Mobile convoys of food to supply ghettos will be one of Poland’s first needs after reoccupation, the Polish delegation to the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration said in a report made public here.
Asked to mention the special problems that will call for UNRRA’s help during the first period after liberation, the Polish group, headed by Vice-Premier Jan Kwapinski, pointed out that “the ghettos and sections designated by the Germans as living quarters for the Jewish population are deprived of the most elementary and primitative necessities.”
In view of this situation, the Poles said they might ask UNRRA to supply equipment and food for mobile convoys to feed “the Jewish population during the period of the liquidation of ghettos and centers of forced settlement.”
Another Polish report took occasion to mention “the specially tragic situation of the Jews and of the Jewish children. “It is known that thousands of Jewish children have perished together with their parents and relatives during the liquidation of the ghettos in Poland,” the report said. “These children died with the adults. Mown down by machine guns, perishing in sealed death trains, executed by electrocution, and in poison gas chambers.”
This report also explained: “Foodstuffs are exported to Germany, and the Poles are allotted incredibly small food rations, amounting to 800 calories per diem for Christians, and 400 calories for Jews.” According to League of Nations studies, the first symptoms of starvation appear when a diet drops below the 2,200 calory mark.
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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.
