to the instructions of the Department of Health, could not last longer than 48 hours. In order to make such a lock-down particularly harmful for commerce, shops and businesses were sealed.
The Order Service exploited the situation in their own way. Hardly any tenement had the money to pay the fee required by the Department of Health. [2] The money had to be collected from individual tenants, and yet no one was allowed to go out of the tenement, and the lock-down started at 6:30 in the morning, or even earlier. Those who wanted to leave, even if they paid the fee assigned to them by the House Committee, were not allowed out by the Order Service on the principle of collective responsibility. However, it was necessary to go out, because the instruction said that only certain people could leave the tenement during the lock-down, in particular, the following: a ) regardless of the payment of the apportioned fee—Order Service officers, doctors representing the Department of Health and Health Care Centres, officers of disinfection columns, councillors of the Jewish Council, and employees of German companies; b) after paying the apportioned fee—officials of Centos, ŻTOS, and TOZ, officials of the Jewish Council, and practicing physicians. In fact, other people could leave as well, provided they gave money to the Order Service.
[3] In some cases, the Order Service had an arrangement with the House Committee: for a certain amount of money they would allow in or out persons indicated by the committee. Usually in such cases, after paying the fee required by the Department of Health, a tenant had to bribe the Order Service in order to be allowed through the gate. There were different practical methods used in such transactions, depending on the cunning of an individual Order Service officer. Often, however, this became a bone of contention between the officers of the Order Service on the one hand, and the House Committee on the other, as well as between the Department of Health collectors, who were interested in collecting the due fee as quickly as possible, and the Order Service, who, in turn, preferred that the lock-down be held for as long as possible.
[4] The events that took place in the early February 1942, may serve as an illustration. A tenement house on Nalewki Street was to be held under the collection lock-down. The Order Service, in accordance with their instructions, locked down the house. The Chairman of the House Committee, a man named Hochman, summoned the group commander in charge of the operation, and told him that the fee due for the Department of Health would be paid, asking
