Lithuanian orphan boys. Children of Vilna, the unhappy capital of Lithuania who are being fed by the American Red Cross relief mission no[w] operating in the Baltic states. Vilna has changed hands many times during the war. It has just been turned back to the new state of Lithuania by the Russian armies who captured it from the Poles during the present war. September 13, 1920 [date received]. Photograph. Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2017677884/.
This primary source photograph serves as a window into the consequences of war on civilians in the Baltic States. To combat disease and poverty, it is essential for students to recognize the heroic relief efforts provided by the Red Cross to citizens and soldiers. Studying the aftermath of war empowers students to consider their civic duties and to think about the importance of being an active participant in their communities in order to create peace in our world today.
During World War I, children of Vilnius, Lithuania were being fed and medically cared for by the American Red Cross relief mission operated in the Baltic states. During the war, Vilnius (Vilna) changed hands many times, and the city returned to the new state of Lithuania after Russian armies captured it from Poland during World War I.
In the aftermath of World War I, wartime destruction and dislocation caused poverty and the spread of disease in Europe. The American Red Cross Commission for Western Russia and the Baltic States provided humanitarian relief to civilians in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. During 1920, the American Red Cross, alongside local Red Cross nurses, supplied medical assistance, disinfecting stations, and hospitals to control a typhus epidemic in Estonia. After three years of combating disease and contributing medical aid to the civilians of the Baltic States and to soldiers from Allied forces, the American Red Cross concluded its relief efforts, as communities rebounded from the consequences of the war.
- What do you notice or wonder about the photograph?
- In what time period was this photograph taken? How do you know?
- Why do you think all of the children have shaved heads?
- What do you notice about the children’s clothing? Why do most of the children not have shoes?
- How can young people influence change in the world today?
Common Core State Standards
6-8.7: Research to Build and Present Knowledge: Conduct short research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question), drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions that allow for multiple avenues of exploration.
- Students will be able to conduct research about the role of the American Red Cross in providing aid to foreign countries during World War I. The short research project will allow students to write historically accurate journal entries about the time period from the perspective of an American Red Cross nurse or another chosen perspective.
6-8.2: Text Types and Purposes: Write informative/explanatory texts, including the narration of historical events, scientific procedures/experiments, or technical processes.
- Students will be able to write a diary entry from the perspective of an American Red Cross nurse or another chosen perspective with historical accuracy for the time period. Information from research should be included to reflect historical events, fears, hope, and the impact of the challenges on daily life.
Students will be able to conduct a mini research project and write a historically accurate diary entry from the perspective of an American Red Cross nurse or another chosen perspective during World War I. Students may include evidence of historical events, fears, hopes, and the impact of the challenges on daily life to showcase the hardships of war. Consider creating a whole-class diary and inviting students to read the entries created by peers. For further inquiry, students may research how the American Red Cross operates in the world today.
- The aftermath of war—including poverty, disease, and children who have lost their families—includes sensitive topics to teach. Some students may have a personal connection to war, if their family members are deployed members of the military or veterans. Some students or their families may have even received aid from The Red Cross and would therefore have more perspective than other students.
Links to resources for approaching those topics
- United 4 Social Change offers links to lesson plans, articles, and informational sites to support teachers in teaching about war.
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Photograph: All the family works . . .
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“Lithuanian women spinning flax and pressing the completed cloth in front of their dilapidated home in a Baltic seaport town. . . . The American Red Cross is still with them helping their sick and returning refugees from Russia.” (from Red Cross caption card)
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Photograph: The old fashioned way . . .
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“Many things are old fashioned in the little Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, but nothing seen by the American Red Cross workers there . . . is more primitive than the spinning wheel. . . . There has been much illness in the Baltic provinces but thanks to the work of the Red Cross the people are getting on their feet again.” (from the Red Cross caption card)
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Photographs: Wood burning locomotives . .
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“In Lithuania and other north Baltic states where the American Red Cross . . . is conducting relief work, the shortage of coal has made it necessary to burn wood in the railway engines. Wood burns rapidly and to carry enough for a long run, a super structure had to be built over the fuel box.” (from the Red Cross caption card)
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Photographs: Baltic nurses shave their heads . .
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“As a precaution against infection from the typhus carriers the nurses in the American hospital at Riga cut their hair and shaved their heads.” (from the Red Cross caption card)
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- Library of Congress research guide: Lithuanian collections
- Per the Library of Congress, these collections of materials on the history of Lithuania “are the largest in the Americas and probably the largest outside of Lithuania.” Many books were purchased in August 1954 from the heirs of Petras Klimas, Lithuanian historian and diplomat.
- Library of Congress research guide: World War I, American Red Cross: Topics in Chronicling America
- American Red Cross: “Our History: Over 140 Years of Compassionate Service”
- Library of Congress: World War I: Diaries and Memoirs