Regulations have been made public in Nazi-occupied Poland permitting individuals and relief committe to receive money from neutral countries but as the system works out the recipients will actually get less than 20 per cent of the amount remitted and will be permitted to draw only 100 zlotys monthly.
The regulations, which were made public by the Deutsche Bank in Warsaw, Cracow and other cities, are obviously aimed at stimulating Poles and Jews to seek remittances from relatives in America and elsewhere, thus securing badly-needed foreign currency for the Reich. The regulations provide:
(1) No remittances will be admitted to the Government-General from belligerent countries.
(2) The sending of money from neutral countries can be effected either through the German banks there or through local banks specially authorized by the German authorities to make such transactions.
(3) Remittances may be sent to relief committees and to persons residing permanently in the Government-General.
(4) The sums accepted for residents of the Government-General will not be limited in size, but the recipients will not be able to draw more than 100 zlotys monthly, except by special permission of the Governor-General.
(5) Persons remitting the money must pay the currency of their respective countries to the authorized banks and it will be transmitted 50 per cent in marks at the prevalent German rate and 50 per cent at the rate of the so-called “registered marks.”
(6) The marks will be paid out to the recipients in zlotys at the rate of two zlotys to the mark.
The last two provisions will make the sending of money especially difficult since the official rate of the German mark is highly inflated and since food prices in Nazi Poland are almost prohibitive in terms of zlotys. Thus, if a person in the United States sends $16 to a relative in Poland, the 100 zlotys which the recipient gets will be hardly worth 20 per cent of the $16 after the exchange manipulations provided by the Deutsche Bank’s regulations are carried out.
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.
