56 Friday, hoary 11, 1960

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Israeli Medical Teams Help Improve Conditions
for 31,000 Cambodian Refugees at Sakeo Camp

By JOAN CAMPION

(Editor's note: Gentile
freelance writer Joan
Campion of Bethlehem,
Pa. is in Israel gathering
data on Holocaust mar-
tyr Gisi Fleischmann on
assignment from the
World Jewish Congress
Memorial Foundation. A
portion of Ms. Campions'
book on Mrs. Fleis-
chmann appeared in the
July 6 and 13, 1979 edi-
tions of The Jewish
News.)
RAMAT-GAN — In an

outpouring of practical
generosity that is out of all
proportion to the country's
size and limited resources,
the people and government
of Israel have raised the
money to send three fully-
equipped medical relief
teams to aid refugees on the
Thai-Cambodian border,
and there is hope that five or
six additional teams . may be
sent in 1980.
Taken by itself, the Israel
Broadcasting telethon net-
ted 13 million Israeli Lirot,
or about $520,000 in U.S.
money. This comes to ap-
proximately 12.6 cents per
Israeli man, woman and
child. To do as well in
American terms, a nation-
wide fund-raising drive
would have to take in $252
million.
The response is all the
more generous, given Is-
rael's weak economy and
high unemployment and in-
flation rates.

-

Dr. Yaacov Adler, left, is shown with a Dutch doc-
tor and a Finnish nurse treating a Cambodian child at
the Sakeo refugee camp.

similar plight during World
According to Adler, credit
War IL of course. Perhaps a for the inception of the Is-
people that was persecuted raeli Cambodian relief proj-
during Hitler's Holocaust ect should go to Abie
feels a special responsibility Nathan, Israel's well-
to help others in trouble."
known peace activist and
Adler, 48, helper of the philanthropist.
"Israeli television showed
victims of a new Holocaust,
is himself a survivor of the a BBC television film which
Hitler epoch. Born in dramatized the plight of the
Czechoslovakia, to which he Cambodian refugees," he
returned after the end of recalled. "Later Abie
World War II, he and his Nathan appeared on televi-
family left for Norway when sion and mentioned that
he was nine years old. With medical help was needed.
the aid- of the Norwegian called him and offered
underground they managed to organize a medical team
to hide there for the dura- if he would support it finan-
tion of the war, and later cially."
Nathan agreed, so
spent a year in Sweden.
Adler escaped from Adler began making con-

Czechoslovakia in the tacts around the country
summer of 1949, following and soon had put to-
the Communist takeover, gether a team consisting
and came to Israel, where he of four male nurses, two
received his medical educa- pediatricians, three
"I can only speculate tion at Hadassah — Hebrew internal medicine spe-
on the reasons for this University Medical School. cialists and one surgeon
public reaction," says Dr. His time is divided be- —Adler himself being the
Yaacov Adler, director of tween his work with var- surgeon.
Meanwhile, the Israeli
emergency services at ious civilian hospitals
Shaare and his duties with the government had set up an
Jerusalem's
interdepartmental
commit-
Zedek Hospital and head medical corps of the Is-
of Israel's first Cambo- rael Defense Forces; he is tee to provide some finan-
cial
aid
for
the
Cambodian
former deputy chief med -
dian relief team.
project; that aid will con-
"Our people were in a ical officer of the IDF.

tinue through the end of
January when the third Is-
raeli medical team returns
home.
But from the beginning,
by far the largest source of
support has been the aver-
age Israeli, through dona-
tions made either to Abie
Nathan's Cambodian fund
or through Israeli Televi-
sion.
The first Israeli team,
headed by Dr. Adler, ar-
rived at the Sakeo refugee
camp near the Cambodian
border on the afternoon of
Nov. 4, 1979. Sakeo at that
time was the major refugee
camp and contained 31,000
people, some of them Com-
munist Khmer soldiers who
had escaped from the Viet-
namese with their families
and relatives.

The Israelis joined re-
lief teams from other na-
tions and relief organiza-
tions such as the Interna-
tional Committee for the
Red Cross (ICRC), the
French MSF and CAMA,
The Christian American
Medical Association.

Adler said he had seen
some terrible things, par-
ticularly in wartime; but,
"as a concentration of prob-
lems, this was one of the
worst situations I've been
in.
"It was especially difficult
to absorb the plight of the
children. Many of them had
no parents, and they all suf-
fered from malnutrition and
illnesses."
He ticked off conditions in
the camp when his team ar-
rived:

The 31,000 refugees
were confined in a space
that might be sufficient
for 5,000, virtually living
on top of each other, a
family of five might live in
a space two meters
square.

"They are very small
people," said Adler. "We
used to say that was their
only luck.
"The sanitary system was
very poor," he added. "There
were not enough latrines,
and those that existed soon
filled up.
"There was enough
water, but people had to
queue for it. The tempera-
ture was about 98 degrees
Fahrenheit, the humidity
60 to 70 percent, and many
sick people suffered from
dehydration or heat
exhaustion as well."

Most of the refugees were
already ill when they came
to Sakeo, and under condi-
tions like these contagious
diseases raced through the
camp. The mortality rate
was high, with about 40
deaths occurring every day.

