The position of the Jewish population under German occupation can be described in one sentence: The Jews are outside the law.
Quite apart from the measures taken by the German Central authorities against them officially, they are in fact a mass of two million defenseless men, utterly at the mercy of the occupying power.
Any local Nazi official, any newly arrived Volksdeutsche, may regard himself as absolute lord of life and death over the Jews and do anything he likes to them and with them.

The Germans do not seem to have any definite plans for solving the Jewish question.
They do not even seem to be applying the principles of the National -Socialist doctrine with regard to the Jews. We are thus witnessing the persecution of a people who have no means of defending themselves, a persecution carried out with sadistic cruelty in pursuance of a policy devoid of any wider purpose and for the sake of small profits accruing from occasional robbery.

The guiding idea perhaps seems to be - apart from the attempt to starve two million human beings - to demonstrate to the Polish population that Jew-hunting is a free sport and thus to stimulate any latent anti-semitic feelings.

The results of this policy are, however, entirely contrary to those expected by the Germans, for it is possible to observe among the Polish population a reaction in the opposite sense.
This is manifested by a clear tendency on the part of the Poles, themselves maltreated and persecuted, to show Christian compassion towards their Jewish fellow-countrymen, who are suffering even more terribly under the heel of the invader.

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I - DECREES AGAINST THE JEWS

The regulations and decrees concerning the Jews best illustrate the lack of uniformity in the anti-semitic policy of the Germans.

Even the wearing of the notorious yellow triangle, a dis-tinguishing mark imposed on the Jews, his not been regulated in the same manner everywhere. Neither the size of this badge, nor the date after which it becomes obligatory for the Jews to wear it, nor the penalties provided against infractions of this regulation have been fixed uniformly for all localities.

In Warsaw, Cracow and Czestochowa the Jews received orders to wear, as from December I, 1939, a white armlet with a blue shield of David.
In Lodz, Wloclawek and Lublin, the Jews, as from November i2, were obliged to wear a yellow armlet.
In other localities, German officials of a more vindictive temper have forced the Jews to wear two pieces of yellow material, on their backs and sleeves, in order that they may be distinguished from the Poles who are also forced to wear distinctive marks.

Jewish shops and other establishments are also obliged to display an appropriate notice in their windows.
In Warsaw and district all Jewish shops have been ordered by the district leader, Dr. Fischer, to exhibit the sign of the Star of Zion in blue upon a white ground.

The decree defines in precise terms who is a Jew and who is not. " Those of the inhabitants," states the decree, " who were not members of the Jewish religious community on October 1, 1939, shall not be regarded as Jews." This definition, to begin with, is absolutely contrary not only to the racial princi-ples of the Germans but also to a number of other regulations issued in Warsaw, as far instance the regulation concerning the yellow triangle.
According to this latter ordinance " all those will be considered as Jews who belong or belonged to the Jewish religious community " and even " all those whose fathers or mothers were members of the Jewish community."
Consequently, if anyone chanced to leave the Jewish religious community before October 1, I939, he would be obliged to wear an armlet with the Shield of David, but he would not be obliged to display a Star of Zion in front of his shop.
This example indicates the arbitrariness and inconsistency of the anti-Jewish regulations issued by the German authorities in Poland.

As to the penalties imposed for infractions of the decree concerning the wearing of yellow armlets, in Warsaw they are defined rather vaguely as " severe punishment."
In Lodz, on the other hand, the penalties are stipulated in precise terms and expose the culprits to capital punishment.
Since the conclusion of active military operations, the Germans have carried out a rapid census of the Jewish population in certain cities. In Warsaw this measure was explained by the necessity to organize the economic life of the city."
This seemed to point to some scheme prepared in advance, but nothing happened.
The Germans were satisfied with the panic they had spread among the Jewish population of the city and pro-ceeded to extort a heavy ransom from them.

