Polish official sources reported today that the German authorities in Poland had intensified seizure of food from the local population, leading to an acute shortage of supplies among Poles and Jews.
Economics Dictator Hermann Goering has issued an order including Nazi Poland within the German four-year plan as a source of food, the report said, and the Nazi food authorities in Poland have been separated from the German administration there and instead made directly responsible to Berlin.
As a result, all possessions of inhabitants of Nazi Poland in the form of grain, cattle and other foods are being registered and large quantities are being confiscated for shipment to Germany, it was declared. The confiscations have led to a shortage of bread and potatoes and food prices are mounting daily.
Meanwhile, the Polish report stated, many Jewish stores in Cracow–even those not dealing with foods–have been closed by the Nazi authorities and their owners evicted for “speculation.”
The executive committee of the German Social Democratic Party, from its head-quarters in Paris, issued a report, based on an account by one of its members who visited Warsaw, Lodz and other German-held Polish cities, which stated: “It is quite clear–and this is also admitted by German officials–that before Spring hunger and starvation will prevail among the population in the whole of occupied Poland.”
The statement also gave added confirmation to reports of wholesale executions of Jews, mass arrests and confiscation of property.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
