Pursuit of an 'Unparalleled Opportunity'
The American YMCA and Prisoner of War Diplomacy among the Central Power Nations
during World War I, 1914-1923.
by Kenneth Steuer

Chapter 17

Post-War WPA Operations: The Tragedy in the East

1

image The Armistice marked the end of the fighting on the Western Front, and the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk technically concluded the fighting in the East, but by November 1918 the political situation in the East was chaotic. Bulgaria ended its participation in the war in September, and the prisoner repatriation process reflected the terrible conditions that POWs had endured in that country during the war. Turkey surrendered shortly thereafter, before the Association could send secretaries to Ottoman prison camps. Another important problem emerged in Germany with the continued incarceration of Russian prisoners. The Russian Civil War undermined political stability across the republic, as various White Russian armies arose to challenge Bolshevik rule. The Allied High Command decided that returning Russian POWs would augment the Red Army and ordered the German government to halt the repatriation process. At the same time, the Allies refused to lift the blockade or provide any assistance to Russian prisoners in Germany. This exacerbated the terrible conditions Russian POWs lived under, and the American YMCA attempted to ease their pain while fighting the Bolshevik propaganda emerging in prison camps.

The Collapse of Bulgaria

image The war in the Balkans had a terrible impact on Bulgaria by 1918. The Allies, under the command of French General Franchet d'Esperey, sent reinforcements to Salonika so that, by the fall of 1918, twenty-nine divisions (over seven hundred thousand men) were prepared to mount a major offensive. In September, the Allies attacked and quickly drove a wedge between the German and Bulgarian forces. The Bulgarian government had begun making peace overtures in June, and the Allied victory at the Battle of Dobropolje forced the Bulgarians to sign an armistice at Salonika on 30 September 1918. image The Bulgarians agreed to demobilize their army immediately, withdraw from occupied Greek and Serbian territory, provide transportation and military equipment to the Allies, and open Bulgarian territory for Allied operations. Tsar Ferdinand abdicated on October 4 and was succeeded by his son, Boris III. Allied forces quickly overran Bulgaria and reached the Danube by November 10. During the invasion, the YMCA provided services to POWs, especially as the state collapsed, and they began repatriating the Allied war prisoners held in Bulgarian prison camps. The repatriation process was slow, due to continued Allied operations in Serbia, Romania, and Thrace. The last prisoners finally left Bulgaria in January 1919. The YMCA now set about taking advantage of post-war opportunities in the defeated country1

image Despite the release of the Allied POWs held in Bulgarian camps, POW relief work in the Balkans was not yet completed. A large number of Bulgarian troops and interned civilians remained in prison camps in Greece and Serbia after the war. The Greek and Serbian governments began discussions on how to deal with the Bulgarian POW problem in May 1919. In August, the Société de Secours aux Prisonniers bulgares approached the General Secretary of the World's Committee about providing YMCA assistance for Bulgarian prisoners. Ernst Sartorius supported this proposal, and the Bulgarian government sent a similar request for aid to the World's Alliance in September. With the encouragement of the International Red Cross Committee's Prisoner-of-War Agency, the World's Committee decided to assign two World Alliance secretaries, Fritz von Steiger and Jean Paul Graenicher, to assist Bulgarian POWs. These secretaries established YMCA War Prisoners' Aid centers in Athens and Belgrade to inspect prison camps and offer the inmates Association services. They began operations in Greece in November 1919, and worked with the Greek and Serbian Ministries of War. In Greece, the two secretaries visited prison camps at Liossa, Rouff, Londi, Patras, Corinthe, Lamia, and the Military Hospital in Athens, as well as the camps at Londa and Candie on Crete. They also inspected conditions in San Paraskevi and Marman Koj in Yugoslavia, concluding their visits in March 1920.2

While the Allies condemned Bulgaria for the atrocities perpetrated against civilians and POWs under their care during World War I, the secretaries serving in the kingdom, observing the situation first hand, also noted the terrible conditions facing Bulgarian troops and people in general. Between 1912 and 1918, Bulgaria had fought three major wars, and the country was decimated economically. Industrial growth remained retarded, and agriculture was neglected, a combination that spread poverty across the kingdom. Christian Phildius noted the nation's desperate condition and persuaded the International Committee to increase funding for POW work and expand war work for Bulgarian soldiers. While the American YMCA provided the financing, the World's Alliance dispatched secretaries to conduct this welfare work. The secretaries worked with the Allied and Bulgarian governments to pool resources to make the best of a terrible situation. Unlike war work in other countries, which was limited primarily to spiritual and intellectual aid, the Red Triangle program in Bulgaria featured physical and medical relief as key components. The YMCA provided and distributed food and medical supplies, blankets, and clothing in an effort to help as many POWs as possible to survive. Those who knew how terrible conditions were in Bulgaria attested to the Association's great service. The British legation in Bern thanked the YMCA for its assistance to English POWs whose existence was brightened by Red Triangle secretaries.3

