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560,000 Jews Held in 2 Polish Ghettos; Thousands Uprooted from Homes

February 18, 1941
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The Nazi authorities in Poland are intensifying the isolation of Jews in ghettos and expulsion from various areas of the occupied territory it was reported here today.

The Jewish community in the Warsaw ghetto was said to be making superhuman efforts, at great personal sacrifice of its members, to feed and house the hundreds of emaciated and sick coreligionists whom the Gestapo daily dumps into the ghetto. A total of 400,000 persons have been crammed into the area up to Feb. 1, according to an official census.

Although every private house and the community’s premises are filled with refugees, the community spirit is described as magnificent, with everyone sharing impartially whatever food, clothing and shelter he possesses, but, the report adds, “the limits of human endeavor are nearing.”

Gazeta Zydowska, Jewish organ in Poland, states that 70,000 Jews have already been evicted from their homes west of the Vistula and transported to the Warsaw ghetto. The entire Jewish population of Sochaczew was expelled on Feb. 5 and additional thousands are arriving in Warsaw from Pianozna and Zyradow.

The Nazi magazine Die Deutsche Polizei publishes and article by Police President Albert of Lodz describing the establishment of a ghetto for the remaining 160,000 Jews of that city. The quarter is 16 kilometers in circumference and is guarded by a battalion of S.S. (elite guards), the article says.

Results of the campaign of expropriation in Lodz are given by Government Administrant or Moser in the newspaper Litzmanns taedter Zeitung. He announced 24,570 Polish and Jewish corporate and private businesses have been confiscated, including 70 banks, 3,500 textile firms, 500 wholesale enterprises, 8,500 retail establishments and 8,200 handicrafts mens shops. Three thousand German administrators are employed to run these businesses, it is stated.

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