Relief on the Hoof: The Seagoing Cowboys, the Heifer Project, and Unrra in Poland

Relief on the Hoof is about the thousands of horses and cattle that the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) shipped as humanitarian aid in the immediate aftermath of WWII and about the ＂seagoing cowboys＂ who cared for the animals during their trans-Atlantic journeys. UNRRA contracted the Church of the Brethren to recruit almost 7,000 men to do this work, and in exchange provided free passage on its ships to the cattle that were part of the Brethren’s own humanitarian initiative, the Heifer Project. The Heifer Project emerged from a conviction that cows and their milk offered the best value as relief commodities.

As Eva Plach shows, both UNRRA’s animal aid program and the Heifer Project were responding to a crisis in postwar Europe. Millions of livestock were lost during the war, and contemporary experts warned that postwar recovery, food security, and the prevention of social and political unrest would be compromised without replenishing the lost herds.

Poland received more Heifer Project cattle than any other country and was the major recipient of UNRRA cattle and horses as well. Relief on the Hoof shows that Poland’s special status, based on assessments of wartime destruction and postwar need, reflected its unique geopolitical importance as Cold War tensions mounted.

Eva Plach is a social and cultural historian specializing in the history of twentieth-century Poland. Her research interests include Polish nationalism, Polish-Jewish history, and the history of animal welfare. She teaches modern European history, concentrating on the history of the Holocaust.