Chapter 6 - Rebuilding Devastated France

Summary

After Germany’s capitulation and surrender in November 1918, physicians, nurses, and health care experts crossed the former front lines and realized that four years of malnutrition had significantly affected children’s health and physical development. Milk, butter, eggs, potatoes, and fresh vegetables were scarce or available only at prohibitive prices. Americans who saw firsthand the devastation of the formerly occupied regions of northern France committed themselves to feeding and clothing destitute inhabitants. These leaders and visionaries harnessed the compassion, energy, expertise, and generosity of US citizens who were willing to work tirelessly at home and abroad in France to alleviate suffering. The American Committee for Devastated France was not the only postwar initiative formed by Americans to alleviate suffering and restore health and infrastructure in the devastated regions of France. From Jessie Carson’s efforts to create lending libraries with thousands of donated books to the engineering assistance of Harvard University undergraduates in rebuilding French industries to open-air schools, hospitals, and preventoriums (facilities for infants infected with tuberculosis but not with active disease), American individuals and organizations continued the generosity that the United States had shown during the war, even though their country’s leaders were not supporting the resuscitation of their ally.