Joyce Fetteroll

This is a long shot, but does anyone know (or know someone who knows)
about the relief supplied to civilians after World War II in Europe?
Anyone know of any personal accounts or well researched fictional
accounts of what was received by the families or what the relief
workers delivered?

I volunteered to read a story to the kids in church this Sunday about
relief from service agencies (Red Cross, Quakers, Unitarians and
probably others) delivered to families in Germany after the war. And
there's just something not ringing true about it. It's got medical
supplies "and other supplies for doctors' offices" and canned food
and clothing. And then school supplies. Maybe later as things were
recovering and rebuilding they would have sent such, but it seems
frivolous mixed in with the survival based stuff. But I just don't know.

I've searched the internet all afternoon and I'm only coming up with
vague references to relief for civilians and would love to read
something more immediate and personal to get a feel for it.

Joyce

Robin Bentley

I found a few things. I tried the Canadian armed forces sites (as my
dad was a supply officer in the Canadian Navy), but I didn't find much
to link from them. I did discover that Canada, with the help of
Sweden, supplied from 17,000 tonnes to 29,000 tonnes of food
(including 15,000 tonnes of wheat per month) to the starving people of
Greece during the war, through the International Committee of the Red
Cross!

However, here are a few interesting sites:

An abstract for a paper on the political issues with a relief effort:
http://www.springerlink.com/content/g15x701m356151h8/

British site about the British Berlin Airlift Association, which
includes some statistics at the bottom of the page about what was
contributed:
http://www.bbaa-airlift.org.uk/

A book on personal stories from people involved in the airlift (some
similar books listed farther down):
http://www.amazon.com/Unheralded-Women-Berlin-Blockade-Airlift/dp/1553698851

This is the most interesting page to me, as it itemizes what the
people in Berlin would need, the problems getting it to them, some
funny stories about gum and chocolate, and photos of the servicemen
who died during the Airlift.
http://spiritoffreedom.org/

I know these are mostly specific to the relief efforts for Germany.
Hope it helps.

Robin B.

On Oct 23, 2008, at 1:51 PM, Joyce Fetteroll wrote:

> This is a long shot, but does anyone know (or know someone who knows)
> about the relief supplied to civilians after World War II in Europe?
> Anyone know of any personal accounts or well researched fictional
> accounts of what was received by the families or what the relief
> workers delivered?
>
> I volunteered to read a story to the kids in church this Sunday about
> relief from service agencies (Red Cross, Quakers, Unitarians and
> probably others) delivered to families in Germany after the war. And
> there's just something not ringing true about it. It's got medical
> supplies "and other supplies for doctors' offices" and canned food
> and clothing. And then school supplies. Maybe later as things were
> recovering and rebuilding they would have sent such, but it seems
> frivolous mixed in with the survival based stuff. But I just don't
> know.
>
> I've searched the internet all afternoon and I'm only coming up with
> vague references to relief for civilians and would love to read
> something more immediate and personal to get a feel for it.
>
> Joyce
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>

Betsy

I know that in Art Spiegelman's Maus, his father talks about the boxes they'd receive from
the Red Cross--he mentions that they contained chocolate, sardines, sausages,
cigarettes...



--- In [email protected], Robin Bentley <robin.bentley@...> wrote:
>
> I found a few things. I tried the Canadian armed forces sites (as my
> dad was a supply officer in the Canadian Navy), but I didn't find much
> to link from them. I did discover that Canada, with the help of
> Sweden, supplied from 17,000 tonnes to 29,000 tonnes of food
> (including 15,000 tonnes of wheat per month) to the starving people of
> Greece during the war, through the International Committee of the Red
> Cross!
>
> However, here are a few interesting sites:
>
> An abstract for a paper on the political issues with a relief effort:
> http://www.springerlink.com/content/g15x701m356151h8/
>
> British site about the British Berlin Airlift Association, which
> includes some statistics at the bottom of the page about what was
> contributed:
> http://www.bbaa-airlift.org.uk/
>
> A book on personal stories from people involved in the airlift (some
> similar books listed farther down):
> http://www.amazon.com/Unheralded-Women-Berlin-Blockade-Airlift/dp/1553698851
>
> This is the most interesting page to me, as it itemizes what the
> people in Berlin would need, the problems getting it to them, some
> funny stories about gum and chocolate, and photos of the servicemen
> who died during the Airlift.
> http://spiritoffreedom.org/
>
> I know these are mostly specific to the relief efforts for Germany.
> Hope it helps.
>
> Robin B.
>
> On Oct 23, 2008, at 1:51 PM, Joyce Fetteroll wrote:
>
> > This is a long shot, but does anyone know (or know someone who knows)
> > about the relief supplied to civilians after World War II in Europe?
> > Anyone know of any personal accounts or well researched fictional
> > accounts of what was received by the families or what the relief
> > workers delivered?
> >
> > I volunteered to read a story to the kids in church this Sunday about
> > relief from service agencies (Red Cross, Quakers, Unitarians and
> > probably others) delivered to families in Germany after the war. And
> > there's just something not ringing true about it. It's got medical
> > supplies "and other supplies for doctors' offices" and canned food
> > and clothing. And then school supplies. Maybe later as things were
> > recovering and rebuilding they would have sent such, but it seems
> > frivolous mixed in with the survival based stuff. But I just don't
> > know.
> >
> > I've searched the internet all afternoon and I'm only coming up with
> > vague references to relief for civilians and would love to read
> > something more immediate and personal to get a feel for it.
> >
> > Joyce
> >
> > ------------------------------------
> >
> > Yahoo! Groups Links
> >
> >
> >
>

Joyce Fetteroll

Thank you for the links everyone. :-)

It's given me a much better handle on what was important to get to
people and a big picture view so I can adapt that for the story.

The Berlin Airlift was just a phrase to me before and now it's been
given life :-) (The Little Vittles project was especially touching. I
passed it onto my husband since the candy parachutes were assembled
in the town next to where he works and that bit of local history
might be an idea for one of the programs he runs.)

Joyce