ain, not only destroying values that
it had taken centuries to build up, but on account of the huge masses
concerned frequently denuding the entire countryside of absolutely every
means of sustenance, the final result was occupation by the enemy. And
even if that enemy, true to his inherent love of order and to his talent
for organization, immediately proceeded to establish a well-regulated
temporary government, at the best his efforts would have to be
restricted; for he had not much to spare, neither in men to do the work
needed, nor in means to finance it, nor even in food to give sustenance
to those who had lost everything.

And the worst of it was that for years previous to the outbreak of the
war the two principal races inhabiting Poland--the Poles and the
Jews--had been fighting each other, with the Russian sympathies strongly
on the side of the Poles. Now when war overtook this unfortunate
country, both the Poles and the Russians threw themselves like hungry
wolves upon the unfortunate Jews. They were driven out from their
villages, often the entire population irrespective of age, sex, or
condition. They were made to wander from one place to another, like so
many herds of cattle, except that no herd of cattle had ever been
treated as cruelly as these poor helpless droves of women, children, and
old and sick people whose men folk were fighting for their country while
this very country did its best to kill their families. This is not the
place or time to go into this horrible catastrophe, beyond stating this
fact: In July, 1914, Poland had been inhabited by millions of
hard-toiling people who, though neither overly blessed with wealth or
opportunities, nor enjoying conditions of life that were particularly
conducive to happiness, were at least able to found and raise families
and to sustain an existence which was bearable chiefly because of the
hope for something better to come. Six months later--January,
1915--these millions had stopped toil, for their fields were devastated,
their cattle had been killed or driven away, their houses had been
burned down. Hundreds of thousands of them had been forced to flee to
the interior, other hundreds of thousands had died, some through want
and illness, some during the fighting around their homes, some through
murder and worse. Families had been broken up and others wiped out
entirely, and thousands of mothers had been separated from their
children, perhaps never to see them