Polish Charity Institutions


Figure 1.-- At the end of World War II, The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), at the time meaning the United States and Catholic charities provided aid to a devestated nation. Here Catholic children in New York are seeing off relief supplies collected for Polish children in 1947. The newspaper caption read, "Christmas Cheer for Polish Children: Boys and girls of Sacred Heart Parochial School, New York, look on and cheer as the first shipment of 700,000 pounds of food stuffs .donated by by Catholic shildren in the current nation-wide drive by the War Relief --National Catholic Welfare Conference--is loaded on the Gdynia America Line' motorship 'Batory' today (Dec. 9).The food which consists of canned milk, soups, vegetabkes,neat, and dry groceries, is consigned to Adam Cardinal Sapieha, Archbishop of Cracow to be distributed to all undrnourished children regrdless of race, or creed. The 'Batory' sails tomorrow (Dc. 10) and will reach Gdynia in ample time for Chruistmas."

We do not have much information on Polish charity institutions. Througout Europe, the Christian Church was the only provider of charity. Civil government was not signinificantly involved in charity, although some rulers were known to give alms. Poland for much of its modern history was a part of the Russian Tsarist Empire, a Catholic enclave in a largely Orthodox Christian realm. As far as we know virtually all charity work done during the Tsarist era the work of the Catholic Church. The Polish Woman's League, a charitable and patriotic organization, was orgnized even before the undependent Polish state (1913). [Appelbaum, p. xx.] This Church's dominant role largely continued after World War I and the reserection of an independent Polish state (1918). We do note the establishment of the Polish Red Cross, a secular charity. The American Relief Administration operated a massive relief effort to save starving Polish children after World War I and during Polish-Soviet War. The NAZIs during the World War II occupation allowed the Polish Red Cross to operate on a limited basis, a rare Polish instituion allowed to operte. At the end of the War, The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), at the time meaning the United States and Catholic charities provided aid to a devestated nation. The Communist Party imposed upon Eastern European countries by the Red Armyband NKVD took over most charity institutions. In most of Eastern Europe they sucessfully did that, and in Poland suceeded with seculr institutions like the Red Cross and Polish Woman's League. The Polish Church proved more resiliant. The Government restricted fund drives and access to children which limited the work the Church could do. The goal of the Communist Party in addition to an atheist Poland was to control all aspects of civil society.

Sources

Appelbaum, Anne. Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe (Doubleday: New York, 2012), 556p.





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Created: 11:56 AM 9/16/2017
Last updated: 11:56 AM 9/16/2017