In the battle for large orders of furniture for the military and other institutions, a battle raging on the Aryan side between Polish and German businessmen, the former prevail. Indeed, it is characteristic that the German official agents were not very keen on business conducted by the Volksdeutsch, whom they considered “Koniunkturschweine,”511 while German companies from the Reich, which had begun their operations in the government, were not yet well enough established to supply the ordered goods to their own benefit, nor to that of their customer. Other than that, there was the Polish entrepreneur who, even with merely basic market orientation, but having contacts with the Jews, could be the cheapest supplier of ordered goods.
The circumstances concerning organisation of work turned out to be completely opposite than in normal conditions before the war. Typically, it was the Jewish outsource employer in the carpenter industry who would have employed a Christian outworker. Jewish craftsmen in this industry were more independent and therefore did not allow themselves to be exploited by entrepreneurs. Christian carpenters were much cheaper and had less personal initiative and were therefore often taken advantage of by Jewish outwork employers.
During the war, it was the Jewish craftsman who had to charge less because, isolated from economic circulation, he sought any income at any cost. The newly emerged Christian outwork employers took advantage of that, commissioning work to Jewish craftsmen.
The main issue was not the competitive ability of the Jewish craftsman against the Christian one, but his bad overall situation, his isolation from customers and the market. These circumstances generated an excellent profit margin for the Christian outwork employer. We should not assume that Christian carpenters were completely excluded from supply work. However, the spread of rates paid to both groups of craftsmen increased to 23–30 percent as a result of the difficult situation of the Jews, providing an incentive for Christian entrepreneurs to commission most of the bulk supplies to the Jews. What helped here was the very initiative of the Jewish craftsmen and the participation of Jewish intermediaries, who took even more advantage of the workshop output and increased earning opportunities for Aryan entrepreneurs.
