A History of the Mennonite Brethren Church, Ja Toews

in a bloody fratricidal war for IN THK SHADOW OF DEATH 111 several years. Except for the timely arrival of American food supplies, many, if not most of the Mennonites in the Ukraine would have died of starvation. In the book, Feeding the Hungry (Russia Famine, 1919-1925), P. C. Hiebert and others have given graphic descriptions of the abject poverty and widespread famine which relief workers witnessed upon their arrival in South Russia. 1 * The contact with the European and American Mennonite constituencies had been established in 1920 by the Study Commission {Studienkommission\ of which A. A. Friesen and B. H. Unruh were leading members. It was through the reports of these men that Mennonites in Holland, Germany, Switzerland, and somewhat later in America, became aware of the tragic plight of their brethren in Russia. In America the Russian famine became the occasion for organizing a new Mennonite relief agency. In response to the reports and requests from four members of the Study Commission, who were at that time vis- iting the United States and Canada, a special meeting of representatives of all existing Mennonite relief organizations assembled in Elkhart, In- diana, on July 27, 1920. The delegates agreed to form a united relief agency, the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) whose first task in- volved the planning of the Russian relief program. P. C. Hiebert, who represented the Mennonite Brethren, was elected chairman — a position which he held for thirty-three years. The first relief unit, composed of three young men from Pennsylvania: Arthur Slagel, Clayton Kratz and Orie O. Miller, endeavored to launch their relief efforts in the Ukraine via Constantinople and Sevastopol (Crimea) in October, 1920. This effort failed because of the disastrous defeat and retreat of the White Army. Clayton Kratz fell into the hands of the Bolsheviks at Halbstadt and was never heard from again. A new approach was sought and negotiated by Alvin J. Miller, director of American Mennonite Relief (AMR), and B. B. Janz, chair- man of the Verband dcr Mennoniten im Sueden Russlands (VMSR = Union of Mennonites in South Russia) through the central government in Moscow. Officials of ARA (American Relief Administration) and members of the Friends Service Committee were of great help to Miller in gaining entrance into Russia. After innumerable delays and disappointments because of bureaucratic bigotry and inefficiency, relief supplies finally reached the Mennonite colonies, where conditions had become desperate during the winter of 1921-22. Actual feeding opera- lions, started first in the Volga area, were not begun in the Ukraine until March, 1922. For some this help came too late, but thousands were saved from death by starvation. 17 Following the example of the ARA, with whom the American and Dutch Mennonites had become affiliated, 112 HISTORY OF THE MENNONITE BRETHREN CHURCH the AMR established feed