Evening star., 1944-09-03
Repatriating Millions Torn
From Homes Mighty Task
UNNRA Seeks Master Plan to Reunite Families
Indiscrminately Scattered All Over Reich
- AS Slave Labor by Nazis
By Joseph II. Baird

is 50 outstanding that 1t is worth quot
ing at length.
THE deportation of Poles" the report
says, was in part q wholesale scheme
to facilitate conscription. The actual
recruiting is done by various methods.
none of them orthodox. Whole COM
munities are rounded up. Regular man
hunts are staged by the Gestapo, who
rope OIL certain areas and carry OF all
fit men and women within those areas.
For instance, during mass on Sunday
q church Is surrounded by German
troops and as the worshipers come out
of church they are driven into a court
yard at the point of a bayonet. A
number of lorries arrive and the young
girls are picked out and carried of for
slave labor-or white slavery.
Deportation. and CONSUMPTION are
usually combined with conflscation OF
property. The conscript is given half
an hour to get ready and to collect .
few clothes and little food. The
deportees are mostly transplanted in
sealed cattle trucks, packed to capacity.
The greater part of the first series Of
deportations took place in the excep-
tionally severe winter Of 1939-40. After
a journey of several days in sealed
cattle trucks, the people were dragged
out more dead from cold and hunger
than alive. Many were actually dead
frozen to DEATH"
The report cites incredible instances
of brutality. One was that Of = young
Russian girl, sold to German mistress,
who, in = fit Of temper, threw boiling
milk in her face, permanently binding
her.
Such are the peoples and conditions
with wki.h the Allied military authori-
ties and UNRRA must deal when the
tides OF battle at last drown Germany
into unconditional surrender.
According to State Department and
UNRRA authorities, the original work
IN caring for and reorientating these
people must be done by the Allied
military authorities Supreme Allied
Headquarters in London already has
set up division under command of
Maj. Gen. Allen Guillion known a
G-5 which is studying the problem
and working out preliminary arrange
ments with the United Nations govern
ments. At the present time, it is un-
derstood, they are negotiating with Rus
sla, which Is the nation primarily con-
cerned with the repatriation problem
in Eastern Europe.
Seek Master Plan.
The Allied military authorities are
seeking to draft master plan" which
will insure uniformity of treatment for
all the slave" peoples, regardless of
nationality. They will probably be
asked to I'LL out forms giving complete
information as to their national status.
birthplace. relatives and history prior
to being sent to Germany, It 1s
anticipated that each of the nations
from which slave labor has been
recruited will be asked to appoint of1acial
representatives who will Cooperate with
the Allied military authorities in
identifying their nationals and working
out arrangements for their repatriation.
A tremendous amount of detailed
work will be involved in unscramblinp
the mad mess of nationalities which has
resulted from Naz labor policies. Not
only must these people be accurately
identified, fed, clothed and given trans
portation to their original homes-if
they wish to return to them-but they
also must be given medical examinations
and. in many cases, medical treatment
to insure that they will not carry con-
tagious diseases back to their original
countries
While the job of caring for these
people will, in the first instance, be one
that must be undertaken by the Allied
armies, 1t is anticipated that as soon A
order Is restored in zones OF military
operations the long-range problem will
be turned over to UNRRA and the
national governments OF the enslayed
people.
UNRRA, with the advice and con-
(see REPATRIATEs, Page B-31