021
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Title
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021
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Transcription
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ODESSA
ARA FOR JDC ODESSA, I will always remember ARA FOR JDC, (AMERICAN RELIEF ASSOCIATION FOR JEWISH DISTRIBUTION COMMITTEE). For 75 years this has been in my mind. The Russian Revolution of the 1990's brings memories of the Russian Revolution of 1917. The one in 1917 was important to me because I played a part in a project that was designed to help the food shortage. The total deaths from starvation was never known, some estimates placed it at a hundred thousand.
Alan Moorehead's book; THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION describes in detail the plight of the Russian people during 1916 and 1917. "The winter of 1916-1917 was particularly severe--at one stage no less than 1200 locomotives burst their frozen pipes--making it impossible for adequate food distribution. In Odessa, people had to wait two days in line to get a little cooking oil. In Petrograd and Moscow bread lines formed through out the freezing night."
By the time the fighting had ended, all the seed grains had been eaten, and there was no seed available for planting the 1918 crop.
In 1917 my father received a request for seed corn, from the American Relief Association for Jewish Distribution Committee. Russia needed seed corn that came from a land with climate similar to that of the Ukraine. Western Nebraska: Elevation 4000 feet above sea level: annual rainfall of 20-24 inches, and lying between the 40th. and 50th. parallel, with a 90 to 100-day growing season, met these requirements.
As Dad picked the corn, ear by ear, and threw them in the wagon, he carefully selected the best ears and threw them in the front of the load. When he unloaded, he put the selected ears in a separate bin. He gathered his own seed corn in this manner, but this year it would include 200 bushels of ear corn that would be shipped to Odessa [sic] Russia.
By December all the corn was harvested, and special instructions were given for shipment. The American Relief Association would pay for the corn, the price would be double that received for livestock feed. I think the price paid was $.50 per bushel.
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Metzger Memories
