Evening star., 1946-03-10
By Robert Brnskin

is Europe's millions Of homeless chill
dren. Poland estimates that more than
100000 are orphans or half-orphans;
Yugoslavia also sets its figure at half
million; Greece has between $4,000 and
10000; tiny Albania has 1000, while
Czechoslovakia has found more than
$4,000 in the ravaged black belt" of
Eastern Slovakia alone.
In many cases parents died that their
children might live-died of starvation
while the children ate the miserable
ration, or were killed while protecting
them with their own bodies from she'll
fire. Others were orphaned by mass
executions-or their parents simply dis
appeared into the fog of war.
Many are in institutions which are
receiving basic supplies of food, clothing,
shoes, beds, blankets and cooking
utensils. Some of the supplies are going
to unorganized groups or individuals at
tempting to care for homeless children.
One Greek girl gathered over twenty
waits in windowless house in Piraeus
where they were found by welfare
workers sleeping on the floor, in rags,
without heat. All the food they could
obtain was cooked in single large pot.
In Warsaw. 17-year-old orphan girl,
Wladyslawa Gao, who was an inmate
of the infamous death camp at Belsen,
has become known as the Little mother
from Belsen" because of her gentle.
patient care for the younger children
of her orphanage.
Most Of Children Branded.
Frank Weisl of 272o Wisconsin avenue
NV, one of the first relief officials in
Poland, declared upon his return:
Most of the children had been in
German concentration camps. All their
little arms bore their branded numbers,
and though after these months of care
they are now healthier looking-they
seem strangely adult at times and then
quickly change over to purely childish
behavior in rather disturbing way.
Most of them have no memory of par
ents at all, and the younger ones call
every man father"
Many orphaned children throughout
Europe, however, are still running wild,
fed by one family or another. Children
taken into family circle are kept as
long as there is food, and then, when
there isn't any, they are turned out to
shift for themselves.
The various countries are making
herculean efforts to care for their
homeless and hungry children. Albania,
occupied by both Italy and Germany
during the war, has turned Littoria,
which was built by the Italians, into an
orphan town. The government hopes to
bring most of its 1900 orphans to this
almost new and clean town.
The 5000 destitute children from
Eastern Czechoslovakia, most of them
orphans who have been living in the
rubble of their former homes, are being
evacuated to reception homes in other
parts of the country more accessible
to shipments of food and supplies.
Greek Program Most Extensive.
The Yugoslav government has also
completed a mass movement of its
homeless children. During the war
years more than $4,000 were sent from
the constant backgrounds in Bosnia
and Montenegro to Bulgaria. These
children have been brought back to
their own country and have been placed
IN institutons and foster homes.
Greece probably has the most extern
sive program for children. OF its 10000
orphans or half orphans, 1000 are in
lob state and state-subsidized orphan
ages throughout the country. UNRRA
is helping the government in its pro-
gram to give financial assistance to
mothers or relatives so that the child