Ipswich High School - Tiger Yearbook (Ipswich, MA)

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tion of houses by chopping down trees and hauling them to the sawmills. Each tree that is cut down is replaced by a young sapling. Among this group of children is a Polish boy of eleven who is quieter than the rest. During the night, he doesn't scream, his sickness is worked out of his system with draw- ing paper and colored chalk. When he saw a blackboard in the Polish con- structed house,his face became elated. Immediately he cried for chalk. He brought a city to life--Warsaw, 1944. Inhis picture, houses crash in flamesg women and children desperately try to keep back the Nazis, husbands and fathers die an unmerciful death. The boy's name is Tadeusz Sas. Art ex- perts declare that there is nothing to teach him, he is a prodigy. He has planned a nine -panel mural: the first three will depict the siege of Warsaw, the second three, the occupation, and the last tlu'ee, the return of peace. At the completion of these panels Swiss art critics would like to send them on a world tour. Previously I mentioned that these children of Pestalozzi were the lucky ones of 20,000,000 war orphans. Let us now trace the unbelievable wander- ings of a group of war orphans. It is a tale of an indomitable Polish school- teacher who has just shepherded these unfortunate ones to their most recent halting place in Italy before they reach the Promised Land--Palestine. In June, 1941, the schoolteacher, Jacob Tobiasch, was spending a brief vacation about a hundred miles from Warsaw. In this same village was a summer camp for the children of the well-to-do. The air was becoming tense, and panic was increasing. Mr. Tobiasch offered to conduct the children back to the city. There were 180 children ranging in age from six to twelve. They were calm at first, but they soon became panicky. German bombers succeeded in tearing up the tracks. There was no alternative but to turn back toward Russian territory for safety. The Russian peasants were very kind to the crusaders and fur- nished them with food. Three years later Poland was liberated, and the war was over. Letters began to ar- rive from home. The little Jewish children waited week after week ex- pectantly for letters from their par- ents. Week after week they were dis- appointed. No letters could come. You see, their parents had all died in the Nazi death chambers. Mr. Tobiasch's wife and two children also perished. This group of fifty-six children was all that Mr. Tobiasch had left. Under the guidance of Mr. Tobiasch, the children made their way to Paris, where they endured many hardships. Then, six weeks later, the weary group arrived in the outskirts of Rome. The British had magnanimously granted them their entry permits to Palestine. The hopes of the children had all been raised. They were finally on the way to the Promised Land. Not only children are homeless, but men and women, too. There are millions of European adults wandering about aimlessly. Some want to return to their native countries, but the coun- tries don't want them. Some have been repatriated and are beginning their 9

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isotopes, biologists can determine at what stage of growth the plant needs fertilizer, which may in turn lead to improved fertilizers and insecticides. Also, by giving radio-active plants to animals and injecting radio isotopes into cows, the scientists will be able to trace the complete dairy and meat cycle, and the effects of these prod- ucts whether beneficial or otherwise to the human body can be studied and determined. Agriculture as Well as industry, transportation, and medicine is going to produce some strange but beneficial results through the use of atomic energy and radio-active ma- terials. Although the majority of these peacetime potentialities are written for the future or are in the stage of experimentation, still if only half of these potentialities become realities, the people of the world can be assured of afull and abundant life and can look to the United States as a leader. And as for the United States, it will re- ceive many times over the original two billion dollars invested in the atomic bomb. OUR BROTHERS' KEEPERS By Mary Ellen Boylan Onahillside above the little Swiss village of Trogen, living in Specially prepared houses, are 112 children. When you see them studying, playing, or working, you think that they are just ordinary European children. But at night they scream in their sleep. Why? Because they are war or- phans. They range in age between four and fourteen, but they're just 8 beginning to have a normal child- hood. Little Andre now is playing glee- fully and enjoying himself. When he was eight years old, he was living with the Partisans and helping blow up bridges. Edward, who is playing ball with a little Austrian boy, was found wounded and half -smothered in a mass grave of seventy machine-gunned Poles. This boy's mother had saved his life byfalling on top of him. When he first met the Austrian, he said to the woman-in-charge, 'He talks Ger- man. Don't we have to fight him ?' Each child clings to a doll or a Teddy bear. He never leaves it, no matter where he goes. Each child has a memory of unforgettable horror. One child was fommd unconscious under a dead horse. In the rubble of an abandoned factory a girl of four was found half -starved. A French boy ac- tually saw his father decapitated by the Nazis. That's why these children scream at night. That's why when one tells them to draw a house or any building, they usually show it after a bombing. These children are the fortunate ones among Europe's 20,000,000 war orphans. They can remain in this little village until they are yotmg men and women, trained in some profes- sion, educated, healthy in mind and body. Their fortune is brought about by the Swiss youth organization, Pro Juventute, and to the good will and generosity of the Swiss people. Inthis little village called Kinder- dori Pestalozzi, the children help pro- vide food by farming the fields . These youngsters even aided in the construc -

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life anew. Others, like the Jews, are searching for new countries in which to settle. Temporarily, these Jews are remaining in camps or makeshift barracks. There is no privacy what- soever, many families are hoarded to- gether. There is no rurming water, hot or cold, and often there is no soap. The buildings are cold. These men, women, and children do not live, they are merely existing and are con- demned to a lingering death. They have suffered persecution in all its forms. Some happen to be the victims of political hatred, some, of religious intolerance, some, of nationalistic prejudice. However, they all have one thing in common--they are home- less and unwanted. We call them D. P.'s . What is the world doing about this situation? In December, 1946, the United Nations General Assembly voted the International Refugee Or- ganization into existence. Before this organization was created, the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation, or UNRRA, managed to find the money to keep its refugee work going on in Europe. Now the I.R.O. has this task on its shoulders. It takes charge of the repatriation and transportation of refugees. The I.R.O. sends relief to the displaced persons. However, the LR.O. is only a tem- porary organization. The D, P.'s' have to be admitted to prosperous countries to be assured of a decent living. Norway and Great Britain have warmly welcomed KD. P.'s to work in agriculture, coal mines, steel, and domestic service. Other coun- tries have taken D. P.'s for specific jobs, but there is still an overwhelm- 10 ing number of refugees still waiting in European camps. In 1947, a step was taken by the United States to help the refugees. Representative William Stratton in- troduced a bill to Congress. This bill permitted the entry of 100,000 displaced persons into the United States per year over a four-year pe- riod, this bill still maintained the pro- tective restrictions of immigration laws in that immigrants would be in- spected onthe basis of health, morals, economic status. The House debated thishbill for a long time. 'I'hen, near the closing days of Congress, a Senate bill on displaced persons was intro- duced by Senator Ferguson. This bill would provide for an unlimited num- ber of refugees, providing that they could contribute to the acultural, re- ligious, and economic welfare' of the country. Congressional opponents of the Stratton and Ferguson bills have so delayed action that opponents have declared that neither bill will ever come outofthe committee. From this opposition the defective Wiley bill came into being. This bill allows only 100,000 D. P.'s for two years, this bill favors those of Baltic or East Polish origin, it restricts entrance to persons who already have assurance of suitable housing. Although this bill is very weak as it now reads, it is expected that the Senate will debate it and amend it into a more liberal form. Not only is our government trying tohelp the homeless ones, but Ameri- can children are helping too How? They voluntarily contribute to the American Junior Red Cross to main- tain the National Children's Fund. In