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(Left) Paul Viboch, newspaper editor and former member of Czechoslovak parliament,
and his family wait at Munich
airport to board plane for US. (Right) Kindergarten children at Valka Camp
in Bavaria enjoy modern washing facilities.
A FEW typical examples of the humanitarian assistance
A   provided in the form of care and maintenance may be
seen in Greece where escapees resident in the Greek Govern-
ment refugee installation at Lavrion were all provided with
new shoes, in Austria where the basic ration provided by
the Austria Government to escapees has been augmented
by the Program, and in Germany where escapees in Valka
Camp near Nuremberg are enabled to go into a German
department store and choose warm attractive clothing for
themselves and their families.
The Program, working with the National Catholic Wel-
fare Conference in Italy, provides escapees with medical
and dental care, and in Turkey, working with the Refugee
Service Committee, beds, mattresses and blankets were
purchased to ease the hard life of the refugees. The World
Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation and
the American Joint Distribution Committee and many other
agencies are partners with the Escapee Program in provid-
ing the escapee in Berlin with food and clothing.
These are but isolated examples of the comprehensive
program for providing supplementary care and mainte-
nance designed to meet every basic need of the escapee
wherever they are. In Turkey alone where the number of
escapees is relatively small the Program has contracted to
spend $ 39,141 to provide the escapees there with adequate
care. Similar expenditures in other asylum countries
provide supplementary care and maintenance in form of
food, clothing, housing, and amenity supplies. In Trieste
clothing and housing repairs are provided by Allied Mili-
tary Government.
REALIZING that escapees require more than a dole and
more than public assistance, the Program has embarked
upon an extensive plan to equip the escapees for providing
for themselves in a country of resettlement or in the econ-
omy of the country in which they are resident. Thus,
escapees are sent to vocational guidance schools in Ger-
many and other countries: they are taught English, Portu-
guese, Spanish and other languages to assist them in estab-
lishing themselves.
In Germany at Ingoltadt and at Foehrenwald escapees
are taught such crafts and trades as metal working, leather
MARCH 19539
working, tailoring and shoe repair to make them more able
to take their rightful place in the Free World. At Lavrion
in Greece and at Mercatello in Italy, language training is
part of the Escapee Program. Similar vocational and
language training projects are in operation in each of the
asylum countries.
Many escapees, after years of inadequate diet and in-
sufficient medical attention behind the curtain of despair,
persecution and poverty in the Soviet-dominated countries,
are in ill health when they arrive and require special feed-
ing and medical attention. The Escapee Program fulfills
this requirement. By assisting the escapees in this way the
Program enables them to meet the physical and health
standards of resettlement countries.
Richard R. Brown being sworn in as director of the Office
of Field Coordination, Predident's Escapee Program, with
George Riddiford, Division of Foreign Service Personnel,
Department of State, officiating. With headquarters in
Frankfurt, Mr. Brown, coordinates the activities of the
escapee units attached to US missions in Europe and the
Near East and these activities with the humanitarian work
of US voluntary agencies In Europe on behalf of escapees.
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