Mass arrests of Jews and confiscation of Jewish property are continuing in German-occupied areas of Poland, it was declared today by a leading Polish Zionist who escaped from Warsaw 10 days ago and reached Rumania through Soviet territory. The Zionist leader, asking that his name be withheld because his family was still in Warsaw, gave this correspondent the following account:
Jews still fear to appear in the streets of Warsaw and Lodz because German soldiers catch them, take off their overcoats and hand them to passing Poles to prove their friendliness towards the Poles. Coatless, the Jews are then driven through the rain to the hardest street labor. Nazis detain every passing Jewish woman, remove her coat and anything valuable, including wedding rings.
Jewish streets around Warsaw’s public park have been demolished, including Grzybowska and parts of Dluga. In the Nalewki quarter, stores have been reopened, but officially-sanctioned plundering is going on, the Nazis confiscating the merchandise.
Starvation is growing among the Jews since they have no means of earning a living. In Posen, Pommern and Upper Silesia the Jews have been driven into the interior of Poland, their houses, stores and property given away to local Germans. Life is restored in those territories which the Nazis consider an integral part of the Reich.
Crossing into the Soviet zone, the Zionist leader found life quiet in Bialystok and Baranovicz, up to Lwow, where, he states, Ukrainians had been shot for attempting a pogrom against the Jews during the first days of the occupation. Private stores and factories are all functioning under the management of their owners, but there is a shortage of food and clothing.
Meanwhile, the first direct mail and telegraph contact between refugees in Rumania and their relatives in Nazi-occupied Polish territory was established with the arrival of letters from Lodz and a telegram from Warsaw in Bucharest today. The letters left Lodz seven days ago.
The Rumanian authorities, while not yet accepting telegrams for Poland, are accepting registered letters, including reply cards to be signed by the recipient.
Such connections do not yet exist between Rumania and Soviet-occupied territory, despite the fact that they are adjoining. The effort of Americans and Englishmen to reach Lwow via Rumania failed because the Soviet Legation in Bucharest is not authorized to issue visas for the Soviet zone.
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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.
