BIJLAGE 47

Brief van 12 Januari 1948 van ir. W. Friedhoff aan de heer A. Poklewski-Koziell en diens antwoord daarop van 4 Februari 1948

LONDON COMMITTEE NETHERLANDS RED CROSS SOC.

IN LIQUIDATION

London, 12th January 1948.

Mayfair 4161.

Dear Mr. Poklewski,

Herewith I beg to enclose photo copy of a letter sent by Mr. H. Beer, at present Secretary General of the Swedish Red Cross to the Netherlands Red Cross Society in The Hague.

As explained to you verbally, a Committee appointed by the Netherlands Red Cross and some other interested parties, have issued a report in which very serious criticism on the work of the London Committee has been given.

The letter from Mr. Beer is one of the more important items on which the incriminating conclusions are based. This letter, and some other references in report on the good work done by your organization during the war years, induce me to ask your help in clarifying the following points.

1. Is it true that the Polish Red Cross has bought in the Argentine food, etc. for shipment to Sweden, for distribution to Polish civilian internees, held in camps which were not under the supervision of the International Red Cross?

2. Were these camps, if any, situated in Germany, or were they in your own country?

3. If no food was bought for the above purpose, did your Society buy any food outside the blockade, for distribution in occupied Poland, and if so, for what purpose?

4. If food was bought outside the blockade for distribution in occupied territory, were navycerts given even when labelled for civilians (interned or noninterned)?

5. Could the quantities imported in that way be called considerable?

6. I understand that your service for sending parcels to private addresses in Poland from Sweden and Portugal, was comparable with our own service from Lisbon. I presume you were allowed to transfer money for this purpose to these countries, the amount being limited. Further, that these moneys were paid in to your organization by the senders of the parcels. Is this construction correct?

I should be very much obliged if you could let me have your comments on the above questions. Please let me know if you would have any objection against passing your replies on in whole, or in parts, to the Netherland Red Cross in the Hague, and eventually publishing them.

I need not assure you that your co-operation in this lamentable matter will be very much appreciated by all of us.

With kind regards,

Yours sincerely,

(w.s,) W. FRIEDHOFF.

A. POKLEWSKI-KOZIELL

former Vice-President of Coppins Cottage,

the Polish Red Cross in London IVER, Bucks.

4th February 1948. W. Friedhoff Esq.,

117 Park Street, London W. 1.

Dear Mr. Friedhoff,

I am sorry I was not in the position to answer your letter of January the 12th up to now but I wanted to check all the information with the person who was at the head of the department dealing with these matters and who has been unfortunately ill.

I am now in the position to answer your question to the best of my ability point by point as you have put them in your letter:

1. No, foodstuffs from Argentine were purchased for P.O.W. parcels.

2. Concentration camps were in Germany as well as in Poland. Polish citizens were not kept in „internment" camps. The P.R.C. knows only two definitions — Concentration Camp and Prisoner of War Camp.

3. Food parcels as „individual help" were sent to Poland for the civil population only from Portugal and in a few exceptional cases from Sweden in all about several dozen parcels. The parcels were paid by the senders, the P.R.C. was only the organiser. The parcels were sent mostly to scientists, professors, orphenages and in some cases to P.O.W. families when a P.O.W. from Germany asked us for it.

4. Such instances did not take place. It was against the blockade regulations which were strictly inforced by the allied authorities.

5. We had no food imports for parcels „labelled for civilians".

6. We got transfers for P.O.W. parcels from Portugal. A certain amount of parcels were sent to civilians in Poland which were paid for by relations and friends of the recepients to the P.R.C. in London. The Bank of England did not give direct transfers for parcels to the civilian population.

The P.R.C. dit not send any help „in bulk" to civilians in concentration camps in Poland nor in Germany, such help was organized in Poland itself. The families in Poland of interned people had the permission of the occupying power to send such parcels. These parcels very often did not reach their destination. After the Warsaw rising mass deportations took place from Poland to Germany. In December and in the beginning of 1945, parcels „in bulk" have been sent from Geneva (with the kind assistance of the I.R.C.) but according to our information, hardly any of these transports ever reached their destination on account of the desorganization at that time of the German transport.

Reassuming the above, help „in bulk" with food parcels was going only for P.O.W., help for civilians in concentration camps could not be organized on account of the blockade regulations and could be given only from occupied countries which were out of our scope.

I hope you will find the above information useful and I can vouch for its accuracy. I have no reservation of any „inside" use you might make of the above but I would be grateful if you would see to it that my letter and signature would not appear „in extenso" in the press.

With kind regards,

Yours sincerely,

(w.s.) A. POKLEWSKI—KOZIELL.

(Betreft pogingen Rode Kruis om haar reputatie te zuiveren van beschuldigingen dat ze feitelijk niets voor de gedeporteerden heeft gedaan, door aan te tonen dat geen enkele landelijk Rode Kruis in staat was om hulp te verlenen)