WAR CHARITIES
As soon as the war was declared and millions of men marched forward
intent upon killing, hundreds of men and women immediately took up
the problem of helping the soldiers, the wounded and the prisoners
and of caring for those left behind by the men who had gone to
the front.
The first war charity to come under my observation was the American
Red Cross. Two units containing three doctors and about twelve
nurses, each, were sent to Germany by the American National Red
Cross. Before their arrival I took up with the German authorities
the questions as to whether these would be accepted and where
they would be placed. The German authorities accepted the units
and at first decided to send one to each front. The young man
assigned to the West front was Goldschmidt Rothschild, one of the
last descendants of the great Frankfort family of Rothschild. He
had been attached to the German Embassy in London before the war.
The one assigned to the unit for the East front was Count Hélie
de Talleyrand. Both of these young men spoke English perfectly
and were chosen for that reason, and both have many friends in
England and America.
Talleyrand was of a branch of the celebrated Talleyrand family and
possessed German citizenship. During the Napoleonic era the great
Talleyrand married one of his nephews to a Princess of Courland
who, with her sister, was joint heiress of the principality of
Sagan in Germany. The share of the other sister was bought by
the sister who married young Talleyrand, and the descendants of
that union became princes of Sagan and held the Italian title
of Duke de Dino and the French title of Duke de Valençay.
Some of the descendants of this nephew of the great Talleyrand
remained in Germany, and this young Talleyrand, assigned to the
Red Cross unit, belonged to that branch. Others settled in France,
and among these was the last holder of the title and the Duke
de Dino, who married, successively, two Americans, Miss Curtis
and Mrs. Sampson. It was a custom in this family that the holder
of the principal title, that of the Prince of Sagan, allowed
the next two members in succession to bear the titles of Duke
de Dino and Duke de Valençay. Before the last Prince of Sagan
died in France, his son Hélie married the American, Anna Gould,
who had divorced the Count Castellane. On the death of his father
and in accordance with the statutes of the House of Sagan the
members of the family who were German citizens held a family
council and, with the approval of the Emperor of Germany, passed
over the succession from Anna Gould's husband to her son, so
that her son has now the right to the title and not his father,
but the son must become a German citizen at his majority.
The younger brother of the husband of Anna Gould bears the title
of Duke de Valençay and is the divorced husband of the daughter
of Levi P. Morton, formerly Vice-President of the United States.
This young Talleyrand to whom I have referred and who was assigned
to the American Red Cross unit, although he was a German by
nationality, did not wish to fight in this war against France in
which country he had so many friends and relations and, therefore,
this assignment to the American Red Cross was most welcome to
him.
On the arrival of the American doctors and nurses in Berlin,
it was decided to send both units to the East front and to put
one in the small Silesian town of Gleiwitz and the other in
the neighbouring town of Kosel. Count Talleyrand went with these
two units, Goldschmidt Rothschild being attached to the Prussian
Legation in Munich.
We had a reception in the Embassy for these doctors and nurses
which was attended by Prince Hatzfeld, Duke of Trachenberg, who
was head of the German Red Cross, and other Germans interested
in this line of work. The Gleiwitz and Kosel units remained in
these towns for about a year until the American Red Cross withdrew
its units from Europe.
At about the time of the withdrawal of these units, I had heard
much of the sufferings of German prisoners in Russia. I had many
conversations with Zimmermann of the German Foreign Office and
Prince Hatzfeld on this question, as well as with Prince Max
of Baden, the heir presumptive to the throne of that country;
and I finally arranged that such of these American doctors and
nurses as volunteered should be sent to Russia to do what they
could for the German prisoners of war there. Nine doctors and
thirty-eight nurses volunteered. They were given a great reception
in Berlin, the German authorities placed a large credit in the
hands of this mission, and, after I had obtained through our
State Department the consent of the Russian Government for the
admission of the mission, it started from Berlin for Petrograd.
The German authorities and the Germans, as a whole, were very
much pleased with this arrangement. Officers of the Prussian army
were present at the departure of the trains and gave flowers to
all the nurses. It is very unfortunate that after their arrival
in Russia this mission was hampered in every way, and had the
greatest difficulty in obtaining permission to do any work at
all. Many of them, however, managed to get in positions where
they assisted the German prisoners. For instance, in one town
where there were about five thousand Germans who had been sent
there to live one of our doctors managed to get appointed as
city physician and, aided by several of the American nurses,
was able to do a great work for the German population. Others of
our nurses managed to get as far as Tomsk in Siberia and others
were scattered through the Russian Empire.
Had this mission under Dr. Snoddy been able to carry out its
work as originally planned, it would not only have done much
good to the German prisoners of war, but would have helped a
great deal to do away with the bitter feeling entertained by
Germans towards Americans. Even with the limited opportunity given
this mission, it undoubtedly materially helped the prisoners.
