Similar conditions prevail in the Galician Provinces within Russian occupation:
“I found them huddling together in damp and dark cellars, half-naked, sick and starving”—these are the words of one of our representatives who visited some of the places that had witnessed all the horrors of the war. “They showed complete apathy, appeared to be in a trance of terror. Only a madman—he had become insane because of superhuman suffering—followed me into the street, shrieking for bread. I handed him a coin, but he threw it down and clamored for bread....”
The ever changing conditions of war, that open up new regions for relief work today, and close other districts tomorrow, that throw ever new crowds of sufferers upon public charity—these, to a large extent baffle all our efforts towards relief, destroying today what was organized yesterday. Add to this the peculiar circumstances of Jewish life in Russia, the unfavorable attitude of the authorities towards the Jewish population in the war area—and the difficulties that the organization of relief has to cope with will stand out in their full significance.
Owing to these and other conditions the General Relief Committee up till now has had to concentrate largely on extending “first aid,” this term being here used to comprise feeding and sheltering of the sufferers. Distribution of food (at low rates or free of charge), of fuel, clothes, foot-wear; organization of feeding centres, amelioration of sheltering and housing conditions, of sanitation and hygiene among the war sufferers—are the chief forms relief has taken so far.
At the present moment there are being equipped by the General Relief Committee two so-called “sanitary and feeding expeditions” whose object it will be to offer medical assistance and provide free food to the sufferers in the war area of Poland, irrespective of religious denomination. (The money for this purpose has been received from London with the express condition that no distinction be made between Jews and non-Jews).
Moreover, insofar as this has been possible, efforts have been made to secure work for the refugees and for those who have lost their employment as a result of the war. Thus in Warsaw there has been opened a workshop where refugees are employed in manufacturing various articles of underclothing for distribution among the war sufferers. In Vilna there has been established a workshop for bootmakers who are filling Government orders for army boots. Similar workshops have been organized at Dvinsk, Fastov, etc. Further, there has been opened at Warsaw a labor-bureau which is obtaining work for a considerable number of artisans.
A large number of small merchants and artisans being in urgent need of credit to enable them to re-establish and operate their business and to prevent them from lapsing into utter destitution, credit is being afforded them through the medium of the Jewish cooperative credit societies that are working throughout the Pale of Settlement and Poland. So far, by way of experiment, about 23,000 roubles have been invested in this operation; however, should this useful form of assistance be enlarged, considerable means will be required for the purpose.
At the present moment the General Relief Committee, working in close cooperation with the committees in Moscow, Kiev and Odessa, is extending relief to over 300 centres of population situated in the following provinces:
Some idea of the expenditures of the General Relief Committee in Petrograd is given by the following figures: