After the first World War the United States gave vast sums of money to the dislocated orphans of Europe, but they still didn’t have enough money to meet the staggering need. In one of the places where they had set up an orphanage with funds from the states, a man came in leading a little girl. He was very thin, obviously suffering from starvation.

She also showed signs of malnutrition, eyes too large, her little abdomen distended, and her thin little legs and arms too small and too thin for her age. The man led her in and said to the person in charge, “I would like you to take in my little girl.”

The official at the desk asked him if she was his daughter and he said, “Yes.” He asked if the mother had been killed …