 Together with POWs, the deportees received some help from the International Committee of the Red Cross and other non-government organizations such as the Committee for Military and Civilian Prisoners in Tianjin () which channeled relief funds from Germany and Austria-Hungary.The Lithuanians established a relief society that specifically focused on the deportees and particularly on the Lithuanian-speaking Prussian Lithuanians.At first, the Lithuanians wanted to join Vilnius chapter of the All-Russian Society for the Care of Slavic Prisoners (), but Polish activists voted them out arguing that Lithuanians were not Slavic.