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{en} Donald A. Lowrie. The Hunted Children (New York, NY: Atheneum, 1963)

Abstract

"Of all the stories to emerge from the wretchedness that was World War Two, the most ghastly and the least believable is the record of conditions in European internment camps for refugees, political prisoners, and other ""undesirable elements,"" men, women, and children ... As chairman of the ""Nimes Committee"" for the coordination of relief work among national and international organizations both Christian and Jewish, Donald Lowrie knew as much about camp conditions as anyone who survived the war. He was in close touch with the methods of financing legal and extralegal operations, and personally fought many rounds in the battle for visas, travel permits, and special concessions that had to be wrung from a treacherous Vichy. One chapter title, ""Hiding Six Thousand Children,"" expresses the staggering task of gathering up the fragments of refugee youth (preponderantly, of course, Jewish youth), concealing them, and sustaining them until they could be spirited away or liberated at the close of hostilities."--Kirkus Review.

About the Author

Donald Alexander Lowrie (USA, 1889-1974) - As YMCA secretary served in Russian and Eastern Europe (1916-32), with his wife Helen Ogden Lowrie. Lowrie retired from the YMCA in 1932 and became the Director of the United States House at the Cité Université in Paris. The approaching world war and rising wave of refugees convinced Lowrie to return to the YMCA in 1938. He worked with Paul B. Anderson to provide American Association relief to Russian, Czech, and Bulgarian refugees in France. Lowrie remained in France until October 1942, when he relocated to Switzerland to provide YMCA services to refugees there. From 1945 to 1950, Lowrie represented the World's Committee of the World's Alliance of YMCA's in relief work for displaced persons in France.