Besides, there are hundred thousands of destitute Jews in Galicia (within Russian occupation) looking forward to relief from this country.
To the utter ruin of their material welfare there are added the unspeakable sufferings that the population of the war area has to endure. In the most favorable of cases the inhabitants of the border places escape from the zone of fire, taking refuge in the inner parts of the country; while a large proportion of those unfortunate Jewish families have remained in the ruined places, facing the phantoms of starvation and disease that gather a rich harvest among them.
Such is the devotion and love of the Jews to their native places, to their own corner, that they prefer to stay in the devastated towns and townlets and villages, if only permitted to do so. And those who have fled from their homes take the first opportunity of returning, heedless of the terrible disasters lying in store for them. A vivid example, typical of many other instances, is given by the Jews in the villages of Vissiltsy, District Busak, province Kielce. Our delegate found the place razed by hostile shells. The population—mostly Jews—for over three months had been huddling together in cellars, where they had taken refuge. They were not to leave their shelter by day; no food was to be cooked, no fire lighted at night—such were the stringent orders from military quarters. A humane military chief permitted them to crawl out of their dingy holes by night and feed out of the soldiers’ cauldron. But soon another chief took his place and the unfortunate Jews were left to starve in their cellars. Those that succumbed were buried in holes that the survivors dug for them in the very same cellars....
Infinitely tragic too is the fate of those Jews who, by rigorous orders of the military authorities at a notice of from three to twenty-four hours are expelled from whole provinces of Poland, their presence near the area of hostilities being considered “a danger to the safety of the Russian arms.” Leaving their homes and belongings, the fruit of years of hard toil, an open prey, the unfortunate exiles by the thousands wend their weary way to towns and villages, thirty or more miles distant, that have not yet come within the decrees of the military authorities. Old men, sick women, clasping little children in their arms, carrying bundles with some scanty belongings that they had snatched up in haste, fill the silent roads with the sound of their moans and sobs. Here an old man breaks down, breathing his last sigh in the middle of the road. There a woman kneels by the roadside staring in despair too deep for tears, at the child that lies dead in her arms.... Many are those who succumb on their way; indescribable are the sufferings of those who survive. Scarcely have they found shelter in a hospitable town or townlet when—alas! too frequently—the prohibition of the authorities is a few days later extended also to these places, and again the Jewish population must start upon its weary pilgrimage....
The total number of refugees from the war zone and of exiles can scarcely be calculated with precision because large numbers have made their way to numerous small townlets throughout the Pale, thus frustrating systematic registration, while, at the same time, the progress of the war tends to swell the host of refugees daily.
Some idea of their number is given by the following approximate figures:
| Warsaw | 75,000 people | Radom | 2,000 people | |
| Vilna | 12,000 people | Gussiatin | 1,000 people | |
| Kielce | 3,000 people | Shakvi (Suvalki) | [56]1,500 people | |
| Konsk | 4,000 people | Lomzha | 5,000 people | |
| Minsk | 2,000 people | Khmelnik | ||
| Prassnysh | 1,500 people | (Prov. Kielce) | 1,500 people |
And yet these figures only show the number of refugees who have applied for assistance; hundreds of thousands of others are meanwhile living upon their savings and do not come under the registration. But they also will be at the end of their scant resources one of these days and will join the ranks of the destitute.... Thus, for the above-named places and for many other dozens of towns and townlets the number of refugees within their walls may be doubled without fear of exaggeration.
While numerous towns and townlets have, in generous hospitality, opened their gates to the unfortunate refugees and exiles from the war area, the native Jewish population of these places is itself suffering a severe economic crisis, an acute attack of unemployment, which as a matter of fact, is further intensified by the influx of refugees eager to offer their services, for the smallest remuneration. Thus poverty and misery are growing in these places too, the burden of relief becoming too heavy for the local community to bear.
We have already stated that the industrial life of Poland and in a large part of the Pale has been laid waste as a consequence of the war. Hundreds of factories have been destroyed, hundreds others have had to stop work for want of capital, raw material, fuel and—first and foremost—for want of a market for their articles of production. Many thousands of workmen who were formerly employed by these factories have remained without bread.