For whom there is no room

de Eileen Egan

Working with the United Nations and a few conscientious states, a number of private relief organizations have been in the forefront of the effort to comfort and resettle refugees. Among these is Catholic Relief Services, the overseas aid and development agency of the Catholic community in the United States. For Whom There Is No Room is an eyewitness account of this work by Catholic Relief Services. Eileen Egan has been involved in the work of CRS since its inception, both as a participant and as an observer. Here she tells the story of how Polish children, expelled from their homeland in the early days of World War II, were settled and flourished in Mexico. Other Poles trekked by foot through the Soviet Union to Iran where they were rescued by CRS and resettled in Africa and the New World. This book also tells the story of Jews escaping from occupied France into Spain during the same period. Egan directed a CRS office in Barcelona and worked closely with Jewish and Quaker agencies to assist Jews fleeing from the holocaust. After the war CRS ministered to persons displaced from eastern Europe. In our day there have been new tides of homeless people in Africa, the Balkans and the Caribbean. Catholic Relief Services goes on, but so does cruel history and its new generation of refugees.