Post-War Operations in Turkey

5

image When the war suddenly ended, the YMCA still had not sent WPA secretaries into the Ottoman Empire. The International Committee reported at the American YMCA International Convention in Detroit in November 1919 that the Turkish Armistice had been signed before WPA secretaries could report to Constantinople. image With the end of the fighting, Allied prisoners left Turkish prison camps and labor detachments and headed for the Ottoman capital. British POWs trickled into the city, and in December 1918 the Board of Managers of the Constantinople Association offered the use of the Red Triangle building to the English YMCA for British soldiers.4

image With the Turkish surrender, the American YMCA was able to expand the Association program in the Near East. In 1919, the International Committee sent the Murray Commission to investigate conditions in the region and plan a course of action. The American Association worked with other relief agencies to provide emergency services for the Armenians and Greek Orthodox Christians. While restoring the Constantinople Association, the International Committee also sent additional secretaries and by January 1920 the YMCA had established branches in Smyrna, Adana, Aleppo, Aintab, and Konia, as well as other cities in the Near East. Although the Association focused its services on the Armenians and Greeks, the YMCA hoped to gain the support of Turkish Muslims as well. Unstable political conditions, however, plagued the region. The Nationalists, led by Mustapha Kemal Pasha (better known as Kemal Atatürk), rejected the Treaty of Sèvres of June 1920, which dismembered the Ottoman Empire. While the British and French seized the Arab provinces as mandates, the Italians and Greeks occupied parts of Anatolia as spheres of influence. In October 1920, Kemal launched an offensive against Armenia and helped stamp out Armenian independence. The Nationalists then turned against the Allies. In March 1921, Kemal and the Italians reached an agreement whereby the Italians would evacuate Anatolia in return for economic concessions. To squelch Nationalist aspirations, the Greeks began an offensive in March but failed to capture the new capital at Ankara (Angora). Rejecting Allied offers of mediation, the Turks launched a successful counter-offensive against the Greeks in August. By September 1922, the Turks had captured Smyrna and ejected the Greeks from Anatolia. After the abolition of the sultanate in November, the Turks were ready to renegotiate peace terms. In July 1923, the Turks and the Allies signed the Treaty of Lausanne, restoring peace in the Near East. During the Turko-Greek War of 1922-1923, the American YMCA provided POW services to prisoners held by both countries.5

Russian Prisoners in Germany

image When the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed in March 1918, Germany held over 1.5 million Russian prisoners. Under Article VIII of the treaty, "The prisoners of war of both parties will be allowed to return home." The Germans began the repatriation of these men, but the process was delayed by unstable political conditions in the East and by the dedication of German transportation resources to shifting military units from the Eastern Front to the Western Front. Large numbers of Russian prisoners, from both Germany and Austria-Hungary, trooped over the border into Russia. Most of these men were old, sick, or maimed, and their labor was no longer of any value to the Central Power war effort. For many, their only greeting at the frontier was American WPA secretaries, who provided these destitute men with food and drink. The YMCA workers helped them move on towards Moscow or Petrograd where they could return to their homes in the interior. POW relief work continued in these cities as the returning prisoners arrived. This work ended when the American secretaries withdrew from welfare work in Bolshevik territory during the summer of 1918. By November 1918, roughly four hundred thousand Russian POWs had been repatriated from Germany.6

image When Russia dropped out of the war, the Western Allies remained adamant that the Russians had to be punished. The issue of feeding Russian prisoners in Germany no longer concerned the Allied High Command. Instead, the Allies imposed a tight blockade against Russia, which included a prohibition against the shipment of relief supplies for Russian POWs held by the Germans. The American YMCA requested a relaxation of blockade restrictions for shipments to Russians in Germany, but Allied authorities refused, saying that the blockade covered "articles of any nature, including such as are used in religious services." Under these restrictions, the American YMCA was not permitted to send food parcels to Russian prisoners from Bern or Copenhagen, nor purchase food for the Russians with money sent to the YMCA by the Russian prisoners' families. Archibald C. Harte worked with Pleasant A. Stovall, the U.S. Minister to Switzerland, to sway the Wilson Administration's position, but the Allied High Command was unwilling to undermine the blockade to aid the traitorous Russians. Until the political situation had changed on the Western Front, the Allies would not reconsider their policies towards Russian prisoners.7

image With the end of the fighting in France and Belgium, the Germans accelerated the Russian repatriation process. With the maintenance of the Allied blockade, the German government could no longer provide food or shelter for these men, nor could the Russians work in Germany, because demobilized German soldiers needed jobs. Serious problems complicated this haphazard repatriation process. German prison camps were crowded beyond capacity as Russian prisoners rushed to Stammlager from their labor detachment assignments, expecting to return home. Bolshevik agents sowed dissension among these men as they awaited their departure orders from the prison camps. Ioffe Joffre, the Soviet emissary in Berlin, strove to indoctrinate as many Russian prisoners with Bolshevism as possible. Joffre was the unofficial Soviet ambassador to Germany for a short time, and led a powerful propaganda organization in Vilna. The German Revolution and Spartacist uprising resulted in the relaxation of prison camp control by the Germans. The collapse in prison administration undermined any semblance of proper care and adequate protection for Russian POWs. German authorities feared that Bolshevik agitation and the increasing unrest and revolt among the Russian prisoners would lead to an unsupervised exodus of revolutionary POWs from German prison camps. The prospect of thousands of Russian prisoners wandering aimlessly across Germany was not a pleasant one for either the German authorities or the Allied Control Commission.8

10

image To preempt this, the Germans transported Russian prisoners to the border. They provided the ex-POWs with a small amount of food and ordered them to march for miles for a possible rendezvous with Russian trains, but the lack of a stable government in Russia or of any authorities to oversee the repatriation process from the border to the Russian interior created serious difficulties. While repatriated Western Allied POWs returned home to joyous welcomes, many Russian prisoners were met by Bolshevik "recruiters." Privates had the choice between death or joining the Red Army, while former officers were executed on the spot. Conrad Hoffman estimated that eight hundred Russian officers died in this manner. The few Russian prisoners that escaped Bolshevik recruiters were pressed into service with various White Russian armies, especially if they made it to Omsk. Almost one million Russian prisoners crossed the border from Germany and the former Hapsburg dominions. The Allies, however, concluded that sending this pool of potential manpower for the Red Army back to the East was also not in their best interests, and did nothing to encourage the repatriation of Russian prisoners held in camps in Germany, Austria, or Hungary. Russian POWs became a serious dilemma for Allied leaders-these prisoners could not remain in Germany, nor could they return home.9

image After the Armistice in November 1918, the number of Russian prisoners in France swelled by another forty-five thousand men. Facing starvation in Germany due to the Allied blockade, Russian POWs in western German prison camps decided that crossing the border into France was the fastest way home. As former allies, the Russian prisoners expected a friendly welcome from the French. Instead, the French returned these men to captivity; they replaced departing German war prisoners in French camps. As a group, the Russians encountered deep animosity from the French. They were reviled as personifications of the treachery of the Russians, surrendering to the Germans at Brest-Litovsk during France's darkest hour. image French guards were particularly hostile to the Russian POWs, and French civilians jeered as these men worked at hard labor. When Russian prisoners worked with German POWs, the Russians received only fifty centimes, less than the daily wage of seventy-five centimes that German prisoners received. Russian leaders who protested against cruel treatment were summarily punished. To compound the ill will of the French government and people, the Russians suffered psychological and emotional stress. Although the fighting had ended with the Armistice, and the belligerent governments had begun the process of prisoner repatriation, the Russians had no idea when they would receive permission to go home. Despite peace in the West, civil war spread across Russia, and these men lost contact with their homes when the Finnish Civil War cut off postal service through Finland. The Russian prisoners were a forlorn group, with no idea when their imprisonment would end.10

image In January 1919, the Supreme War Council of the Allied Powers decided to intervene in the Russian POW question in Germany. By the end of that month, all healthy American, French, British, Belgian, and Italian POWs had left Germany, leaving only the seriously ill or wounded in military hospitals. image Allied leaders sent a special Inter-Allied Commission to Berlin to supervise Russian relief operations. Representatives of the various Allied Military Missions had arrived in the German capital shortly after the signing of the Armistice. Allied officers ordered the German government to end Russian repatriation operations on February 15. Russian prisoners would remain in Germany, and the Allies would provide food and clothing for these men. As a result, the Allies assumed control of approximately four hundred thousand Russian POWs stranded in Germany.11

image The American Red Cross immediately sprang into action. On February 17, a special commission, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Carl Taylor, arrived in Berlin. Taylor supervised fifty American Red Cross personnel surveying the seventy-five prison camps in Germany holding Russian POWs. They were to inspect the number of men in each installation, their food supplies, their need for clothing and equipment, sanitary arrangements, and opportunities for recreation and amusement. image The American Red Cross gained access to large supplies of food that had been collected for the long-departed American, British, and French prisoners. Once the food supply problem was under control, the Red Cross workers provided clothing for the Russian POWs, including socks, shirts, and pajamas, plus medical, surgical, and hospital supplies and special food for sick prisoners. The Inter-Allied Commission decided to turn over the transportation, storage, and control of all supplies (primarily food and clothing) to the American Red Cross. The organization's experience in handling similar problems in other fields during the war gave Russian POW relief greater impetus and efficiency.12

image The American YMCA also was concerned for the plight of the Russian prisoners in Germany. WPA secretaries in Berlin shipped special food, candles, and seasonal cheer in celebration of Orthodox Christmas to prisoners to help ease their pain. In January 1919, Hoffman approached Brigadier General George H. Harries, head of the United States Military Mission in Berlin, about renewing social welfare programs. As a first step, Hoffman simply wanted to facilitate correspondence between the prisoners and their families. The Association provided stationery and hired a special courier to transport the letters to WPA administrators in Russia. Before this could begin, the YMCA needed permission from the American Peace Commission in Paris and the U.S. Department of State. Bureaucratic delays hindered the initial development of this work, and the correspondence program encountered opposition. The first 1,610 postcards did not leave Germany until October 1920. As the American Military Mission sent delegations to German prison camps, Hoffman sought to accompany these representatives and renew welfare work among the Russians. On February 15, the YMCA received permission from the U.S. peace delegation and from the State Department in Foggy Bottom to undertake relief work.13

15

image Armed with official permission, the American YMCA enjoyed comparative freedom in serving Russian prisoners. Secretaries had unrestricted access to prison camps, and they organized special committees to promote relief activities. Hoffman addressed problems in the most neglected prison camps first. He sent Red Triangle workers to Sprottau (where tuberculosis had broken out), Lamsdorf, and Neuhammer, all in Silesia. This WPA work expanded with the arrival of three American secretaries dedicated to Russian relief efforts in April 1919. They set up operations in thirty-eight prison camps where the majority of Russian prisoners were incarcerated.

This post-war WPA work consisted of two parts. image Association secretaries served the American and British officers and soldiers detailed to supervise the Russian prisoners, providing books, phonographs, movies, and athletic equipment to help ease the monotony of their duties. The American Library Association (ALA) sent books, magazines, and newspapers to the guards. To ease the problem of homesickness, Hoffman improved postal deliveries to American guards. Mail delivery was slow and haphazard, but Hoffman used his experience with German authorities to improve efficiency; parcels forwarded through the American YMCA received priority from German postal officials. As a result of this relationship, the American Military Mission asked the YMCA to distribute U.S. mail in Germany.

image The American YMCA worked with the U.S. Army in other areas as well. Once or twice a month, military representatives arrived in Berlin from the thirty-eight prison camps to obtain supplies from the U.S. Quartermaster's Department and the YMCA headquarters. Soldiers could exchange books, records, and films for new copies, and also took back athletic equipment, games, and theatrical supplies. image U.S. troops on leave on Berlin visited the new Association "Foyer du Soldat" in Berlin.14 This facility was larger than the original post-war building and offered light refreshments, a reading room, writing material, and billiard tables. image Soldiers could attend a movie show twice a week and enjoy a weekly dance. For the Fourth of July celebrations in 1919, the YMCA sponsored a picnic and steamboat excursion to Potsdam for American troops in Berlin. For soldiers stationed in the German interior, the Association sent eggs, milk, and sugar so the troops could enjoy ice cream. The holiday was further celebrated with baseball games across Germany.15

image The second, and primary, objective of post-war WPA work was to organize and expand welfare operations for Russian prisoners. With access to Allied supplies, the Russians were freed from German employment and, left idle, became the targets of moral work. Association secretaries provided education, theatrical, and athletic equipment, and set up welfare committees to organize relief work. The Americans again found it difficult to obtain books in Russian to establish libraries and schools. image Rudolph Horner, J. Gustav White (Education Secretary), and Julius F. Hecker of the World's Alliance collected books in Switzerland and shipped them to German prison camps (all three men had extensive WPA experience during the war). In addition, the American YMCA staff in Bern continued to edit and print large numbers of Russian textbooks, which the Association imported into Germany.16

image With the athletic equipment, the American YMCA secretaries organized soccer leagues, baseball games, and boxing. The Russian prisoners learned how to box, and the Red Triangle workers set up matches against American guards. To improve relations between captives and guards, the Russians and Americans also competed in soccer and baseball games, and these events became very popular. Secretaries also provided musical instruments and helped organize orchestras. image For additional entertainment, the YMCA produced theatricals and presented movies. The Red Triangle workers emphasized spiritual service for the Russians, but this religious work was hampered because Hoffman could not find Russian Orthodox priests. The American YMCA also conducted some very personal services. image For instance, several Russian prisoners who had worked in Arbeitskommandos in agricultural areas had met German women. They wanted to marry them and remain in Germany, but they faced numerous bureaucratic obstacles. American secretaries assisted these men by filling out petitions. The most important feature of this phase of YMCA relief work, however, was the education program. As long as Russian prisoners remained hungry, depressed, and despondent due to homesickness, secretaries found it difficult to fill classes. image This apathy on the part of Russian prisoners began to change with the improvement of rations provided by the Allies and the increase in the number of Russian language books made available by the World's Alliance Book Department in Switzerland. Russian prisoners soon recognized that the ability to read and write would benefit their families and help in the general reconstruction of their country.17

image The American Military Mission found controlling Russian prisoners far more difficult than originally anticipated. The German Revolution had provided these POWs with complete freedom of movement, and the Russians resented their reincarceration by the Allied Powers in German prison camps. The Allies also could not understand why the Russians wanted to return home amid the turbulence and chaos of the Russian Civil War. They tried to convince the Russians that conditions were far superior in the prison camps than at home. Allied officials underestimated the powerful pull of home ties; a large number of Russians were eager to return home, especially since the tsar had been overthrown, and the Bolshevik Revolution promised hope of a better future. The situation was aggravated by the activities of Bolshevik agents operating in the prison camps. They spread Bolshevik propaganda among the prisoners, and opposed the Association program as antithetical to the revolution's objectives (atheist and anti-capitalist). One particular arena of confrontation was the YMCA's athletic contests. These games were always well attended by the Russian prisoners, and the Bolsheviks scheduled mass meetings (in opposition to Allied policy) during these matches. This scheme backfired, as few POWs showed up for Bolshevik demonstrations while they thronged the sporting events. The Bolsheviks even attempted to prevent photographs from being taken during athletic competitions, so that no evidence would exist of the Russian masses enjoying the entertainment. They considered such photos to be Allied propaganda tools, since they created the impression overseas that the POWs were satisfied with their lot.18

20

image Hoffman believed that the Association overcame the Bolshevik agitators. Increased rations by the Allies, along with the spiritual, mental, and physical program of the YMCA, helped undermine Bolshevik activities in German prison camps. General Harries acknowledged that the American YMCA's WPA program had helped solve the Russian problem for the American Military Mission:

image
Now that the career of the Mission approaches its termination I am surveying the achievements of the faithful-among whom are those who followed the leadership of Mr. Hoffman…

image Never was there better or more work by few workers than that done by the American YMCA, whether for our prisoners in German hands, for the Russian prisoners, or for the force of this Mission in Berlin or in the camps.

Particularly effective were your efforts with respect to the improvement of Russian morale. Prisoners for more than four years, ill fed, half clad, homesick, and rebellious, they were almost desperate when the Inter-Allied Commission came into control. Every available agency was called upon to assist-save the American YMCA. It volunteered before anyone could ask for its active interest. Many difficulties confronted Mr. Hoffman, but we managed to push them aside so that you and your staff were then free to accomplish-and you have wrought-miracles. Football, baseball, and other athletic sports, libraries, schools, theaters, and orchestras came to the rescue of hundreds of thousands of those in captivity.

The combination of the increased rations provided by the Entente and the greatly accelerated physical and mental activity induced by your little corps lifted the prisoners out of dangerous despondency and upset many a threatening conspiracy.19
image

The American YMCA helped stabilize the Russian POW situation in Germany, although there was little-outside of covert conversion and limited protests-that the Bolsheviks could have accomplished in German prison camps.20

