More than 50 Jews were slain in a Nazi inspired pogrom in the ghetto Balut quarter of Lodz, Nazi-annexed Poland, it was reliably learned here today.
The pogrom lasted from March 8 to 10. Original reports said that 18 Jews were killed and more than 200 wounded in the excesses.
The transfer of Lodz Jews to the Balut ghetto has been completed, it was learned. No Jews are now allowed to appear outside the ghetto, which is harboring an estimated 100,000 persons. Jews are forbidden also to leave Lodz or the entire annexed territory, of which Lodz is the largest city.
Meanwhile, a tenfold increase in Jewish mortality is reported from Warsaw, where the daily death rate has mounted to 200 compared to the normal winter average of 20.
With the Jewish population of the city practically doubled (the pre-war figure was 333,000) by the influx of refugees from the provinces, housing conditions are appalling. Overcongestion and complete lack of sanitary facilities are creating conditions most favorable to the spread of disease and epidemics among a Jewish population that is suffering physical exhaustion because of lack of food, chiefly fats.
The food condition for Warsaw Jews is daily growing worse. Jews are permitted a ration of 300 grams of bread each in two days. The open market prices of bread, potatoes and other necessities are too high, however, not only for the poor but even for members of the middle-class. Meat is completely unavailable, the Germans shipping all cattle to the Reich.
Owing to a lack of medicaments, even the slightest illness is likely to have fatal results among the Jews, who are barred from the hospitals and may only be treated at home. The small number of overworked Jewish physicians are unable to cope with the overwhelming number of calls or to render effective aid because of the lack of facilities.
Because of a shortage of the most elementary necessities, such as soap, even the doctors are unable properly to sterilize themselves after visiting cases of contagious disease.
One of the most tragic aspects of the Warsaw situation is the constant increase in the number of mental cases. The Jewish insane asylum Zofjowka, at Otwock, is so overcrowded that many patients are not receiving treatment. The asylum is without even a supply of sedatives.
Similar conditions prevail in all Warsaw hospitals for mental diseases, which are no longer accepting new patients. Hundreds of hungry, insane Jews and Jewesses are roaming the streets unprotected, crying for food and presenting a heartrending spectacle to passersby who are unable to help.
Warsaw streets still present a shocking picture of filth, destruction and decay despite months of conscripting labor for cleaning. The authorities ordered the Jewish Community to supply Jewish labor brigades but did not provide tools, the Jews being forced to supply their own primitive tools or work with bare hands.
Despite the fact that the Community daily supplies the authorities with 600 Jewish labor conscripts, the hunting of Jews and Jewesses of all ages for forced labor continues. It has developed into a flourishing racket, in which the conscript hunters free Jews who are prepared to pay a ransom.
In addition to the unofficial robbery during searches of Jewish houses, the authorities are officially confiscating Jewish furniture which is stored in the buildings of the former Polski Bank. It is presumed that the furniture will be distributed among the repatriated Baltic Germans as “gifts from the Fuehrer,”
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.
