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THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
JULY 30, 1949
Family Groups of Europe's DP's
Find Refuge in Bulloch County
(Special to The Bulletin)
SAVANNAH, Ga.—How some
•evenly displaced persons from
Europe, men, women and chil
dren , bare found a haven and
homes in Bulloch County, Geor
gia, is told with sympathy and
understanding by Lillian C.
Bragg in an article which was
published in The Savannah
Morning News. Miss Bragg's ar
ticle, under a Statesboro date
line, reads:
Sixteen families of seventy-nine
people are busily and happily at
work in Statesboro and vicinity
today making barns and unused
tenant houses into homes. Some
are' branded with a large "S,” some
have had their legs broken by the
Germans, others know what it is
to have been made to run upstairs
while German storm troopers
knocked them down, and kicked
them until they were again on
their feet, only to have the beat
ings continued.
At the word home, these busy
ipeople stop to brush away tears
from their eyes. This is the. first
time in ten years they had a place
they could call home. They are Dis
placed Persons, spoken of as
DP’s, and they are from the con
centration and D. P. camps of Eu
rope. Many were taken as laborers
to Germany when their country
was over-run by the enemy. Some
fought on our side and were taken
prisoners by the Germans, then
rescued from prison camps when
we overran the enemy.
Statesboro has been waiting
since January to welcome the
D. P.'s. Somehow the task of get
ting war refugees from crowded
camps of Europe got bogged down
in government red tape, and only
a small per cent of the United
States quota has reached our
shores. Thirty other countries be
gan accepting displaced persons
before Congress passed the D. P.
Act last year'; England has taken
over 80,000; Canada and Venezuela
30.000 each.
When young, enthusiastic Father
Edward Smith announced to his
parishoners last December his plan
for helping this distressed group
there was an instant elamor of
approval. Nineteen D. P. families
were immediately spoken for.
Statesboro had lost many of its
tillers of the soil, and the farmers
were anxious to have help. It was
plain that the DP’s would not be
taking jobs away from Americans,
but just the other way ground.
They would be helping to produce,
which in turn would increase the
national wealth for the benefit of
all. Too many tenant houses had
stood vacant since before the war.
It was decided that the newcom
ers would work under a share-
cropper’s agreement. Families
were not to be separated, and Fa
ther Smith expressed a hope that
■he houses offered would not be
below standard. However, few ten
ant houses have water or lights,
a coat of paint is almost un
own.
The young priest need not have
r ried about how the DP’s would
treated. As soon as word got
around that they were expected,
kind hearted persons in Savannah
and Statesboro began to offer ma
terial things for their comfort.
Knowing they would arrive with
jfew belongings, interested folk
aaat furniture, clothes, aad toys
Bor the children.
[ The first of the foreigners to ar
rive were Martin and Sophia Gan-
with two and a half year old
)man. Roman was dressed in a
nitied suit made by his mother.
Phis jacket was bright red wool,
long pants a bright blue. A few
tars and little Roman would have
passed for the American flag.
Father Smith conducted the
ired family to a big weather-
ten tenant house standing in
midst of acres of farm land,
[’here was no other house in sight.
Sophia began to cray and little
Roman joined her. Then Martin
|*vepl. Father was nonplussed. Al
though he speaks several ian-
tBuages, German was the least of
Ehese, and that was the only mu-
itual language, so he had difficulty
finding out the trouble. Finally
understood—Martin and Sophia
thought. They needed only one
ismall room they said.
It was not that, of course. They
|were frightened. To many Kuro-
eans, America is still a land
vhere Indians lurk behind each
-and there were so many trees
Ifust beyond the acres of tilled
and
knov
So Father took Martin and So-
Ma and little Roman with the red
[>use and the blue trousers to
Paulltch's dairy at Millen,
and they have been happy ever
since.
The next arrivals were the Anto-
niewskis. Father Smith changes
the unpronounceable first names
to their English equivalent—some
times. Papa and Mamma Anto-
niewski became Elma and Ella—
the children are fourleen-year-old
Victoria, eleven-year-Vidik, and
five-year-old Albina.
All DP’s are industrious, skilled
workers. Under the DP Bill only
the physically perfect, morally per
fect and vocationally trained are
admitted. After passing all the
tests demanded of them, they must
still be passed upon by five differ
ent American commissions.
Eima seems skilled in many
things. He is an excellent carpen
ter, a master upholsterer as well
as a cook and a tailor. At present
he is lone handedly making a barn
into a two-story home for his fam
ily at the John Grapps. He has
laid the flooring, put steps to what
was one a loft, but which will be
bedrooms and he will cover the
sides of the barn, which now has
inch wide cracks between each
board, with asbestos shingling.
And it won’t be long before Ella
will have running water, as Elma
is laying a pipe from the pump
house.
