ON THE SPOT WITH UNRRA

New Zealand Listener, Volume 13, Issue 337, 7 December 1945, Page 14

ON THE SPOT WITH UNRRA

THEY SCREAMED FOR TWO DAYS

El following is an extract from a report by an UNRRA welfare specialist at a children’s centre in Germany. It is the first of a series which we will be publishing to give readers an ider of what UNRRA and its teams of relief workers are doing and the conditions they are facing in various countries. Each item will be an actual experience, taken straight from letters, diaries, cables, and reports written on the spot.

"\7E took over the first floor of a factory and all the people in camp soon responded to our call for help. Parties of men and women came and scrubbed and

cleaned out the rubbish and debris. To avoid draughts, planks were used, doors taken from other places were put in, glass for windows was taken out of cupboards and the place was fixed up very nicely. On May 8 we were ready te receive the children; to begin with, we took them from two to 12 years of age, and I watched them arrive. "They entered very timidly, clinging to each other, looking frightened. I -welcomed them as best I could and waited. Finally, they turned to me and asked-‘What are we allowed to do?’ I said, ‘Anything you want, this place is your place.’ They hesitated, then asked, ‘Will you smack us if we scream?’ I said, ‘No, you can shout as much as you like....? "Those children started screaming and shouting and kept’ it up for two whole days. During those first two days, they did nothing but give vent to all their pent-up misery. ... "For years they had been forced to be quiet-quiet when mother was out at work, quiet when she returned exhausted. They were smacked if they did not get out of the way of a Germah, smacked if they dared to laugh or singand often just smacked without any reason other than their mere existence. So for two days they screamed maddeningly. We didn’t interfere. By the third day they’d had enough and began to play like other children."