"Malaria was the most
common disease; for
practical purposes all the
refugees had it," remem-
bered Adler. "Here there
was a special kind of
malaria, a cerebral
malaria caused by the
falcip arum parasite,
which is very dangerous
because it attacks the
brain and can cause
death."

There were also respira-
tory infections, especially
pneumonia and tuber-
culosis, and intestinal
parasites such as worms
and amoebas.
A small epidemic of
meningitis occurred as well;
the disease attacked about
30 children in one week and
approximately 30 percent of
the victims died.
.The hospital at Sakeo
held about 1,100 persons —
not beds, Adler pointed out
— and about 100 new people
were seen every day.

In the outpatient de-

partment about 5,000
new people were seen
every day, so that about
10 percent of the popula-
tion of the camp under-
went medical scrutiny on
a daily basis.
Adler noted that he and

his team were able to see a
notable change for the bet-
ter in conditions even dur-
ing their one-month stay.
The six to eight on-site med-
ical teams, working to-
gether, managed, for in-
stance, to get the mortality
rate down from 40 cases a
day to around two.
The nutritional situation
also underwent a marked
improvement. "Children
who had been totally apthe-
tic before were now alert
and playing games," said
Adler.
There was never a shor-
tage of supplies, he said,
with all teams well supplied
from the same source.
Equipment was also avail-
able at Sakeo, although the
Israelis brought more with
them and later Abie Nathan
supplied such heavy items
as an x-ray machine.

Of Nathan, Adler ob-
served, "He was very
good. He came out three
times to see the situation
for himself, and he not
only helped get medical
supplies quickly and effi-
ciently, he also supplied
large amounts of food for
refugees concentrated on
the border who were not
in camps."

Adler said he could not
predict the outcome of the
Cambodian refugee prob-
lem, but he.did return from
his personal tour of duty in
the Sakeo refugee camp
with the feeling that at least
their medical situation had
stabilized.

Achievements of Religious Zionist Leader Shragai Recalled on 80th

By YITZHAK GOLDSHLAG

and HAIM SHACHTER

World Zionist Press Service

At age 80, Shlomo Zal-
man Shragai can look back
upon a lifetime of single-
minded service to the cause
of religious Zionism — a
service that has gained him
universal reverence and es-
teem in the Zionist move-
ment.
He started his Zionist
career at age 15, when boys
are concerned more with the
playing field than with the
ideas and ideals. It was then
that he founded a "Young
Mizrachi Association" in his
native townlet in Poland,
and began bringing out a
religious Zionist organ by

the name of "Hatechiya"
("the Revival").
A few years later, he
founded the Mizrachi
Halutz (pioneer) Movement
in Poland and set up a
hachshara (agricultural
training) farm for religious
pioneers.

Shragai made aliya in
1924 and immediately
upon arrival entered into
the thick of public ac-
tivity. The young reli-
gious Zionist became one
of the acknowledged
leaders of the Mizrachi
movement, which he re-
presentecrat Zionist Con-
gresses anch:the Zionist
General Council, from
the 15th Zionist Congress

(Basle 1927) and on-
wards.

In 1929 he was elected to
the Executive of the Vaad
Leumi, the National Coun-
cil of Palestine Jews, and
was entrusted with the
press and information
portfolio. When the Pales-
tine Broadcasting Service
was opened by the mandat-
ory authorities in 1936, he
became chairman of the
advisory council on Hebrew
programs.
In 1946 he was elected to
the Executive of the Jewish
Agency, (the cabinet of
world Zionism), and took up
residence in London where
he directed Zionist informa-
tion activity among Jewish

which they lived.
But Shragai remained
adamant: The state of Is-
rael, he said, had not been
created for a special cate-
gory of Jews, for the
pioneers or the productive
elements alone; it had been
set up for the redemption of
the whole of the Jewish
people. All Jews had the
right to return to their
In 1954 he took over the homeland.
aliya department of the
Shragai felt he did not re-
Jewish Agency Execu- ceive adequate support
tive, thus becoming one among his colleagues on the
of the architects of mass Zionist Executive or among
Jewish immigration to the members of the gov-
the homeland. During his ernment. However, he
tenure of office as chair- found staunch allies in
man of the aliya depart- David Ben-Gurion and
meat, he succeeded in Golds Meir, who argued
bringing over some that selective immigration
600,000 Jews from all would mean a return to the
corners of the globe.
immigration policy of the
A campaign was mandatory government,
launched in the ess, ur-
which had . made immigra-
selective immigration.ton conditional on the ab-
Only the physically fit and sorptive capacity of the
productive
should be country.
productive
allowed into the country.
With the help of an ap-
The social cases had to re-
maul behind and be cared peal by Mrs. Meir,
for by the communities in Shragai won his case.

and non-Jewish religious
circles.
He was re-elected to the
Zionist Executive on the
emergence of the state and,
except for a two-year period
beginning in 1950, when he
became the first elected
Jewish mayor of Jerusalem,
continued to be a member of
the Executive until his re-
tirement in 1968.

SHLOMO SHRAGAI

At the last Mizrachi
Hapoel - Hamizrachi
World Conference, which
took place in Jerusalem in
1978, Shlomo Zalman
Shragai was elected honor-
ary life president of the
movement.

