Food parcels addressed to Jews in the Reich from abroad have been subjected to a special higher duty than the prevailing tariff on such commodities, it was reliably reported here tonight.
(In New York there were several complaints that Forta, Inc., the German agency set up to transmit food parcels to Germany, was refusing to accept orders for delivery of packages to Jews.
(Recent refugee arrivals here report that food packages sent from America to Jews in such cities as Vienna are seized by the Nazis. One refugee told the J.T.A. he had sent a food parcel to relatives in the Reich and had received a letter reporting they had “donated” it to the Nazi Winter Relief Organization. This the refugee took to mean that the authorities had delivered the parcel and then forced the recipients to give it up.)
The sale to Jews of milk, fish, poultry, peas, barley, rice and several canned foods, including canned milk, has already been prohibited in Germany.
Reports reaching here said that while the food situation was deteriorating generally, for the Jews it was becoming even more aggravated. In Berlin, Jews were not being admitted to food markets and were being allowed to enter grocery stores only for a half hour, between noon and 12:30 p.m.
Many grocery shops in Berlin were displaying signs reading: “Entrance is prohibited here to Jews and those related to Jews.” Stores not displaying such signs were being watched by women members of Nazi welfare organizations who made it their duty to observe during the half-hour allowed for Jews’ purchases what grocery stores were serving them.
“If Jews in Berlin are not yet dying of starvation it is due to the decency and generosity of certain ‘Aryan’ dealers who manage to reserve certain commodities for their Jewish customers,” said a report received by this correspondent.
The report said that all a Jew could obtain with his specially-marked ration card was the daily ration of bread and 500 grams of meat, less than the ordinary ration for an “Aryan.” Even potatoes were scarcely being sold to Jews. The situation was said to be worse in Leipzig, where Jews were allowed to enter only three grocery stores and only during limited hours.
The clothing situation among Jews was also acute. Neither socks nor cotton to mend them were being sold to Jews. No repairing of shoes for Jews was being permitted.
Despite the fact that Jews could not keep adequately clothed for the cold weather, they were being drafted for forced labor. A special labor office for Jews has been established in the Neukoels suburb of Berlin, which supervises shipment of Jews to the various parts of Germany.
The demand for Jewish laborers is usually addressed to the local Jewish community organization, most often on notice of only several hours. In one case 3,000 Jews had to be summoned on short notice by the Berlin Jewish Community through special delivery letters and the community had to provide them with clothing, which the authorities refused. They were then sent to Muenchenberg-Neumark to help peasants there. Jewish girls of the ages of 17 and 18 were simultaneously sent to the same district to serve as cooks for the Jewish labor battalions.
The majority of drafted Jews, however, are used for work on railways and roads. Although there have thus far been no expulsions of Jews from the Old Reich to Poland, this possibility is feared.
In Stettin, 100 Jewish families were ordered to leave their homes on two hours’ notice without taking any of their possessions and these quarters were then given to Germans repatriated from Baltic countries, while the 100 Jewish families were lodged in cold vacant warehouses for 14 days. Some returned to their houses when the repatriated Germans moved on, but a number of the Germans remained in the houses permanently.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
