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General Strike by Jewish Workers in Lodz Forces Germans to Halt Executions

February 13, 1944
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A general strike by tens of thousands of Jewish slave workers in the ghetto factories of Lodz forced the German occupation authorities to halt, at least temporarily, mass executions of Jews, it is revealed today in a report from Jewish underground sources received by the Polish Government-in-Exile here.

The report adds that the Germans are proceeding with the liquidation of the various Jewish labor camps throughout Poland, to which Jews were sent when the ghettos were wiped out. In many cases armed resistance has marked Nazi efforts to execute the forced laborers.

An emissary of the underground who reached Britain this week discloses that Jews required for work in German factories wear a number on their shoulder which prevents their execution by reaming Gestapo squads. The numbers, he said, are popularly referred to as “life permits.” He added that the Nazi execution squads do not always respect these “permits.” When the Trawniki and Poniatowka labor camps were liquidated recently, many of those “privileged Jews” were murdered, he said.

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