On December 18, 1939, the Germans issued a decree ordering that all jewelry in the possession of Jews, above the value of 2,000 zlotys, must be declared. The declarations were to be made before January 17, 1940.
Up till now the Germans have not revealed what measures they intend to take in regard to the declarations of jewelry, judging by the measures which were taken against the Jews in Germany, it may be assumed that the Jews in Poland will be robbed of all they possess above the value of 2,000 zlotys (nominally $500).
Of course, the decree concerning the declaration of jewelry furnished a convenient pretext for house searches and con-fiscations - as for instance in Cracow, where house searches in the Jewish quarter lasted uninterruptedly for 72 hours.
These were accompanied by much ruthless pillaging and the theft of objects of value, jewelry and money, even if the amounts found during the search were considerably below the authorized limit of 2,000 zlotys.

With regard to compulsory labor in general, the regulation stipulates a period of six months.For the Jews, however, the period of forced labor is two years.

The Warschauer Zeitung has published details of the decree instituting compulsory labor for the Jews: " All Jewish inhabitants of the Government-General between the ages of 14-60 shall be liable to perform compulsory labor.
The duration of the labor service will be two years in principle, but it may be extended in cases in which the educational purpose of the measure has not been attained.
The com-pulsory labor service is in the first instance introduced for men, who should register through the Jewish communities to which they belong.
Artisans called up by the Compulsory Labor Service Board are obliged to bring their tools with them. Machinery belonging to the artisans shall be at the disposal of the Compulsory Labor Service Board from the moment their proprietors have been called up for service.
Moreover, it is forbidden to Jews to dispose in any way whatsoever of their tools and machinery.
It is also prohibited to lend or to pawn these objects. Infractions of the decree will be punished by imprisonment for terms up to ten years."

The use of the Yiddish and Hebrew languages is prohibited in the postal services. Letters written in these languages which accumulated in the post before the resumption of normal deliveries were simply destroyed.

The question of the Ghetto was solved in different ways according to the various cities. In Pulawy, for instance, the ghetto is complete, but in Piotrkow, on the other hand, it is not rigorously observed.
The Jews have been expelled from certain cities, mainly from those in territories annexed to the Reich, such as Kalisz, Plock, Sierpc, Wielun, Plonsk, Nasielsk, Nowy Dwor, etc.

The position of the Jews in Lodz is more than paradoxical.
They are forbidden to appear in the principal street of the city - Piotrkowska Street - but those Jews who live in that street have not been turned out of their homes.
In Warsaw the threat to enclose a community of 300,000 people in a ghetto situated in a quarter of the capital which suffered severely from bombardment was sufficient to draw from the Jewish religious community a very considerable sum of money by way of a ransom to induce the postponement of the measure.

The following is an account by a member of the Jewish religious community in Warsaw of the manner in which the Germans threatened to reform the Jewish quarter of Warsaw into a ghetto :

"At the beginning of November the Germans suddenly convened a meeting of 24 members of the community. The day chosen was, of course, a Saturday, to make things more painful for us.
Officers of the Gestapo and of the Wehrmacht were present at the meeting. The demands of the newcomers were precise.
They ordered the members of the community to nominate their successors within fifteen minutes.
The Jewish representatives were convinced that the Germans intended to arrest them afterwards. They tried vainly to excuse themselves, pleading the impossibility of finding 24 candidates within a few minutes, especially on a Saturday. They were obliged to search for their deputies in the house they were in, on the staircases and even in the street.
At the end of fifteen minutes the 24 candidates were found, and among them was a notorious thief.
Thereupon, the German officers informed the 24 members of the Council and their 24 deputies that they were given 24 hours in which to organize the ghetto of Warsaw, which was to be surrounded by a barbed-wire fence.
The Jews who lived in other parts of the city, to the number of about 160,000, were to be transferred by force to the ghetto; the 30,000 Poles who lived there were to be expelled.
So as to make sure that the plan would be executed according to instructions, the Germans arrested the deputies as hostages.
The news of this order issued by the German authorities naturally produced a panic, not only among the Jews but also among the Poles.
The general impression was that nothing could prevent the Germans from carrying out their project, although it was technically impos-sible of realization.
The Jewish community finally paid a large sum of money and obtained a postponement of the execution of the plan to a later date.
It is, however, more than probable that the German authorities themselves were opposed to the idea, fearing that the typhoid epidemic which was raging throughout the Jewish quarter might spread among the army if the transfer of population was effected."

