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Jewish Children in Polish Ghettos Plead for Food and Clothes

July 27, 1942
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Two heart-rending letters from young Polish Jews which reached the Polish Government today indicate that the reports of the starvation and epidemics in the ghettos, which have seeped out from time to time, are not in the least exaggerated.

One of the letters, written by a young boy in the Lublin ghetto to his brother in England, states: “Our entire family has died, partly from lack of food and partly from spotted fever. I also had spotted fever, but I recovered. I live only to suffer a little longer and to struggle for life. How long I will be able to continue the fight I do not know. Please send me food parcels and any old clothes – even rags.”

The other letter was sent by a twelve-year-old Jewish girl in the Warsaw ghetto to her eighteen-year-old sister who is working on a farm somewhere in England. “I am now alone,” the younger sister wrote. “Our parents have died. Please send me a parcel of food. Love and kisses.”

The letters were sent through the facilities of the International Polish Red Cross with only the name of the addressees in England. The latter turned them over to the Polish minorities department.

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