Nazi Conspiracy & Aggression (1) Starvation. Chief among the methods utilized for the
annihilation of the Jewish people was starvation. Policies
were designed and adopted to deprive the Jews of the most
elemental necessities of life. Hans Frank, then Governor
General of Poland, wrote in his diary that hunger rations
were introduced in the Warsaw Ghetto (2233-E-PS). Referring
to the new food regulations of August 1942, he noted that by
these food regulations more than one million Jews were
virtually condemned to death.
[Page 994]
"That we sentence 1,200,000 Jews to die of hunger
should be noted only marginally. It is a matter of
course that should the Jews not starve to death it
would we hope result in a speeding up of the anti-
Jewish measures." (2233-E-PS)
In pursuance of the deliberate policy of Jewish starvation,
Jews were prohibited from pursuing agricultural activities
in order to cut them off from access to sources of food. A
document entitled 'Provisional Directives on the Treatment
of Jews", issued by the Reichscommissar for the Ostland,
provided:
"Jews must be cleaned out from the countryside. The
Jews are to be removed from all trades, especially from
trade with agricultural products and other foodstuffs." (1138-PS)
Jews were also excluded from the purchase of basic food,
such as wheat products, meat, eggs, and milk. A decree dated
18 September 1942, from the Ministry of Agriculture,
provided:
"Jews will no longer receive the following foods,
beginning with the 42nd distribution period (19 October
1942): meat, meat products, eggs, wheat products (cake,
white bread, wheat rolls, wheat flour, etc.) whole
milk, fresh skimmed milk, as well as such food
distributed not on food ration cards issued uniformly
throughout the Reich but on local supply certificates
or by special announcement of the nutrition office on
extra coupons of the food cards. Jewish children and
young people over ten years of age will receive the
bread ration of the normal consumer." (1347-PS)
The sick, the old, and pregnant mothers were excluded from
the special food concessions allotted to non-Jews. Seizure
by the State Police of food shipments to Jews from abroad
was authorized, and Jewish ration cards were distinctly
marked with the word "Jew" in color across the face of the
cards, so that the storekeepers could readily identify and
discriminate against Jewish purchasers.
According to page 110 of an official document of the
Czechoslovakian government published in 1943 and entitled
"Czechoslovakia Fights Back," Jewish food purchases were
confined to certain areas, to certain days, and to certain
hours. As might be expected, the period permitted for the
purchases occurred during the time when food stocks were
likely to be exhausted. (1689-PS)
By Special Order No. 44 for the Eastern Occupied
Territories, dated 4 November 1941, Jews were limited to
rations as low as only one-half of the lowest basic category
of other people, and the Ministry of Agriculture was
empowered to exclude Jews entirely or partially from
obtaining food thus exposing the Jewish community to death
by starvation. A bulletin issued by the Polish
[Page 995]
Ministry of Information, dated 15 December 1942 , concludes
that upon the basis of the nature of the separate rationing
and the amount of food available to Jews in the Warsaw and
Cracow ghettos, the system was designed to bring about
starvation:
"In regard to food supplies they are brought under a
completely separate system, which is obviously aimed at
depriving them of the most elemental necessities of
life." (L-165)
The
original plaintext version
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Volume
I Chapter XII
The Persecution of the Jews
(Part 8 of 14)