Norwich bulletin. [volume] (Norwich, Conn.) 1895-2011, 1922-02-28
JIMMIE" Rockers STORY
APPEALS FOR JEWISH RELIEF

for the war suffering Jews for whom |
$14 900, 600 fund is being raised in the !
nation, in which the Norwich quota is
$25. 600.
Will Norwich give? has been asked the
local committee. Norwich has always
given, has been the answer and it will
give this time to reach the quota for
sum that is not a drive to prepare for
charity but a response to a call that
these starving peoples in Europe may
live. GIVE that they may live" is the
slogan for the drive that runs from
March to IA. inclusive. Norwich will
give
Jimmie" Becker, who Is the son Of a
New York millionaire who went overseas
in the army and returned later to eastern.
Europe when conditions were at their
worst, tells what he saw as follows:
II wonder how many of you realize
that there are today in eastern Europe
some three hundred thousand Jewish war
and pogrom orphans. OF these, we hope
eventually to have between fifty thousand
and one hundred thousand at the most,
only one-third, on the books Of our com
mittee, and that means that these chill
dren have nothing between them and
starvation except what we can provide
for them.
and when I say starvation. I don't
use your language. 1 don't mean hun
ger. and I don't mean privation- and
don't mean want. but I mean starvation ::
wonder how many of you would have
felt as if some great hardship had been
inflicted on you if you had been forced
to eat a piece of horse meat. Do you
know that sometimes for a week-often-
times for two weeks and on one occasion
for three weeks-I had two meals a day
consisting of one slice of horse meat. l
riz nd
with the joint distribution committee
with an American organization. I was
receiving SUPPOSEDLY the best food it was
possible 10 obtain. What do you think
that those poor people received if that is
the food that I got?
ION three occasions (and nauseating
as that fact is to me- l am going to relate
it to you just the same) 1 was served
with rat, and was glad to get it. and as
| you are talking here there are hundreds OF
thousands of people who would give any
thing in the world to receive a piece OF
| horse meat.
81 am not appealing for the children Of
| lazy people; I am appealing for children
who are in their present condition
| through no fault of their own; am ap.
pealing foD children of people who occupy
/ in their communities just the same posi-
| lions that you ladies and gentlemen oc.
cupy in this and other communities.
am speaking for children who have hat
| often not only the necessities of life bu
| the luxuries of life and who over nigh
/ have found themselves in this terrible
situation, and 1 believe that it ought t.
be a privilege, not only the duty, o
every right thinking person to come t.
| their assistance.
There are outside of present Ia,
Russia some 100000 Jewish refugees. D,
you know what it means on six hours, o
| II hours notice, or never more than :
| hours notice to be told that every Jew il
, a certain district will have to evacuate
Do you know what it means when oil
men and old women and little childre
and pregnant mothers are obliged t
leave in the hottest summer and the cold
est winter and travel by foot for hun
dreds of miles and carry with them onl
what they can carry on their backs
That is the situation in large sections G
Lithuania ana Latvia and certain sec
tons in Poland In Russia there are uI
wards of one million refugees who ar
homeless. and shelterless. You ask no,
that is and how such a thing is possible
and the answer is a simple but horribl
one. 1t is merely because of pogroms.
Have you ever tried to picture one
these massacres? 1 have been oblige
| 10, lake the case OF hltd
gorod little town of some 400 peopl
One night band - II Ukrainian so
dierS came into that town Eleven so
diers came into this town late one after
noon. They called the 400 Jews t.
gether in the market place and as til
Jews had been disarmed there was notl
ing to do but obey them, and these so
! diers told them that they would have
give a certain amount of money An
: the Jews gave this to them, and the so
diers told them they would go ava,
They didn't go away. but broke into tw
! or three houses and robbed a bit, ar
: plundered a bit but did not do muC
3 damage The next day they called II
: Jews together again and told them the
would have to give them gold, silve
jewNelry-everything of value which the
could carry away easMy-and again Il
l Jews had to comply
And after they had given them the
> things, they went away, about o'clot
the next morning but not before the
had broken into every house driven Il
people into the market square, had h
= some over the head with the butts
y guns. had stabbed others with sabre
with bayonets, and taken little chfldr,
/ | by their feet and dashed their brains O
: against the walls of the houses and ,
|
' over "a people out of 400 had been kill
:, and those who escaped did so by runnil
: Into the woods and hiding like wi
beasts, and when they came back, filter
: back a week or 10 days later, found e
t erything of value that had remained
e those houses had been carted away
peasant who had backed up their WACO
d against those miserable houses and -sho
d and taken away everything
I'm practically every community
southern Russia there have been an
where from six to as many as 22 di
: tinct, separate massacres. After the
+ have been two or three massacres t
: people, alarmed, go to another city. to
: larger city, in order to obtain more pr
;. lection, SO that all of the email col
munities have been deserted and Cit
which formerly had maybe 10000 peoI
q today have so. 20, 100 thousand peop
IS | people who are without shelter, witho
i homes, food and clothing, unless we pr
: vide for them
There are whole areas in southe
Russia as large as the state of n,
Jersey having but single doctor ADM
istering to the needs of population dl
+ ing the times of epidemic There a
l. anywhere from $50 to 500 thousand pe
n pie who are depending on one single m