A refugee who arrived from Poland today reported that the Nazis have forbidden Jews to buy garments, shoes and white bread, allowing them to purchase brown bread only.
Although there is no shortage of food, he said, Jewish bakers have been permitted to buy only rye flour. Jewish shop owners have been allowed to carry on business but are forbidden to buy raw materials and are forced to deplete their stocks. German soldiers, particularly young ones, he said, are plundering Jewish shops. The informant denied reports of renewed seizure of Jewish women in the streets of Warsaw and Lodz.
The Gestapo is not preventing anybody from leaving the country, the refugee said, adding that 29 Jews holding Palestine visas are shortly leaving Warsaw. The Nazis are no longer sending Jews to the Lublin “reservation,” he reported, since the majority of the deportees fled to Russia. He said that only a “few thousands” were left in the Lublin area.
According to the refugee, the Soviet authorities have taken away all Palestine passports held by persons in Soviet Poland, sending them to Moscow for examination.
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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.