Conditions in Labor Camps in Poland Force Jews to Seek Loan from Nazis

Lack of clothing and spread of disease among hundreds of thousands of Jews conscripted into labor camps in Nazi-occupied Poland have prompted the executive of the Warsaw Jewish Community to apply to the Nazi administration of the Government-General for a special loan to be used in improving health conditions in the camps, it was reported here today.

Having no illusions as to what the answer of the German administration may be, the community at the same time organized its own campaign to obtain clothing from the local Jewish population to be shipped to the camps. Despite the difficult conditions under which the Jews in Warsaw live today, the first two days of the campaign resulted in collection of 5,000 pieces of warm underwear, 3,000 pairs of socks, 300 suits, 200 sweaters and 300 pair of shoes, in addition to 6,000 plates, knives and forks and other kitchen utensils.

The community executive also despatched to the labor camps a number of Jewish doctors and stocks of medicaments in an effort to check the spread of disease resulting from the severe frosts now gripping certain sections of Nazi-occupied Poland. Unprepared for the winter, the hundreds of thousands of Jews in the labor camps are suffering from cold since the Nazis refuse to provide coal for the camps and do not permit even bonfires from timber in the neighboring woods.

In Warsaw itself sanitary conditions among the Jewish population continue to improve, according to reports reaching Geneva. There is a substantial decline of infectious diseases noticeable. Only a few dozen epidemic cases among Jews in Warsaw are registered, compared with the several thousand which were recorded in the early months of the Nazi occupation.