A Changing of the Guard

image By the summer of 1919, the political situation had changed in Germany. The Germans signed the Treaty of Versailles in June, and the Inter-Allied Commission and American Military Mission began to close down operations in Germany. image Conrad Hoffman also decided to return home. He had spent four years in Germany, and had been separated from his wife and daughter since February 1917. He left Berlin in June, leaving only one American YMCA secretary to serve approximately five hundred thousand Russian prisoners. image The American Military Mission did not end its work until August 15. Despite the withdrawal of Allied troops from most of Germany west of the Rhine, the Russian POWs remained. image The Allies' Russian policy of supporting the White Army factions against the Bolsheviks ended any possibility of the repatriation of these men. While the Association program was firmly entrenched in German prison camps, both in terms of supplies and the organization of relief committees, new problems emerged. The Association needed a new policy to deal with the suffering of the Russian prisoners.21

Notes:

Note 1: Ernst Sartorius, Eindrücke aus der Zeit unmittelsbar vor und nach dem Waffenstillstand in Bulgarien (Basel: 1920), 278-94; Sartorius, "Report of the War Prisoners' Aid in Bulgaria," 26 April 1918, Gencoor, Bulgaria, 1-6; Sartorius, "Bericht über die Rückreise der Sekretär des Weltkomitees aus Bulgarien," circa 1919, 1-5; Sartorius, "Rapport de l'Aide aux Prisonniers de Guerre en Bulgare (Juillet 1918-Janvier 1919)," 20 February 1919, Geneva, 1-16; Sartorius, "Weltbund Christlicher Vereine jünger Männer, Bulgarische Sektion, Kriegsgefangenenhilfe währends des ersten grossen Krieg 1917-1918, Reise- und Arbeitsbericht," 18 June 1919, Sofia, 1-12. Box X391.2: "War Prisoners' Aid Y.M.C.A., 1914-1920: P.O.W. Camps in: Russia and Siberia; Greece; Serbia; Bulgaria." File: "Ernst Sartorius -War Prisoners' Aid Reports from Bulgaria." World's Alliance of YMCAs Archives, Geneva. "World's Alliance of Young Men's Christian Associations, Bulgarian Branch, War Prisoners' Aid," no date, 1; Ernst Sartorius to Weltkomitee, Christlicher Vereine jünger Männer, 26 August 1918, Sofia, 1-4; Sartorius to Christian Phildius, Rudolf Horner, and Viktor Schleppi, 12 August 1918, Sofia, 1-2; Sartorius to Christian Phildius, 2 September 1918, Sofia, 1-2; Sartorius to Minister Jonkherr Mellvill von Carnbee, 3 September 1918, Sofia, 1-3. Box X391.2: "War Prisoners' Aid Y.M.C.A., 1914-1920: P.O.W. Camps in: Russia and Siberia; Greece; Serbia; Bulgaria." File: "Copies of Letters Written by E. Sartorius Regarding War Prisoners' Aid in Bulgaria, 1917-1918." World's Alliance of YMCAs Archives, Geneva. back

