Letters to President Hoover From the Children of the Second Jewish Kitchen in Bielsk - Bielsk Podlaski - (original) (raw)

Letters to Herbert Hoover

from the children of Bielsk and Siemiatycze

The letters below are from the Herbert Hoover Subject Collection of the Hoover Institution Archives. They were sent to Herbert Hoover by children of Bielsk and Siemiatycze during the interwar period. Hoover was appointed by then President Woodrow Wilson to head the American Relief Administration (ARA), a special organization that used $100 million appropriated by Congress after the end of World War I. The ARA became the major source of food for 300 million people in 21 countries in Europe and the Middle East. The ARA officially ended on June 30, 1919, but it was evident to Hoover that children would still suffer, so he devised the ARA European Children's Fund as a private charitable organization. It fed children through the summer of 1921. The European Children's Fund was supported by American donations and by sale of Food Draft Packets. This was the origin of CARE packages. Hoover would later become President in 1929. During his lifetime, Hoover helped supply food to 57 countries. An article in the Hoover Digest contains other images and a history of the letters

It appears that the letters are completely hand drawn. Two of the letters are dated 1921. The other two are undated. Each letter consists of two pages. The first page is the letter itself. The second page is a list of signatures of children in Bielsk. Their names have been transcribed at the bottom of the page. The Yiddish names on the signature pages are numbered and noted in the list of transcribed names. The letters were written with many mistakes in syntax and used old Polish form. Please email the coordinator with any suggested corrections or refinements to the translations.

The chapters listed below, in the Bielsk Podlaski yizkor book, Bielsk-Podliask; Book in the Holy Memory of the Bielsk Podliask Jews Whose Lives Were Taken During the Holocaust Between 1939 and 1944, provide a history of the Jewish children's kitchen and orphanage:

Community Life in Bielsk - This chapter, with two photos, may explain why the letters to Herbert Hoover refer to the "the Second Jewish Kitchen in Bielsk." To read the chapter, click the link and scroll down to page 356.
We Were Orphans in Bielsk (About the Orphanage in Bielsk) - This chapter includes a small photo of many children in the orphanage.
The Orphanage - This chapter includes a photo of the orphanage with two members of its staff.
Bielsk Podlaski � My Birthplace - This chapter mentions the establishment of the orphanage on pages 261 and 262.
Image of a Society - The orphanage is mentioned on page 12.
Centers of Interest in Bielsk - The orphanage and one of its staff members is mentioned on page 97.
Write a Book/Remember - The orphanage is mentioned on page 441.
To the Memory of Bielsk and my Six Girlfriends - The orphanage is mentioned on page 519.

Special thanks to: Heather Wagner at the Hoover Institution Archives for providing the letters; Tomasz Wisniewski for translating the letters from Polish to English; Mindy Crystel Gross for providing the translations of the Yiddish names; and to Judy Baston for bringing the existence of these letters to my attention.

Letter from The Children of the Second Jewish Kitchen in Bielsk, circa 1921.		Letter from The Children of the Second Jewish Kitchen in Bielsk, dated 1921.
Letter from The Children of the Jewish Prevenotory (Orphanage?) no 4 in Bielsk, circa 1921. Letter Signatures		Letter from the Jewish children of Siemiatycze, province Bielsk, Grodno Land, Kitchen no. 4. Dated July 4, 1921. Letter Signatures

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Updated March 30, 2025

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