The position of Jews belonging to the liberal professions has not been legally regulated yet. Nevertheless, Jewish lawyers in Warsaw do not even attempt to attend the courts.

The opportunities left open to the Jews in Trade and Com-merce are extremely limited. They are strictly forbidden to trade in leather goods and textiles. In certain cities, as for instance Siedlce, the Jews may not sell bread and flour. In Lask the Jewish quarter is surrounded by a barbed-wire fence and the Jews are consequently unable to make direct purchases of foodstuffs.

Jews are not allowed to enter the city of Torun under penalty of death. Theoretically, the Gestapo is the sole German authority, dealing with Jews and the latter are not allowed to go anywhere without the permission of the Gestapo.

In Warsaw, the post offices are closed to the Jews with the exception of one situated in the Jewish quarter.

Jewish ritual slaughter is forbidden both as regards and poultry.
In certain Polish cities the curfew hour for the Jews is earlier than that fixed by the police for the rest of the population.
Such are in general outline the decrees, regulations and measures directed against the Jews, but the German dignitaries, both great and small, do not observe the stipulations of the decrees, believing themselves to be entitled to act as they please.
They seem to find particular pleasure m maltreating and humiliating the Jews, inflicting moral and physical tortures on them, carrying out mass executions and condemning multitudes to death by starvation.


II - PERSECUTIONS, EXECUTIONS, AND MASS-MURDERS

The following are only a few of the innumerable committed by the Germans.
Numerous Jews have been executed in Warsaw for " opposing the authorities." Among them was an aged jeweler, Samson Luxemburg, in whose shop the Germans claim to have found concealed arms.
The searches made by the authorities in order to discover hidden stores of arms became a pretext for continual visits into the Jewish quarter by thousands of police agents, which often ended with the arrest of innocent persons whom their families never saw again.

An official communique issued by the police announced the execution Of 53 Jews living in a house in Nalewki Street, in the Jewish quarter, on November 22, 1939.
According to the communique, a certain Pinkus Jankiel Zylberberg, living in this house, shot a police agent and wounded another with a revolver in the doorway leading into an apartment.
The inhabitants of the house were killed for " having culpably concealed criminals " while the police were still carrying out inquiries.
The communique which was posted on the walls of the capital added that such action on the part of the authorities would " no doubt sufficiently convince the population that any attempt to create trouble and disorder and to endanger public security will be severely suppressed."

Eighty-three Jews were shot between Chelm and Hrubieszow.
They were part of a group of several hundreds of Jews driven away from the two towns by the German military command.
They were put to death because, when ordered by the Germans to run as fast as they could in the direction of the frontier of the Russian-occupied areas, they did not run fast enough.

The burning of Jewish synagogues is frequently followed by pogroms.
The Germans themselves set these places of worship on fire and afterwards accuse the Jews of sabotage and of endangering public safety.
Afterwards, hundreds of men collected haphazardly are shot and a heavy ransom is imposed on the remaining Jewish population.

The following facts have been verified:

In Bedzin, the Germans crowded all the Jews into the Jewish quarter and set it on fire. Several hundred Jews perished in the fire and those who hastened to their aid fell from the bullets of the uniformed German murderers.

In Sosnowiec, the Germans set fire to three synagogues and arrested 250 Jews. Soon afterwards four German soldiers were found dead, and as a reprisal 25 Poles and Jews were shot.

In Nowe Miasto, near Warsaw, the Germans shot 10 Jews who were seized at random in the streets. No reason for this murder was ever given.

The Jewish population of Ciechanow had to pay a fine of 50,000 zlotys.

