Already reduced to a degree of supreme privation by the pressing economic situation, residents of the Jewish township of Hancewicze in the District of Luniniec were left virtually helpless today when a fire turned the closely crowded settlement into a blazing inferno.
Community leaders who took stock while the embers were still glowing found the section completely razed. Make-shift relief measures were invoked to care for 300 families, left without food and shelter and equipped only with the clothing they wore when they fled from their burning homes.
Most urgent was the problem of feeding children and aged, who it was feared, faced starvation unless immediate aid could be brought them.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