On arriving in Berlin on their way home to America from Gleiwitz
and Kosel, the doctors and nurses of these American units were
all awarded the German Red Cross Order of the second class and
those who had been in Austria were similarly decorated by the
Austro-Hungarian Government.
Among those who devoted themselves to works of charity during
this war no one stands higher than Herbert C. Hoover.
I cannot find words to express my admiration for this man whose
great talents for organisation were placed at the service of
humanity. Every one knows of what he accomplished in feeding the
inhabitants of Belgium and Northern France. Mr. Hoover asked me
to become one of the chairmen of the International Commission for
the Relief of Belgium and I was happy to have the opportunity in
Berlin to second his efforts. There was considerable business in
connection with the work of the commission. I had many interviews
with those in authority with reference to getting their ships
through, etc. Mr. Hoover and I called on the Chancellor and
endeavoured to get him to remit the fine of forty million francs
a month which the Germans had imposed upon Belgium. This, however,
the Chancellor refused to do. Later on in April, 1915, I was
able as an eye-witness to see how efficiently Mr. Hoover's
organisation fed, in addition to the people of Belgium, the French
population in that part of Northern France in the occupation of
the Germans.
Mr. Hoover surrounded himself with an able staff, Mr. Vernon
Kellogg and others, and in America men like Mr. A. J. Hemphill
were his devoted supporters.
Early in 1915, Mr. Ernest P. Bicknell, who had first come to
Germany representing the American Red Cross, returned representing
not only that organisation but also the Rockefeller Foundation. With
him was Mr. Wickliffe Rose, also of the Rockefeller Foundation;
and with these two gentlemen I took up the question of the relief
of Poland. Mr. Rose and Mr. Bicknell together visited Poland and
saw with their own eyes the necessity for relief. A meeting was
held in the Reichstag attended by Prince Hatzfeld of the German
Red Cross, Director Guttmann, of the Dresdener Bank, Geheimrat
Lewald, of the Imperial Ministry of the Interior, representing the
German Government, and many others connected with the government,
military and financial interests of Germany.
The Commission for the Relief in Poland, of which I was to be
chairman, was organised and included the Spanish Ambassador,
His Excellency the Bishop of Posen, the Prince Bishop of Cracow,
Jacob H. Schiff of New York, and others. Messrs. Warwick, Greene
and Wadsworth were to take up the actual executive work.
In conjunction with Messrs. Rose and Bicknell, I drew up a sort
of treaty, having particularly in mind certain difficulties
encountered by the American Relief Commission in Belgium. The
main point in this treaty was that the German Government agreed
not to requisition either food or money within the limits of the
territory to be relieved, which territory comprised that part
of Poland within German occupation up to within, as I recall it,
fifty kilometres of the firing line. The one exception was that
a fine might be levied on a community where all the inhabitants
had made themselves jointly and severally liable according to the
provisions of the Hague Convention. The Rockefeller Foundation
on its part agreed to pay all the expenses of the executive work
of the commission. This treaty, after being submitted to General
Hindenburg and approved by him, was signed by Dr. Lewald,
representing the German Government, by Mr. Bicknell, representing
the Rockefeller Foundation, and by me, representing the new
commission for the relief of Poland.
Work was immediately commenced under this arrangement and, so
far as possible, food was purchased in Holland and Denmark, but
there was little to be had in these countries. The Allies, however,
refused to allow food to enter Germany for the purpose of this
commission, and so the matter fell through. Later, when the Allies
were willing to permit the food to enter, it was the German
Government that refused to reaffirm this treaty and refused to
agree that the German army of occupation should not requisition
food in occupied Poland. Of course, under these circumstances, no
one could expect the Allies to consent to the entry of food; because
the obvious result would be that the Germans would immediately,
following the precedent established by them in Northern France,
take all the food produced in the country for their army and
the civil population of Germany, and allow the Poles to be fed
with food sent in from outside, while perhaps their labour was
utilised in the very fields the products of which were destined
for German consumption.
There is no question that the sufferings of the people of Poland
have been very great, and when the history of Poland during the
war comes to be written the world will stand aghast at the story
of her sufferings. It is a great pity that these various schemes
for relief did not succeed. The Rockefeller Commission, however,
up to the time I left Germany did continue to carryon some measure
of relief and succeeded in getting in condensed milk, to some
extent, for the children of that unfortunate country. These
negotiations brought me in contact with a number of Poles resident
in Berlin, whom I found most eager to do what they could to relieve
the situation. I wish here to express my admiration for the work
of the Rockefeller Commission in Europe. Not only were the ideas
of the Commission excellent and businesslike but the men selected
to carry them into effect were without exception men of high
character and possessed of rare executive ability.