In Grojec, the Germans ordered the Jews to set fire to their synagogue. After the fire, many Jews were executed, while others were deported to concentration camps.

In Wloclawek, the Germans set fire to the great synagogue of the city, after which they forced the Jews to pay a fine of 600,000 zlotys " as a penalty for damage done to a public building." The Council of the Jewish Community was forced to sign a declaration stating that the Jews themselves had set fire to the synagogue.
Another synagogue in Wloclawek was also set on fire, after which 700 Jews were arrested.

In Gniewoszew two synagogues were transformed into stables, and the Jewish population in the town had to pay a fine of 25,000 zlotys.

According to German official data, up to December 15, 1939, the following numbers of Jews had been shot for the alleged offense of concealing arms : 41 Jews in Lodz, 17 in Warsaw, 4 in Kielce, 9 in Czestochowa, 3 in Cracow, 2 in Zyrardow) 5 in Katowice. In the majority of cases the arms were placed in the homes of the victims by agents of the Gestapo.

In Zdunska Wola, the Germans collected in the market square 40 Jews, all over 50 years of age, and forced them to strip and then to form two rows, face to face, crouching on the ground. The Germans thereupon ordered the Jews to slap each other on the face.
Those who did not hit strongly enough were instantly flogged. When all the Jews were covered with blood, they were made to race and those who fell behind were flogged again.

During three days, December 18-20, a general search was carried out in all the houses in Kazimierz, the Jewish quarter of Cracow.
This search developed into a gigantic pogrom, in the course of which all shops, stocks of goods and private houses were looted.
The whole suburb was surrounded for these three days by a cordon of police and the merchandise looted was carried away methodically and rapidly by motor cars.
During the search 18o Jews were tortured to death.


III - THE PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF RACIAL THEORIES

Their " racial " principles and their regulations concerning the " purity of German blood " does not prevent the Germans from practicing the systematic raping of young Jewish girls.

One of the most disgusting orgies on the part of German officers took place in the house of M. Szereszewski, a well -known Warsaw Jew, now a refugee, in Pius Street in Warsaw.
As a result of a raid carried out in Franciszkanska Street in the Jewish quarter, 4o young girls were dragged into the house, which was occupied by German officers.
There, after being forced to drink, the girls were ordered to undress and to dance for the amusement of their tormentors. Beaten, abused and raped, the girls were not released till 3 a.m.

The Germans demanded from the Jewish communities in various cities that brothels should be opened for the use of the German army. Such an order was addressed, inter alia,,to the Jewish community in Warsaw, as stated in a sworn affidavit made in New York by Dr. Szoskies, who was himself a member of the Jewish Committee of Elders and who left Poland in December last.
Dr. Szoskies declared that, on November 2, 1939, the German Group-leader (Gruppenfiihrer) 'Wende, repre-senting the Gestapo, presented himself officially in the office of the Jewish community in Warsaw and demanded the open-ing of two brothels, one for officers and another for other ranks.
He added cynically that the community would draw con-siderable profits from the enterprise.
When the Jewish repre-sentatives reminded him of the decrees on the " purity of German blood," Wende replied: " That's neither here nor there.This is war and theories are dead for the time being."

In spite of the dangers threatening them, the members of the Jewish community absolutely refused to obey these degrading orders of the German authorities.
As a consequence of this categorical refusal, the Germans renounced their plans, but individual cases of rape have become more and more frequent.

In a number of other cities the Germans made similar demands, but everywhere members of the Jewish communities refused no less decidedly.


IV - A TYPICAL SCENE: THE JEWS IN LODZ

If we draw special attention to the position of the Jews in Lodz, it is not because their plight in other Polish cities of the territories annexed or forming part of the Government-General is different or -in any way more harsh.
On the contrary, the position of the Jews in Lodz is typical of their conditions else-where, especially in the region which the Germans call Warthegau.
But it happens to be from Lodz, the second city in Poland as far as the number of inhabitants are concerned, with the largest Jewish population after Warsaw, that the most precise and most reliable information has been received.

