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Crippling of Cracow’s Economy Slows Down Expulsion of Jews

December 1, 1940
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The Nazi plan to expel the entire Jewish population from Cracow has struck another snag, according to reports reaching Geneva from Nazi-occupied Poland.

Determined to make the capital of the Government-General “judenreim” the Nazi administration has renewed its efforts to replace Jews in factories and in artisanship with Germans repatriated from Soviet Russia and the Baltic countries. It has also ordered the expulsion of many Jewish doctors and small traders from Cracow. This drive, like previous efforts to get rid of the Jewish population in Cracow, has seriously hampered the economic life of the city and led to modification of the expulsion order.

Official Nazi data recently published in Cracow reveals that there are now in this city more than 20,000 Jewish factory workers and artisans, including 4,000 engaged in the textile industry and many hundreds in the metallurgical industry. Many Jews are also irreplaceable as engineers, mechanics and doctors. The process of expelling the Jews from Cracow must, therefore, proceed at a much slower tempo than originally planned, the Nazis have reluctantly concluded.

It is estimated that of the 65,000 Jews who resided in Cracow before the Nazi occupation, more than half are still in Cracow. The expulsion will continue at a gradual pace, it was reported.

Meanwhile, the Jewish community of Cracow decided to open schools for Jewish children. A registration conducted by the community established that there are 4,023 Jewish children of school age. They will all be accommodated in the Jewish community schools.

Establishment of a walled ghetto for the 300,000 Jews of Warsaw has been followed by a Nazi order for institution of a ghetto in Radom, it was reported. According to the Krakauer Zeitung, German organ in Poland, Jews in Radom have been ordered to leave the center of the city for a ghetto comprising a small quarter able to hold only part of their number. The remainder will be obliged to leave soon for the provinces.

(Previous reports had said that all the Jews of Radom would be expelled.)

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