e raising of funds for Maoth Chitim matzos for Passover and prior to every Jewish New year it sent money for the neediest in the town. Which usually meant for the poor. This we kept up until the year 1936, when complaints began to reach New York that the committee in Boiberke was showing partiality in distributing the funds received from the United States. When the complaints persisted, Sam Herbst upon learning of a Boiberker lady who was about to visit the town, appealed to her that during her stay in Boiberke she should look into the matter. She promised to keep her mission secret, as it was nobody's intention to accuse anyone of the committee in Boiberke. Upon the lady's return to the United States it was decided, on the basis of her report, that henceforth all gifts were to be sent direct to the needy individuals in Boiberke. This procedure remedied the situation and put a stop to the complaints.
At a meeting in the home of Lena Gross-Turkel in New York, the Boiberker ladies assumed the responsibility of charge of the Relief Organization, and the following officers were elected:
Also present at the meeting were: Helen Katz-Lusthaus; Jeanne Meth-Philips; Anna Spitzbard-Chapman; The two other Paget Sisters and the sister of Chaya Eisenstein;President, Lena Gross Turkel;
Vice president, Lena Baumgarten;
Financial secretary, Florence Zweben;
Recording secretary, Ray Paget-Hornik;
Co-Treasurers, Anna Paget-Rabinowitz and Chaya Eisenstein
The relief committee was active until the outbreak of World War II (September 1939), when all communications with Boiberke was cut off. But the secretary, Florence Zweben, received several requests from Boiberker who fled the town and found themselves in neutral lands. The secretary with the assistance of Mrs. Julius Katz and her sister Mrs. Samuel Bergwek, who helped to make food parcels for the needy who fled from Boiberke.
The secretary tried to find out Boiberker wherever possible and offer them assistance. When I left for the 21th world Zionist Congress where I represented the American Zionists which took place in Basle, Switzerland during December 1946, the Relief committee gave me $500.00 to distribute among Boiberker wherever I find then on my way to the Congress. Since I was to visit the D.P. camps in a part of Europe as well as on the Island of Cyprus and also in Palestine, I would be in a position to help immediately.
At the Zionist Congress in Basle I met many young men and women whom the Congress committee brought over from the D.P. camps to serve as ushers. Among them I couldn't find any of our landsleit. Two young men were from the D.P. Camps at Chino Chitto near Rome and from them I learned that my niece and her two children had already been transferred from Chino Chitto to the Camp in Cyprus. They were passengers on the S.S. Bracha Fuld. The British captured the ship in Palestinian waters and shipped the passengers to Cyprus. I resolved that some day I should visit the Camp in Chino Chitto in Italy. But the opportunity to do so did not present itself until some 18 months later when, in the War of Independence of 1948, my son-in-law was wounded and I rushed to Israel only to be stranded for several days in Rome, and from there I visited Chino Chitto where more than a thousand of young men and women waited to be shipped to the new State of Israel.
The day of December 25th, 1946, after the Congress closed I was on my way to Marseilles in order to board a ship for Haifa. Since we had to wait from December the 25th to January 1st, we remained in Nice. There I began to look for Boiberker landsleit and the Gabbi of the local shul called out after the services whether there are any Boiberker landsleit. He gave them the address of the hotel where I stayed. The next morning, a tall gentleman called at the hotel and introduced himself as the grandson of Chaskel Milet, who was engaged in Boiberke in buying up calves from the peasants around Boiberke. Chaskel had a son in America by the name of Shmuel who was by profession a brush maker and later he was a grocery stone keeper in New Y