Evening star., 1948-10-18
First DIP Boat Coming to u. S.
Will Bring Nearly 100 Orphans
(Sirth OF a Series)
BY ChoImers M. Roberts
Sfor Stoff Correspondent


(Sirth OF Series)
By ChoImers N. Roberts
star stoff Correspondent
FRANKFURT, Germany, By
maiD Nearly 100 of the more than
1900 orphan children receiving In
ternational Refugee Organization
assistance will be on the first boat
load of DPS coming to the United
States under the Displaced Per-
sons Act. .,
Technically these children are
"unaccompapied," but in fact they
were orphaned either by German or
Allied bombs or by deliberate Nazi
or Soviet slaughter of their parents.
IRO's policy is to make every effort
to locate parents or relatives and to
repatriate every child it possibly
can.
No such rule can be 100 per cent
effective, however. Many of these
children have living parents but
have lost all recollection OF them or,
like those now coming from Czecho-
slovakia are fearful of returning to
Soviet satellite states. Hence they
are remaining here. No child Is
forced to 60 home aginst his will.
But, up to recently, no child would
be released by IRO for resettle-
ment abroa6-like the 100 coming to
America-without the consent OF the
child's home country. The East
West rift, however, is leading to
releases of some children even
though the Soviet states all demand
their children regardless OF every
other consideration.
Nazi's Had Two Purposes.
During the war the Nazis brought
into Germany thousands Of children
from conquered lands with a two
fold purpose, to increase the Ger
man population and to weaken the
alien nation and deprive it of lead
ership. Children from Poland were
especially useful to this program.
The 80 children left after the Czech
village of Lidice was razed were
examined to ascertain their eligi-
bilty for Germanization." captured
document shows, and shipped OH to
add to the Reici1's own blood.
In addition there were children
Of slave laborer mothers who bore
illegitimate children of German
fathers. They, too. were, added to
the Reich, as were orphans OF slaves
who died in the labor and con-
centration camps. There appears to
be no adequate total figure OF all
these children who were, or were
destined to be. Germanized.
At the wars end the long and
often heartbreaking task Of trying
to return children to their homes
began. UNRRA and IRO have
handled some $4,000 cases and closed
more than 10000 of them in three
years. OF these, however, less than
900 have been reunited with their
families while another 1900 have
been repatriated. Out Of nearly 49,
600 queries received by the IRO's
International Tracing Service con-
corning lost children, just under TOO
children brought to Germany under
the Germanization program have
been located.
Forged Papers Hide Identity.
The wonder is not that 50 few
cases have been happily closed but
that so many have for the Nazis
developed an extensive forged doc
ument setup to hide from the world
and the child himself his true iden-
tity. Many were given German
names and false birth certificates.
The Tracing Service now esti-
mates as many as 1000 children
brought from other nations since
1899 are still scattered about Ger
many's three Western zones. Some
were adopted Into families, others
are in foster homes or institutions.
MANY are on farms where they are,
in effect, slave labor today.
Fortunately, the search program
is aided by mass Of captured Nazi
documents. many of them used at
the war crimes trials at Nuremberg,
as well as large part of the Nazi
concentration camp records. These
books of death, with page after page
bearing in red pencil a cross to in
dicate death Of an inmate, give clues
not only to the fate of Nazi vic
TINS themselves but of the parents
OF the homeless children.
Most of the children under IRO
care are in two camps, one in the
American and one in the British
zone. The American camp is near
Linz, Austria. Run by an intelli-
gent Polish DIP, Mrs. Syma Klok,
it had 65 boys and girls from babies
up to i18 when the American cor
respondents visited the place.
Many Are N0mads.
The children get a special ration
of food beyond the normal DIP diet.
Many are boys who have wandered
back and forth across Europe for
years.
Most of the children are in the
IL to 16 age group which American
parents will recognize as not a very
easy age to cope with. The age
problem also intensifies the adoption
problem for orphans resettled over
seas, both in America and elsewhere.
The children coming to the United
States, predominantly Polish or Bal
tic, are being handled by the United
States Committee for the Care of
European Children whose represen-
tative In Europe Is Miss Theodore
Allen.
Under the so-called Truman di-
rective which resumed immigration
to the United States after the war
and which has been supplanted by
the Displaced Persons Act, about
1,400 children have reached the
United States. The act gives special
preference to 5000 orphans, all of
whom will be handled by the Ameri-