New Curbs on Polish Jews Imposed by Nazis; Cracow Homes Seized

A sweeping new ordinance governing the activities of Jews has been issued by the Nazi authorities in Cracow, capital of rump Poland, according to information reaching Polish official circles here today. The ordinance provides:

(1) All Jews must shave off their beards; (2) no Jew is permitted to enter an "Aryan" restaurant or cafe; (3) Jews are forbidden to hold "political conversations"; (4) every Jew, man and woman, when coming in contact with an "Aryan," must open the conversation by stating: "I am a Jew."

It was also reported that virtually all Jewish-owned houses in the central section of Cracow have been confiscated and their inhabitants ordered to evacuate on as little as six hours’ notice. They found shelter in the poor Jewish section of the city.

Further details on the removal of Jews in Lodz to a ghetto have reached Paris. Those evicted are forbidden to take along any of their possessions, except a bundle of laundry, underwear, clothing and family photographs, with the stipulation that no bundle can be heavier than requires one person to carry.

Each Jew, when moving, must fill out a registration card and file it with the Gestapo office in charge of the transfer. He must turn over to the same officials the key to his house after having locked all doors and windows. In certain sections of Pomorska and Konstantinovska Streets the Jews are subjected to special medical isolation before being transferred to the ghetto.

The Jews are usually moved to the ghetto in groups of 100. They receive notice in advance and have to report to certain places specified by the Gestapo. There they are met by Gestapo officers who warn them that anyone attempting to leave the group during the transfer will be shot. They are then led to the ghetto, where they are turned over to representatives of the Jewish community with instructions to squeeze them into rooms previously assigned.

Many ghetto houses are overcrowded with six to ten families living under the worst sanitary conditions. Germans who leave the ghetto section are assigned to the evacuated Jewish houses in the center of the city. They also receive the furniture and other immovable property left behind by the Jews.

In addition to removal to the ghetto, many Jews are packed into cattle trains and sent to unknown destinations. According to reports from Jews who escaped from Czestocha, a special freight train carrying several hundred Lodz Jews was seen passing through Czestochowa. The victims were not permitted to leave their places in the train during the three days the train stopped in Czestochowa and not until many fainted from thirst were local Jews permitted to bring them water and food.

Jews arriving from Lodz report that many who have not yet been transferred to the ghetto, where living conditions are unbearable, prefer to escape from the city. They wander during the night on side roads, hoping to reach Warsaw or some other city in the Government-General, where conditions are not as bad as in Lodz. The city of Lodz has been renamed Litzmannstadt in memory of a German general.

The "Black Book" issued by the exiled Polish Government reports that a group of about 30 Polish citizens, most of them Jews, were lined up in Sosnowiec on Sept. 4, 1939, and were executed, according to the report of a person who witnessed the executions from the window of a nearby house. The entire male population had previously been arrested in their homes by German troops. Later the group of 30 was separated from the rest. German officers assisted in the execution.