The persecution of the Jews began on the first day of the entry of the Germans into the city.
The principal part in the persecutions was taken by local Germans, who wanted to seize the factories and other Jewish establishments in Lodz as quickly as possible.

In the large Jewish shops Commissars were installed, who were almost entirely recruited from the local Germans, and their first act was to confiscate these enterprises.
A decree issued by the military command prohibited all trading by Jews in textile and leather goods. At the same time numerous Jewish shops were closed on the pretext that the sanitary conditions did not conform with regulations.
German informers went from one shop to another and as soon as they discovered what they deemed to be infractions with regard to the fixed prices, the Jewish trader was arrested and a few days afterwards his license was canceled.

It was not long before the Germans began to loot Jewish homes. All the more prosperous Jews were expelled from the residential quarters of the city.
They were ordered to leave their apartments within three days, but usually had to do so within a few hours, leaving behind them the greater part of their possessions, such as furniture, household linen, clothes, etc.
The apartments thus vacated were said to be reserved for the Germans imported from the Baltic countries, who had begun to arrive in the meantime.

Lodz was one of the first cities in Poland where the Jews were ordered to wear yellow armlets on their sleeves. Early in December, this armlet was replaced by a piece of cotton patched on to the front and back of the Jewish Kaftan.

The Jews were at first forbidden to cross Piotrkowska Street later they were allowed to do so on the payment of a fee.

In Lodz, as everywhere else, the Jews were ordered by the Germans to do forced labor.
This gave the invaders occasion to indulge freely in their sadistic desire to inflict physical and moral tortures on weak and defenseless people, and they found particular pleasure in trampling on human dignity and in jeering at the sufferings of their victims, Jews were forced to perform exhausting and useless tasks, such as transporting heavy stones from one place to another.

Although in their desire to alleviate the ensuing general distress, the Jewish community offered to keep permanently at their disposal for labor service a certain number of Jews, the German authorities only found in this proposal another opportunity for displaying their cruelty, Though the two thousand Jewish workmen promised by the com-munity were engaged without respite on compulsory labor, the Jew-hunt continued in the streets of the city.
The men thus seized were maltreated and forced to perform the most humiliating work.
A section of the S.S. installed themselves in the huge building of the Jewish lyceum of Katzenelsohn, and those Jews rounded up in the streets were usually con-ducted to that building, where they suffered all kinds of tortures.

In the market square of Baluty, the poor suburb of Lodz, inhabited mainly by Jews, the Germans hanged a certain number of Jews and left the corpses exposed to public view for 48 hours.
The victims were accused of having denounced the Nazis to the Polish authorities at the beginning of the war.

Before setting fire to the Great Synagogue in Lodz, the Germans ordered the Jewish community to supply 400 Jews with their ritual shawls-talesim-and to hold a service to the accompaniment of a full choir.
This religious service was filmed by the Germans.
After this the 400 Jews were attacked and beaten and a number of them were conducted to a restaurant in the city, where a huge merry-making crowd of Germans awaited them.
The Jews were ordered to sing and dance and they were filmed again.
The picture will probably be used in neutral countries as proof that the Jews are not persecuted at all. The wretched victims of German burnout were forbidden to touch any food and after the " show " they were again cruelly beaten and forced to perform compulsory labor for 24 hours.

The Jews were also obliged to dance around the monument of Kosciuszko, the Polish national hero, which was demolished by the Germans.
The film showing the Jews dancing round the ruins of the monument is being shown in various Polish cities in order to convince the Polish population that the Jews were rejoicing at the defeat of Poland.

Many Jewish families have sent their daughters to Cracow and Warsaw in the hope that they will be less exposed to the brutal treatment of German soldiers.
But a great number of young Jewish girls were seized on the journey and it was stated that they would be sent to compulsory labor camps.
It has since been learned, however, that they were conducted to various localities where German officers and soldiers were billeted.
All trace of them has been lost, and it is feared that they are being detained in military brothels.

