CAMPS AND COLONIES
Dorothy Parker

"I have seen some of the colonies. There is no dreadful orphan asylum quality about them. I never saw finer children -free and growing and happy. One colony was in a sea-side resort, near Valencia. There were sixty children, from four to fourteen, who had been going to a school in Madrid. And the fascist planes bombed the school….

"It was amazing to see how many of these children could draw and draw well-and it was heartening to see how their talent was encouraged by the teachers. When they first came to the colony, the children drew the thing that were nearest and deepest to them-they drew planes and bursting bombs and houses in flames. You could see by the dreadful perfection on detail, how well they knew their subjects. Now they are drawing flowers and apples and sail boats and little houses with smoke coming out of the chimneys. They are well children now."

Dorothy Parker, "No Axe to Grind," Volunteer for Liberty (November, 1937).