The acute shortage of skilled labor in Germany is forcing the Nazi government to establish more and more factories in the Jewish ghettos in occupied Poland where qualified workers can be found, for the manufacturing of clothing, boots and other articles for the army, it is reported in the Nazi paper Krakauer Zeitung reaching here today from Poland.
The paper reveals that five new large factories were established in the Warsaw ghetto in April, with several thousand Jews working there under German supervisors. One of these factories employs 3,500 Jews in the manufacturing of textile articles for the army. Another factory employing 1,500 skilled Jewish furriers is producing fur articles for the German soldiers. A central warehouse has been erected in the ghetto where all manufactured articles are assembled before being dispatched to the army posts.
The Jewish workers in these factories, the Nazi paper writes, receive miserable wages but a system of bonuses exists in order to stimulate greater production. At the same time “exemplary punishment” is meted out to those who produce less than the required quota.
Other reports reaching here from Poland disclose that following the intervention of the Vatican, the Nazi authorities in the Warsaw ghetto now permit converted Jews to carry on business on Saturdays instead of Sundays. Hitherto the Gestapo did not differentiate between the ghetto dwellers and ordered Saturday as a day of rest for all.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
