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Nazi Commissars Put over Polish Jewish Shops; Peasants Secretly Feed Jews

September 25, 1939
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Polish advices said today that Nazi commissars have been installed in every Jewish enterprise left untouched by the German bombardment of Polish cities. The same sources said that the Nazi administration in occupied Polish towns was refusing food to Jews.

Punishment, including death, was reported being meted out for every anti-Nazi utterance. The Germans were said to be taking over the shops and homes of Jews who fled before the advancing Nazi army.

The Polish peasants were declared to be displaying great sympathy with the Jews, secretly feeding those who were unable to obtain rations. Many homeless Jews were being sheltered by the peasants, who also helped many others to escape over the frontiers into neighboring neutral countries.

News through Polish channels also revealed that all Jews in Gdynia, German-occupied Polish port, had been interned and that many Jewish children whose parents had been killed or separated were left without care. Polish soldiers had been feeding the children before the Nazi occupation, it was said, while Jewish nurses who had been caring for them were now at the front. It was estimated by Polish sources that “several hundred a day” of these children were dying.

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