Nazi authorities in occupied Poland have ordered the Jews in the ghettos to prepare for possible Russian and British air attacks, according to information reaching Polish Government circles here today.
The reports state that the Jewish policemen in the Warsaw and other ghettos have been ordered to take special courses in air raid protection, in addition to their duties of regulating traffic within the ghetto and supervising sanitary conditions there.
Scarcity of food in Warsaw has resulted in a Nazi order forbidding Jews in the ghetto to buy fish, the report declares. The bread ration for Jews at the same time was reduced to two ounces a day per person. No extra allowance is granted for Jews doing manual labor. The increased, food shortage has resulted in the price of a pound of bread on the “black market” rising to 14 zloty, nominally $2.80, while a pound of butter cannot be secured there for less than 60 zloty, which is $12 at the pre-war rate of exchange.
A list of foodstuffs, the sale of which is prohibited to Jews in the ghettos, has been published by the Nazi authorities in connection with banning the sale of fish. The list includes meat, poultry, butter, cream, certain kinds of cheese, sugar, cake, apples, pears, plums, cherries, strawberries, raspberries, raisins, sultanas, oranges, tangerines, fresh vegetables, new potatoes and salads.
TWO-THIRDS OF WARSAW JEWISH BUDGET DERIVED FROM BURIAL TAX
Acting upon instructions of the Nazi authorities, the Jewish Council in the Warsaw ghetto announced a 25% increase in burial taxes. Last year two-thirds of the 17,000,000 zlotys, which constituted the year’s budget of the Warsaw Jewish Community, came from burial taxes. The reason for the increase in this tax is the growing misery in the ghetto which the Jewish Council is not able to meet with its present budget.
Polish Government circles also received a report this week stating that the Nazi authorities in Eastern Poland have expelled all Jewish farmers from the village of Iwaniki, near Brest-Litovsk which was famous as a Jewish agricultural settlement established more than 100 years ago under the Czarist regime. The deported Jewish peasants were ordered to leave their cattle and agricultural machinery behind for use by German farmers who will be settled in the village.
The mounting scarcity in the Jewish ghettos in occupied Poland, according to the reports received by the Polish circles here, is explained by the fact that a large number of wounded German soldiers who are convalescing in Poland are consuming a large part of the food which was originally earmarked for distribution among the Jewish population.
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.