Note 2: Fritz von Steiger and Johann P. Graenicher, "6. Arbeitsbericht vom 10. bis und mit 31. Dezember 1919 der Sekretär der Kriegsgefangenenhilfe in Griechenland," 31 December 1919, 1-12; Fritz von Steiger and Johann P. Graenicher, "Vierter Arbeitsbericht der Sekretär der Kriegsgefangenenhilfe in Griechenland und in Serbien von 24. November bis mit 1. Dezember 1919," 2 December 1919, Athens, 1-5; Comite International de la Croix-Rouge, December 1919, Geneva, 1-8; Jean Paul Graenicher and Fritz von Steiger, "Rapport du voyage de Mm. Jean Paul Graenicher et Fritz von Steiger en Grece et en Serbe pour y visiter les prisonniers de guerre bulgares et les internes, Novembre 1919-Mars 1920," circa April 1920, 1-12. Box X391.2: "War Prisoners' Aid Y.M.C.A., 1914-1920: P.O.W. Camps in: Russia and Siberia; Greece; Serbia; Bulgaria." Section: (495) "Greece" and (497.1) "Serbia, 1919-1920." File: "War Prisoners' Aid, Y.M.C.A., P.O.W. Camps in Serbia and Greece, 1919-1920." World's Alliance of YMCAs Archives, Geneva. Rudolf Horner to the International Red Cross Committee, Prisoner of War Agency, 26 March 1920, Geneva, 1-8; Fritz von Steiger and Jean P. Graenicher, "Neunter Arbeitsbericht der Sekretär der Kriegsgefangenenhilfe in Serbien (14-26 Februar)," 26 February 1920, Belgrade, 1-10; Fritz von Steiger and Jean P. Graenicher, "8. Arbeitsbericht der Sekretäre des Kriegsgefangenenhilfe in Serbien von 11 Januar bis um und 2 Februar 1920," 14 February 1920, Belgrade, 1-33; "Map of Route of Fritz von Steiger and Jean P. Graenicher," January 1920, 1; Fritz von Steiger and Jean P. Graenicher, "7. Arbeitsbericht vom 1. bis 10. Januar 1920 der Sekretäre der Kriegsgefangenenhilfe in Serbien," 12 January 1920, Belgrade, 1-7. Box X391.2: "War Prisoners' Aid Y.M.C.A., 1914-1920: P.O.W. Camps in: Russia and Siberia; Greece; Serbia; Bulgaria." Section: (495) "Greece" and (497.1) "Serbia, 1919-1920." File: "War Prisoners' Aid, Y.M.C.A., P.O.W. Camps in Serbia." World's Alliance of YMCAs Archives, Geneva. Minister A. Alxen to World Alliance of Y.M.C.A.'s, #2340, 29 September 1919, Bern, 1-2; Ernst Sartorius, 6 September 1919, Zürich, 1-2; G. Tretseff and V. Maneff to General Secretary, International Y.M.C.A., 27 August 1919, Geneva, 1; Fritz von Steiger and Jean P. Graenicher to the Minister of War of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, 31 December 1919, Belgrade, 1-2; Fritz von Steiger and Jean P. Graenicher to the Societe de Secours aux Prisonniers Bulgares, 6/19 November 1919, Athens, 1-2; King Alexander to the Greek Minister of War, "Pour le Reglement de la pays des prisonniers de guerre," 2 May 1919, Athens, 1-4; Fritz von Steiger and Jean P. Graenicher, 4 November 1919, Athens, 1-2; Fritz von Steiger, "1. Arbeitsbericht der Sekretäre der Kriegsgefangenenhilfe in Griechenland von 3. -11. November 1919 (incl.)," 13 November 1919, Athens, 1-4; Fritz von Steiger and Jean P. Graenicher, "3. Arbeitsbericht der Kriegsgefangenenhilfe in Griechenland von 18. bis und mit 23. November 1919," 24 November 1919, Athens, 1-4; Fritz von Steiger and Jean P. Graenicher, "5. Arbeitsbericht der Sekretäre der Kriegsgefangenenhilfe in Griechenland, vom 2. bis und mit 9. Dezember 1919," 10 December 1919, Athens, 1-5. Box X391.2: "War Prisoners' Aid Y.M.C.A., 1914-1920: P.O.W. Camps in: Russia and Siberia; Greece; Serbia; Bulgaria." Section: (495) "Greece" and (497.1) "Serbia, 1919-1920." File: "War Prisoners' Aid, Y.M.C.A., Bulgarian P.O.W.s in Greece." World's Alliance of YMCAs Archives, Geneva. Jean P. Graenicher, "In Vortsetzung meines ersten Berichtes," 28 January 1919, Nauenegg, Bulgaria, 1-2. Box X391.2: "War Prisoners' Aid Y.M.C.A., 1914-1920: P.O.W. Camps in: Russia and Siberia; Greece; Serbia; Bulgaria." File: "War Prisoners' Aid Reports of Various Y.M.C.A. Secretaries Working in Bulgaria." World's Alliance of YMCAs Archives, Geneva. back

Note 3: Horace Rumbold to Christian Phildius, March 24, 1917, Berne, 1. Box X391.2: "War Prisoners' Aid Y.M.C.A., 1914-1920: P.O.W. Camps in: Russia and Siberia; Greece; Serbia; Bulgaria." File: "Certificates and Laissez-Passer for Y.M.C.A. Secretaries Working in P.O.W. Camps in Bulgaria." World's Alliance of YMCAs Archives, Geneva. back

Note 4: International Committee, Report of the International Committee of the Young Men's Christian Associations to the Fortieth Meeting of the International Convention at Detroit, Michigan, November 19-23, 1919 (New York: Association Press, 1919), 133; "Review of Y.M.C.A. Work in the Near East," circa 1922, 7. International Division Box: "Turkey: Correspondence, Reports, 1884/1911-1940's." Folder: "Turkey: Review of YMCA Work and Annual Report (Near East), 1921." ." Kautz Family YMCA Archives, University of Minnesota Libraires, Minneapolis, MN. "A Prisoner Living in Turkey," Living Age 300 (22 February 1919): 460. back

