World War, 1914-1918 -- Germany; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives
In one ward there were a score of the most ancient women I have ever
seen. They had made the flight on foot. God knows how they ever did it.
One of them was so weak that she could not speak, so short of breath
that she could not lie down. As she sat propped with pillows, rocking
slowly to and fro and coughing, coughing, feebly coughing her life out,
she looked a thousand years old. Perhaps she was, if suffering measures
years.
Another room was for babies born in the terror and the flight. A few
were well-looking enough; but most of them were pitiful scraps and
tatters of humanity. They were tenderly nursed and cared for, but their
chance was slender. While I was there one of the little creatures
shuddered, breathed a tiny sigh, and slipped out of a world that was too
hard for it.
It was part of my unofficial duty to visit as many as possible of the
private shelters and hospitals and workrooms and the public camps,
because the Belgian Relief Committee and other friends in New York had
sent me considerable sums of money to use in helping the refugees. In
the careful application of these funds I had the advice of Mr. Th.
Stuart, President of the "Netherlands Relief Committee for Belgian and
Other Victims of War," and of Baron F. van Tuyll van Serooskerken, a
great friend of mine, whom the Queen had appointed as General
Commissioner to oversee all the public refugee camps.
Three of these, Nunspeet, Ede, and Uden, were improvised villages, with
blocks of long community houses, separate dormitories for the unmarried
men and for the single women, a dining-hall, a chapel, one or two
schoolhouses, a recreation-hall, a house of detention for refractory
persons, one hospital for general cases, and another for infectious
diseases. It was all built of wood, simple and primitive, but as
comfortable as could be expected under the conditions. The chief danger
of the camps was idleness. In providing work to combat this peril the
Rockefeller Foundation and the committee of the English "Society of
Friends" were of great assistance. Each of these camps had accommodation
for about 10,000 people.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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