Although no official decree was issued, at the beginning of December the Jewish community were given the order to organize a speedy evacuation of the Jewish inhabitants to be completed before January 15, 1940.
This order produced great panic among the Jewish community, which was obliged to undertake the evacuation of Lodz within a fortnight; this involved the removal of 1,700 persons daily.
Those who "volunteered " - for instance, Jewish paupers, who had nothing to lose - were loaded into cattle trucks. The trucks were sealed and departed in the direction of Warsaw.
But after a few days' journey a hopeless traffic jam formed near the Koluszki railway junction and the trains of evacuee Jews were shunted on to disused sidings. The trucks, filled with women, children, the aged and the sick, were left standing there sealed for three or four days.
No one could obtain access to them in order to offer the miserable captives a drop of water or some food, and the trucks were never aired at all.
This happened during the first half of December at a time of severe frost. In one such train, which finally reached Warsaw, eight corpses of children were found.
A number of such transports were dispatched to Lublin.

The German authorities themselves realized that it would be impossible to complete the evacuation of Lodzi within the stipulated period of time and fixed a new time-limit - the 1st of March, 1940. The evacuations continue, although at a some-what slower pace.

In Lodz itself the life of the Jews has become an inferno. Mass arrests continue, and men are being dragged out to forced labor and tortured, women are not only maltreated but often raped.

Those who can do so escape to Cracow or Warsaw, where the situation for the Jews, although difficult, is not quite so desperate as in Lodz, a city which Hitler has decided to transform into a German city at any price.


V - "AUTONOMOUS ADMINISTRATION " OF THE JEWISH POPULATION

Governor-General Hans Frank recently declared to neutral press-corespondents that the Jews in Poland enjoy the same rights as the Poles and that they have received a " kind of auto-nomous administration." It is worth while examining this autonomy in detail.
The " autonomous administration" is nothing more than an assembly of " elders " who have, to a certain extent, replaced the Confessional Jewish Communities, which in Poland were generally elected by a free vote.
The Germans for a time entertained the notion of convoking an assembly which would represent the Jewish population in Poland, but their real intention was to produce a representative body on whom collective responsibility could be laid when desired.
According to statements made by Frank himself the " elders " would in fact be regarded as hostages, responsible for the Jews before the Gestapo, which is the only German institution with which the Jews are in direct contact.

So far as the attitude of the Germans towards this autono-mous Jewish administration is concerned, a few facts picked at random will give a sufficiently clear idea of what their views are.

In Warsaw the relations between the Gestapo and the Jewish community began with the confiscation of all the cash found at the offices of the latter, amounting to about 100,000 zlotys ($25,000).
This, however, did not prevent the Germans from imposing on the same community new levies and charges of all kinds.
Of these, the first was to defray the cost of burying all the Jews who died during the siege of Warsaw.
There were at least 10,000 killed among the civil population.
Soon afterwards the Jewish community was ordered to carry out, at its own expense and within the shortest possible time, a census of the Jewish population.
The census showed that the number of Jewish inhabitants of Warsaw was 330,000, and the com-munity was ordered, without any previous notice, to transfer 160,000 Jews into the ghetto which the Germans intended to establish in the Northern part of Warsaw.
The Jewish popu-lation was made to pay 300,000 zlotys in order to secure the postponement of the execution of this scheme, which, however, the Germans have not yet given up.

Immediately afterwards the Jews were ordered to take over and to maintain at their own expense the municipal hospital situated in the suburb of Czyste, which would have meant an additional outlay of 5 million zlotys per annum.
But before they even had time to take over the management of the hospital, the German authorities requi-sitioned it and without more ado the 1,800 bedridden Jews from the various hospital wards were turned out, and parked in a school building in Leszno Street.
Needless to say, the school was unfit to receive the patients, especially such a large number.

The workings of the "autonomous Jewish administration" in Lodz deserve special mention.

25.7.1944

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