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The
Office of the Commissar for the Jewish quarter was set up by
order of the Governor General of April 19, 1941 (V.Bl.G.G., p.
211). Any report on the activities of this Office can
therefore only begin from this date. But in the following a
short account will be given of the development of the Jewish
quarter in Warsaw.
From
the beginning of the German Administration in Warsaw the idea
arose inevitably, owing to the great number of Jews there,
that they should be concentrated in a Jewish area of
residence. The most important reason was, first of all, the
desire to isolate the Jews from the Aryan world on general
political and ideological grounds. In practice there were
grave requirements in the fields of health and economy....
The
general situation in the Jewish quarter has up to now given no
cause for anxiety. Even the beginning of the war with Russia
and the introduction of the blackout did not change this.
The
three most important problems in connection with the Jewish
quarter were, and are, the food situation, health and the
economy.
The
situation as regards food and health is closely linked. A
sudden leap in the number of deaths in May of this year
indicates that the food shortage had turned into starvation.
The food supply was thus revealed as the most urgent task.
[The aim] was first of all to improve nutrition by means of
popular soup-kitchens, increasing both nutritional values and
the number of food portions supplied. This improvement
succeeded in large measure, as may be seen from the following
figures: the number of food portions distributed daily by the
Jewish Social Self-Help less than 30,000 recently was raised
to about 50,000 by the end of May of this year, and to about
115,000 by June; in July and August it was maintained at about
120,000. This was done with the aid of special allocations.
These special allocations included, in the period May through
August of this year, altogether 170 tons oats, 125 tons rye
flour, 20,000 kgs. sugar, 24,000 kgs. [cooking] oil, 100,000
kgs. bread, 10,000 kgs. meat and some other supplies.
Nevertheless
the quantity of legally supplied foodstuffs is far from enough
to counter the acute starvation in the Jewish quarter
effectively. The quantity of legally supplied foodstuffs is
far from enough to counter the acute starvation in the Jewish
quarter effectively. The quantity of foodstuffs smuggled into
the Jewish quarter is not small, but owing to the high cost it
is available only to the wealthier section of the Jews. If
there is to be any successful large-scale exploitation of
Jewish labor, it will be necessary to increase their food
supply considerably.
The
increase in the food supply described above was insufficient
to stop the rise in the number of deaths resulting from the
generally wretched condition of the Jews since the beginning
of the war. The following figures give an impressive picture
of the number of deaths:
January
1941 898 May 1941 3,821
February
1941 1,023 June 1941 4,290
March
1941 1,608 July 1941 5,550
April
1941 2,061 August 1941 5,560
It
is seen that in August, for the first time, mortality remains
unchanged at the level of the previous month. Improved
nutrition appears now to be having its effect. This is
confirmed by the preliminary figures for September, which
indicate that the total for this month will scarcely exceed
the figure for each of the past two months.
Another
reason for the increase in deaths is the increase of typhus in
the Jewish quarter. Despite energetic efforts to fight the
typhus, the number of cases has risen steadily. Since July of
this year the number of cases of typhus reported every week
has remained fairly steady. They range from 320 to 450 new
cases. The last figure for a month (August), at 1,788, is only
slightly higher than the figure for the previous month at
1,736 cases....
Auerswald
Eksterminacja,
pp. 129-132. |