They are working hard at their
English, too. They have a small
handbook to refer to and were
quite delighted last week when,
with the aid of the book, they com
piled a grocery list for the next
seven days. It read: 1 pound of
beet roots; 3 pounds of eggs: 1
pound of ham; £ pounds of lish; 2
pounds salt; 1 pound fat, and 6
pounds of potatoes.
Browneie and Standley Latas-
cha have no children. Standley is
a skilled metal worker, and
Brownie Is a skilled cook. The ga
rage in which they live is rapidly
being converted into an efficiency
apartment. Brownie is twenty-nine
but looks older. She will care for
her employer’s children and will
take over the kitchen and the laun
dry, while Standley will do the
many jobs that come to hand
around the home. Brownie is one
of the number who for many
months was a prisoner at the Da
chau camp where so many horri
ble crimes were committed. The
world was shocked when it learn
ed that human skin had been made
into lamp shades to satisfy the sa
distic whim of the wife of a man
in charge of Dachau. Brownie hid
at the approach of the storm-
troopers and saw them beat her
father, mother, sister and brother
and drag them away to be sent as
slaves to Siberia. That was six long
years ago. She had had no word
of them since, so does not know
if they survived the brutalities or
not.
Several of the families have six
children and there are a number
of infants under a year. These
children have never known any
thing but life in DP camps. One
of the women who arrived last
week is of the nobility. Her son is
sixteen years old and quite intelli
gent. He has branded on his back
the letter P, showing he is from
Poland. The mother is quite anx
ious that he attend college, so
hoped for a position that paid
more than the usual kitchen work
er receives. She is now overjoyed
because she is lvousekeeper for one
of Statesboro’s doctors, and will
be able to put aside money for her
son’s schooling.
That the DP’s are giving satis
faction there is no doubt. Father
Smith has many more requests
than he can fill. They have attend
ed vocational training schools
while in camps in the United
Stales zone in Germany where sev
en hours of daily vocational train
ing is required and an hour of
English.
The women look older than they
are, the men look as though they
have seen the seamy side of life.
The children will perhaps show
fewer marks than their elders.
Five-year Albina is a silent little
girl, but she is trying out her new
English words as she skipped about
the pond in the back of the
Grapps. “I saw red flower, it lov
ed me,” she sang; “I saw blue flow
er, me love it.” Her fifteen-year-
old sister, Victoria, wrote in her
composition book: “The kind lady
gave us much food as we could
eat and was good to__.us, when she
took us in her eating room.” It
was a new experience for Victoria.
ANNOUNCE MENT has been
made of the publication by Our
Sunday Visitor Press of “Truth
About China’s Crisis,” a booklet
by Louis J. Maloof, former Atlan
tan, who served with the U. S. Ma
rine Corps in China.
Bequest Made to
St. Mary's Home
(Special to The Bulletin)
SAVANNAH, Ga. — St. Mary’s
Home, conducted by the Sisters of
Mercy here, is a beneficiary under
the will of Miss Katherine D.
Maddock, which was filed for pro
bate in recent weeks with the
Court of Ordinary of Chatham
County by John Z. Ryan, local at
torney. Miss Mary Josephine Nel
son, a niece of Miss Maddock, was
named executrix.
Besides the bequest to the Bish
op of Savannah-Atlanta for the
use of St. Mary’s Home, and be
quests to a number of relatives,
the sum of $200 is bequeathed to
the Little Sisters of the Poor; $100
to St. Thomas Vocational School,
in Savannah, and $100 for St. Jos
eph’s Home, Washington, Ga.
THE NEW Minister Plenipotenti
ary Extraordinary of Paraguay to
the Holy See, Julian Augusto Sal
divar, presented his credentials to
His Holiness Pope Pius XII on
July 12.
GIRL SCOUTS IN AUGUSTA—Pictured above are a group of
members of Girl Scout Troop 17, of the Sacred Heart School, Au
gusta, Georgia, who are being presented with their First Class
Scout pins by Sister Martina Joseph, R. S. M., principal of the
Sacred Heart School. Front row, left to right, Sister Martina,
Shirley Daniel, and Mrs. Sam Fennell, Scout leader. Second row,
left to right, Betty Altoonian, Margarita Fennell, Mel vis Bailey,
Josephine LeBlanc, Nellie Callahan, Patricia Hickson, Connie La-
Montagne. Not appearing in the picture are First Class Scout
Maxine Jackson and Second Class Scouts Betty Dorr and Sandra
Wilhelm.—(Photo by Frank Christian).
Best Wishes
CLETDS W. BERGEN, A. I. A.
Architect
127 Habersham St. Savannah, Ga.
Best Wishes
From
JOHNNY HARRIS
Savannah, Georgia