The Nazi army in Poland “seems to regard plunder as normal,” it is asserted in an article signed “Eyewitness” in the current issue of the New Statesman and Nation.
The article describes anti-Jewish persecution in Warsaw and stresses the difference in methods and spirit between the old German army and the modern edition.
“The Nazi army,” the Writer states “seems to regard plunder as normal. One could often see a German soldier entering a Jewish shop with a woman and leaving with bunches of gowns. Sometimes you con hear a Jewish saleswoman arguing, only to be brought to her senses by the fists of the plunderer, who puts the prize into a car and goes off with his companion.
“Sometimes German soldiers enter a shop and choose goods worth many hundreds of marks, leaving two or three marks on the counter. There have been cases where soldiers, frightened of a complaint to officers, returned the stolen goods. More often, the authorities merely maltreated people who complained.”
The article cites exceptions where German soldiers went out of their way to aid Jews. In one instance, a soldier stopped a passing Jew and warned him not to go farther as a general anti-Jewish search was in progress in the neighborhood. In another instance, soldiers searched the apartment of a Warsaw Jewish lawyer, who had been an officer in the reserve. In handing over a revolver, the Jew forgot to give up the cartridges which lay in a desk and were found later. An hour later, the officer who conducted the search visited the frightened man and told him privately what to say to avoid difficulties.
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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.
