. The orphanage began accepting girls in the late 1860s and built a dormitory for blind children. Funding came from European Christians, who also sent clothing and blankets. The orphanage ran a clinic, a printing press, a laundry, a bakery and a school.[2]
When World War II erupted, the British shut down the orphanage and deported its German teachers. The British turned the compound into an army camp known as the Schneller Barracks. The 90th Bn. The Royal Army Pay Corp occupied the barracks in the late 1940s and a company of the 6th Airborne Battalion were also stationed there in 1946.
During Israel's War of Independence, Schneller became the home base of the Haganah. For the next 60 years, the site served as an Israel Defense Forces base.[3]