As I have said in a previous chapter, I was ridiculed in the
American newspapers because I had suggested, in answer to a cable
of the League of Mercy, that some work should be done for the
prisoners of war. I do not know whether the great work undertaken
by Dr. John R. Mott and his associates was suggested by my answer or
not; that does not matter. But this work undertaken by the American
Y. M. C. A. certainly mattered a great deal to the prisoners of
war in Europe. Dr. Mott after serving on the Mexican Commission,
has gone to Russia as a member of the Commission to that country.
The Y. M. C. A. organisation headed by Dr. Mott, who was most
ably assisted by the Reverend Archibald C. Harte, took up this
work, which was financed, I have been told, by the McCormick
family of Chicago, Cleveland H. Dodge, John D. Rockefeller and
others. Mr. Harte obtained permission from the German authorities
for the erection of meeting halls and for work in German camps.
When he had obtained this authorisation from Germany he went
to Russia, where he was able to get a similar authorisation.
At first in Russia, I have heard, the prisoners of war were allowed
great liberty and lived unguarded in Siberian villages where they
obtained milk, bread, butter, eggs and honey at very reasonable
rates. As the war went on they were more and more confined to
barracks and there their situation was sad indeed. In the winter
season, it is dark at three in the afternoon and remains dark
until ten the following morning. Of course, I did not see the
Russian prison camps. The work carried on there was similar to
that carried on in the German camps by Mr. Harte and his band
of devoted assistants.
I was particularly interested in this work because I hoped that
the aid given to the German prisoners of war in Russia would help
to do away with the great hate and prejudice against Americans in
Germany. So I did all I could, not only to forward Mr. Harte's
work, but to suggest and organise the sending of the expedition
of nurses and doctors, which I have already described, to the
Russian camps.
Of course, Mr. Harte in this work did not attempt to cover all
the prison camps in Germany. He did much to help the mental and
physical conditions of the prisoners in Ruhleben, the English
civilian camp near Berlin. The American Y. M. C. A. built a great
hall where religious exercises were held, plays and lectures
given, and where prisoners had a good place to read and write
in during the day. A library was established in this building.
The work carried on by the Y. M. C. A. may be briefly described
as coming under the following heads: religious activities;
educational activities; work shops, and gardens; physical exercises
and out-door sports; diet kitchens for convalescents; libraries
and music, including orchestra, choruses, and so on.
When I left Germany on the breaking of diplomatic relations, a
number of these Y. M. C. A. workers left with me.
The German women exhibited notable qualities in war. They engaged
in the Red Cross work, including the preparation of supplies and
bandages for the hospitals, and the first day of mobilisation saw
a number of young girls at every railway station in the country
with food and drink for the passing soldiers. At railway junctions
and terminals in the large cities, stations were established
where these Red Cross workers gave a warm meal to the soldiers
passing through. In these terminal stations there were also women
workers possessed of sufficient skill to change the dressings
of the lightly wounded.
On the Bellevuestrasse, Frau von Ihne, wife of the great architect,
founded a home for blinded soldiers. In this home soldiers were
taught to make brooms, brushes, baskets, etc.
German women who had country places turned these into homes for
the convalescent wounded. But perhaps the most noteworthy was
the National Frauendienst or Service for Women, organised the
first day of the war. The relief given by the State to the wives
and children of soldiers was distributed from stations in Berlin,
and in the neighbourhood of each of these stations the Frauendienst
established an office where women were always in attendance,
ready to give help and advice to the soldiers' wives. There there
were card-indexes of all the people within the district and of
their needs. At the time I left Germany I believe that there
were upwards of seven thousand women engaged in Berlin in social
service, in instructing the women in the new art of cooking without
milk, eggs or fat and seeing to it that the children had their
fair share of milk. It is due to the efforts of these social
workers that the rate of infant mortality in Berlin decreased
during the war.
A war always causes a great unsettling in business and trade;
people no longer buy as many articles of luxury and the workers
engaged in the production of these articles are thrown out of
employment. In Germany, the National Women's Service, acting
with the labour exchanges, did its best to find new positions
for those thrown out of work. Women were helped over a period
of poverty until they could find new places and were instructed
in new trades.
Many women engaged in the work of sending packages containing
food and comforts to the soldiers at the front and to the German
prisoners of war in other countries.
Through the efforts of the American Association of Commerce and
Trade, and the Embassy, a free restaurant was established in
Berlin in one of the poorer districts. About two hundred people
were fed here daily in a hall decorated with flags and plants.
This was continued even after we left Germany.
At Christmas, 1916, Mrs. Gerard and I visited this kitchen with
Mr. and Mrs. Wolf and General von Kessel, Commander of the Mark of
Brandenburg, and one of his daughters. Presents were distributed
to the children and the mothers received an order for goods in
one of the department stores. The German Christmas songs were
sung and when a little German child offered a prayer for peace,
I do not think there was any one present who could refrain from
weeping.
Many of the German women of title, princesses, etc., established
base hospitals of their own and seemed to manage these hospitals
with success.