Children's Poems of Thanks to Herbert Hoover

"We Jewish children from Pinsk
To you American brothers
Let us all be happy.

We are drinking your milk
In our school kitchen
Instead of alcohol and wine
You should be healthy

We thank you unceasingly
For your help until now.
And ask from the depths of our hearts
Help us in our pain and suffering.

Send us as much as possible
From today onwards and beyond
As quickly as possible
Money to buy books

For clothes, rice
And other kinds of spice
So that we should be able
To learn Torah without fear."

"We, among thousands of children in a Europe soaked with blood,
Children who were miserable orphans
During a war in which all of Europe became a killing field,
When everyone waited for death,
Only through your help,
Were we saved from death.

We offer you, even in our sadness and despair,
Our profound gratitude towards your great generosity.
The American people, both Christians and Jews,
Were among the only people ready to aid the needy and the desperate.

History will not forget your deeds,
And until the last generations,
Your name will be blessed in prayer."

Citation taken from: Hoover Institution, Palo Alto, California, ARA Papers, Book of thanks of children from Pinsk to Herbert Hoover, 1921, trans. Gillian Davidson. Photo: (above) Picture of students from Hebrew School in Pinsk, Ukraine: Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford University, USA; (below) detail from the above picture

These poems were written to Herbert Hoover by the children of the western Ukranian town of Pinsk, who spoke variously Polish, Russian, Ukranian, Yiddish, and Hebrew, for the aid they received from the first food aid programme. Each page of these poems consisted of a class photograph, surrounded by drawings and the signatures of the children. The first poem to the left is from the children of the Hebrew Technical School of Pinsk, who wrote the poem in the summer of1921. The second poem to the right is by the children of another school in Pinsk - this one a Zionist school - who stare out from this photograph, pioneer hats on their heads, preparing for a desert life. Their letter, written by their teachers in literary Hebrew, recalled the bloody pogroms which had broken out in Pinsk in 1919.