Henderson history: Local woman’s kind deed prompted postwar thank you in 1947
A Henderson woman sent some old clothes to Europe the winter after World War II ended to help alleviate the dire situation there.
America suffered during the war; Encyclopedia Britannica reports an estimated American 280,000 deaths. But the war killed between 40 and 50 million, well over half in Europe alone. And the cost wasn’t entirely human; entire economies and means of food production were devastated.
George C. Marshall was secretary of state in 1947, according to the foundation set up in his name, and after attending a foreign ministers’ conference that spring, the first thing he did upon returning was give a national radio speech advocating assistance for Europe right away.
“Many Europeans were starving and had no shelter from the bitter winter,” the foundation’s website says. “Their cities lay in ruins, and they faced the collapse of their societies.” More in a moment about what became known as the Marshall Plan.
Much of the postwar assistance that flowed from the United States to Europe was anonymous; donors usually had no idea exactly who was benefitting from their generosity. But not Mary Louise “Lula” Crafton.
She had gone to Seventh Street Elementary School the winter of 1945 to donate clothes for European relief, according to The Gleaner of Aug. 31, 1947. “In one of the dresses contributed she pinned a note wishing the person who received the dress ‘God speed.’”
I’m sure she gave the note little thought after that and was probably surprised in August 1947 to receive a letter from Anna Kadilek in Pottschech, Austria, which is a small town roughly midway between Vienna and Graz.
The letter was “written in the Austrian language” (probably Bavarian, judging from the location, or maybe Czech, judging from the surname). She took the letter to Henry Reuter, who had a stamp and stencil works at Second and Green streets, and he translated it for her:
“From my whole heart I sent you from our pretty land of Austria and from all-very hearty greetings. Finally I have gotten to where I can thank you for the pretty dress. I would not have found your letter had it not been for having to make (the dress) smaller – for it was too large – and it was then that I found your lovely letter. (Kadilek most likely was thin as a rail.)
“I am married and a mother of four children. My husband is a war invalid. We have four girls and I am enclosing a photograph of our family and you can see the dress that you gave.
“You wrote in your letter that I found in the dress offering to help us. For this I would be very grateful. Even though the war is over we must suffer and are in need.
“Even though we were misled by the German officials, what could we do? What has happened – has happened and we cannot help it.”
She then talked a bit about her husband having a cousin in Panama, although they had not heard from him. “I will write to him again as soon as I get a chance, as we would like very much to come to America or somewhere in another land where we could do better. Anywhere there would be enough to eat and we could get work and live like humans – for here in Austria there is very little food.
“There is a lot of work as well as great need and hunger, so bad that we can not give the children the bread that they want.”
The devastation in Europe led to the creation in 1945 of what is now CARE International. CARE (Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe) originally was the joint enterprise of 22 individual charitable organizations, which initially got the U.S. Army to donate 2.8 million Army surplus food rations that had been stockpiled for the planned invasion of Japan.
“These parcels, a form of MRE (Meals Ready to Eat), were sent to Europe,” according to CARE’s website, and 20,000 CARE packages arrived in France May 11, 1946. “These rations became the world’s first CARE Packages.”
They contained steak and kidneys, beef in broth, liver loaf, Spam, bacon, margarine, lard, fruit preserves, honey, raisins, chocolate, sugar, powdered eggs, powdered milk, and coffee. All total, the box contained 40,000 calories, mostly from foods that were very hard to obtain in Europe at that time.
When the Army surplus meals ran out, CARE began pleas for Americans to sponsor CARE packages. I remember those pleas from my childhood; I’m sure many of you also remember them.
At first, donors had to specify who was to receive the package, but packages were later sent to targeted areas and distributed based on need.
CARE packages were phased out in the 1960s as the agency “began to work on long-term projects in addition to emergency relief.”
CARE International currently helps more than 70 million people in nearly 100 countries across the globe.
The CARE organization may have been one of the first to help Europe, but the Marshall Plan is undoubtedly more famous. Originally, it was to be called the Truman Plan, but the president thought his secretary of state deserved the honor – and that the public would be more likely to accept such an expensive foreign aid program under the aegis of a man who, as Army Chief of Staff, had earned an unimpeachable reputation for integrity.
Marshall had no firm plans for Europe when he returned his conference to America, but he gathered a dozen experts from various fields and named them the Policy Planning Staff. He gave them two weeks to deliver their recommendations. They met the deadline. Marshall outlined them in a speech at Harvard in June 1947.
The basic ideas were that it would be a European plan, although with American funding, and that all countries could participate. It was limited to four years. Once physical needs of people were met, the focus would be on rebuilding infrastructure. And – probably most importantly in the struggle against Communism – all participants had to trade equally with each other.
History magazine of Dec. 16, 2009, reports the U.S. spent $15 billion to help rebuild Europe – a generous 5 percent of America’s gross domestic product at that time. Sixteen countries participated, although none were from the Soviet bloc.
In a sense, the History article says, the Marshall Plan marked the beginning of the Cold War, in that it was a key catalyst in the formation of NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, in 1949. The Communists supposedly feared U.S. interference in their national affairs. And they were not without reason; the CIA received 5 percent of the total allocated, which it used to set up front businesses and further U.S. interests in Europe.
Such geopolitical concerns were of little interest to Anna Cadilek, judging from her letter. “Outside of being in need we are thankful that we are well – and we hope from the bottom of our hearts that you are also well….
“It gives us much great pleasure that we found your letter so that we could write and thank you, and if you like we would like to write you more often.”
I’m unable to say whether there was any further interaction.
100 YEARS AGO
“Son on the warpath” is how the Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer headlined a brief article that appeared Aug. 31, 1922. Here it is in its entirety:
“Fifty-seven years ago James Manion, contractor, laid the stone curbing on Third Street between Main and Water. Today his son, contractor Ed Manion, is tearing up the stone curbing, putting down concrete.”
50 YEARS AGO
The Gleaner of Aug. 27, 1972, reported the Salvation Army would dedicate its new post at 25 Meadow St. on Sept. 3.
“The new offices are in the building recently purchased by the Army from Mr. and Mrs. Sherman E. Morehead, next door to the old offices at 5 Meadow St.” The intent was to move the offices into the new building and continue to use the original building for the agency’s programs.
The Salvation Army remained at that site until it dedicated the new 16,000-square-foot Center of Hope on Washington Street in July 1990.
25 YEARS AGO
Bill Hubiak, supervisor of the strip mine operated by Grand Eagle Mining Co., was hired to be the new county engineer, according to The Gleaner of Aug. 27, 1997.
As such he was charged with designing and overseeing projects of the county’s Road Department, as well as enforcing the county’s zoning ordinance and strip mining ordinance.
One of the first things he did was to institute office hours for both himself and the building inspector, which made it much easier for people seeking building permits to come and get one right away instead of returning multiple times.
Hubiak recently retired. His last official day was June 30, although he came into the office a few times after that.
Readers of The Gleaner can reach Frank Boyett at YesNews42@yahoo.com or on Twitter at @BoyettFrank.
This article originally appeared on Henderson Gleaner: Henderson history: Woman’s kind deed prompted postwar thank you in 1947
