The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1919-07-30
PLIGHT OF THE JEW
(By the American Jewish Relief Comwittee)


New York, July 2s.-Going back
IN the hone city that he left one Of
the mos trosptt Gus ccnters in all Eu-
roce. III find 4 a city Of starvation,
with hsdnt!ess@ children .slccping In It's
streets half thu Jewish population
dead or tied. and@almost half of O
who/ remained standing in. bread
lanes. was the recent experience Of
Jacob Billikopf. OF Kansas City. Mis-
souri, and New York. who has Just
returned from a trip to his birthplace
at Wilma, Poland.
AS one of the bert-known Jewish
social workers in the United States.
Mr.. EillikopfT was sent to Wilma,
throughout Eastern Europe. as a rep
rtsent of the American Jewish
Keller committee. He found condi-
lions heartbreaking to any me-. espe-
cially a traveller in his W land. OF
the 30 600 Jews who had lived n
wilma before the war. ! 4S,ooo
were eft. OF these $1,000 had moth
ins 10 eat exccpt the bread ana una
soup they got from relief agencies.
lie saw children wait days for food
in o~rphanages. He saw people die
of starvation In tho house where ne
was born, a pleasant house on what
had been a prosperous street before
tho war.
wilma was known as the Jerusalem
or Lithuania when Jacob Biliikopf
left II. That was almost twenty-five
years ago.
In 1914. the war came, and after
five long years was over. and he went
back to his birthplace at last. wilma
I'D hardly changed since he left 1t.
except TO grow bigger and more pros
porous. until wal was declared. But
Jacob Billikopf. going back home
again, found a city of incredible
suffering.
II arrived in wilma on June TO-"
he said, In telling OF his ira gic return
home. .Jukt at first the place looked
unchanged to me. II Is one of the
most beautiful cities in all Lithuania.
set there in the hills. ! remembered
SO we'll. / never heard birds sing so
sweetlv as they do in wilma. That is
one OF the terrible things about the
place-the contrast between its beau
ty and It's awful suffering.
I'VE got to wilma on Monday. I'm
til Wednesday night the children had
no food 1t all. Then one OF the
American Jewish relief trains brought
II to them.
ION orr way IN to the town that
first night. We heard the sound of a
sobbing end shrieking. 1t took us
some time to locate the source. there
in the dark, on the narrow streets.
Then we came upon two little chill
dren on a stoop, a boy OF five or six,
and a girl a two or three years older,
who look at least twenty years old in
the face. The little boy was sobbing
over and over, oh, I'm SO sleepy! i
want to find some place to sleep
The little girl was trying to quiet him.
Later, we found that it was a
commonplace 10 see homeless chill
dren in the streets, n that 1t ex-
cited no comment or even interest
from the people of the city. There
is SO much suffering In wilma that the
people have accustomed themselves
TO horrors. These children were only
W. odt of hundreds. Their father
and mother were dead. and their aunt
had disappeared-they thought h
must hav died. too. ~ she would
have come back to them. They
begged on h streets during the day.
but had no place to sleep at nisht.
THE next day we tried to get them
into an o-phanaEe, one that l re-
ntembered as an excellent when
I was a child in wilma. 1t is next TO
impossible to get children into or
phanages now in Poland. and the
other countries al Eastern Europe.
They are all crowded to the doors,
an. there Is no food or clothing for
the CHILDREN already in them. There
were 1856 children in that one sleep
ing thee and O u in a bed. with no
bed linen and hardly any covering.
They were among the children of VII
ma who ve-n waiting for food.
We went int a home for the aged
chat h,a hnAn thu nriAo nf Wilma
There were 500 inmates. and zoo old
men ana women almost dying OF star
vation while they waited for admis-
sion. They were dressed In ragged
ciothing so much patched that the
garments looked like crazy quilts.
Formerly quits of underwear had
been given out ones n week. now it
was impossible to distribute them
only once in ten weeks.
I'VE visited a hospital 100 years
CID. that I remembered as the be-.
enc In Wilma when l was a child.
There were no medicines. no bed
linens. no instruments. almost no
food. It vas crowded full of people
dying of tuberculosis. In their starv-
ed condition. the people Of Eastern
Europe have no resistance. and sue
'cuich readily to tuberculosis. typhus,
and other diseases. Out side of Wilma.
lying sick In a feld. n eating SOUP
made Of grass n water, / saw dozens
OF typhus patients.
Altogether. there were over 100
people living In that field, most OF
them sick, with the sky for a. roof.
and the ground for a floor. art no
real food of any kind. While was
in wilma. however. fifteen motor cars
Of the Joint Distribution committee of
American Jewish relief arrived,
bringing them crackers and condensed
milk"
There arc thirty soup kitchens
maintained by American Jewish re-
lief agencies In wilma. Mr., Bihlkopf
said. Here soup and a little bread il
given out to over 10000 Jews and
Gentiles every day. In spite Of the
fact that there are SO many Of the
stations, there is always Il long line
waiting in front Of each of them.