Note 5: "Review of Y.M.C.A. Work in the Near East," circa 1922, 8-10. International Division Box: "Turkey: Correspondence, Reports, 1884/1911-1940s." Folder: "Turkey: Review of YMCA Work and Annual Report (Near East), 1921." ." Kautz Family YMCA Archives, University of Minnesota Libraires, Minneapolis, MN; William Howard Taft, Frederick Harris, Frederic Houston Kent, and William J. Newlin, eds., Service with Fighting Men: An Account of the Work of the American Young Men's Christian Association in the World War, 2 vols. (New York: Association Press, 1922), 2:388-92; and Young Men's Christian Association, National War Work Council, Summary of World War Work of the American YMCA: With the Soldiers and Sailors of America at Home, on the Sea, and Overseas with the Men of the Allied Armies and with the Prisoners of War in All Parts of the World (New York: International Committee of the YMCA, 1920), 91-93. back

Note 6: American National Red Cross, The American National Red Cross Annual Report, June 30, 1919 (Washington, D.C.: American Red Cross, 1919), 150; United States Department of State, Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1918: Russia, Volume II (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1931), 738; and Olin D. Wannamaker, For the Six Million Prisoners: The Welfare Work of the YMCA in the Prison Camps of Ten Nations during World War I (September 1921), 244. back

Note 7: Edward F. Willis, Herbert Hoover and the Russian Prisoners of World War I: A Study in Diplomacy and Relief, 1918-1919 (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1951), 11. back

Note 8: Joffre would later serve as the Soviet Ambassador to Peking, Vienna, and Tokyo. Conrad Hoffman, Jr., In the Prison Camps of Germany: A Narrative of "Y" Service among Prisoners of War (New York: Association Press, 1920), 255-56; American National Red Cross, Annual Report, June 30, 1919, 150; Wannamaker, Six Million, 265-67; and Willis, Herbert Hoover and the Russian Prisoners of World War, 35. back

Note 9: Hoffman, In the Prison Camps of Germany, 255; American National Red Cross, Annual Report, June 30, 1919, 150; and Wannamaker, Six Million, 263 and 267. back

Note 10: Wannamaker, Six Million, 272-73; George M. Day, "The Russian Legion in France," Foreign Mail 25 (November-December 1918): 7-8; "An Army Without a Country: The Story of the Valorous First Russian Legion in France, Abandoned by Its Own Country, Yet Pluckily Fighting on for Allied Victory," Association Men 44 (September 1918): 25; and Taft, Harris, Kent, and Newlin, Service with Fighting Men, 2:261. back

Note 11: Hoffman, In the Prison Camps of Germany, 255-56; American National Red Cross, Annual Report, June 30, 1919, 150; and Willis, Herbert Hoover and the Russian Prisoners of World War I, 11. back

Note 12: American National Red Cross, Annual Report, June 30, 1919, 150-51. back

Note 13: Hoffman, In the Prison Camps of Germany, 256-57; and Wannamaker, Six Million, 268. back

Note 14: The Foyer du Soldat, or Soldiers' Hearth, was the forerunner to World War II's USO Club. The American YMCA ran these centers to provide entertainment and social diversions to U.S. and Allied soldiers during the Great War. back

Note 15: Hoffman, In the Prison Camps of Germany, 199-200 and 257-61; and Wannamaker, Six Million, 268-69. back

Note 16: With Russians in Captivity (Lausanne: La Concorde, circa 1919), 1-8. World Alliance Box X391.2: "War Prisoners' Aid Y.M.C.A., 1914-1918: POW Camps in Germany and France." Section 43: "Germany." Publications. World's Alliance of YMCA Archives, Geneva; "Report: Work of the American Young Men's Christian Association for Russian Prisoners of War in Germany, 1919,"early 1920, 1-2. World's Alliance Box X391.2: "War Prisoners' Aid YMCA, 1914-1915; POW Camps in Germany and France; War Guilt Question." Section 43: "Germany." Folder: "War Prisoners' Aid in Germany: Miscellaneous." World's Alliance of YMCA Archives, Geneva; Hoffman, In the Prison Camps of Germany, 257-58; and Wannamaker, Six Million, 268-69. back

Note 17: Hoffman, In the Prison Camps of Germany, 258-59; and Wannamaker, Six Million, 269. back

Note 18: Hoffman, In the Prison Camps of Germany, 258-59; and Wannamaker, Six Million, 269-70. back

Note 19: Hoffman, In the Prison Camps of Germany, 261-62. back

Note 20: Hoffman, In the Prison Camps of Germany, 261-62; Wannamaker, Six Million, 270; and Willis, Herbert Hoover and the Russian Prisoners of World War I, 59. back

Note 21: Hoffman, In the Prison Camps of Germany, 264-66; and Wannamaker, Six Million, 271. back