Epidemios Mount in Warsaw Ghetto, Spurred by Search for Dead in Debris

Polish Government circles reported receipt of news from Warsaw today that an intensified search for dead bodies lying under debris had added to the epidemics raging in the Jewish ghetto, from which several hundred Jews had already died in recent weeks. The Gestapo has ordered burial of all corpses within a week, the information said, and hundreds of funerals can be seen on the Warsaw streets, especially in the ghetto.

The Nazi authorities could check the epidemics in the Jewish-populated streets if they delivered medical and sanitary relief, it was said, but instead they permitted the diseases to rage, only taking precautionary measures to protect German soldiers. Many Jews fall in the street, swollen from hunger, it was declared.

A curb us incident was revealed in the Polish report. During the cleaning of debris in Warsaw, several Jewish families were uncovered who had been living under the ruins for as long as three or four weeks without seeing sunshine, but well stocked with food which they had stored before the bombardment:

A person who left German-occupied Poland on Nov. 28 reported to the Polish authorities here that in Rzeszow and numerous other cities the Nazis had forbidden the Polish population to deal with Jews and had ordered the Jews to deal with their coreligionists exclusively.

The Nazi attitude towards Jews and Poles was formulated, it was said by Arthur Greiser, Danzig Nazi leader, in a speech in Lodz in which he said: “The Jews must altogether disappear from the surface. They will not be tolerated by the Reich. The Poles may just as well get used to the fact that they must become the serfs of the Germans.”

Pillaging of Jewish homes in Lodz was reported to be continuing, together with the burning down of synagogues, including the large synagogue on Aleja Kosciuscko. All Lodz Jews must carry yellow armbands, including women and even infants in baby carriages.