issue a certificate saying that the person has not received his ration card for the following month. Without such a certificate, [5] registration at a new address is impossible. Of course, they check each time to see if the person for whom the certificate has been issued is indeed not on the list. The dead cannot be buried before their names are removed from the registry. People who receive their first ration card in the building are required to present their identification document. Registration clerks are quizzed at random about the tenants in each flat. The smallest suspicion results in a strict dayor night-time inspection.
In spite of everything, this complex system of oversight is not, of course, impossible to circumvent. The easiest way to achieve this is through collaboration between the clerk and the tenant, where the tenant shares the ration cards of fictional people registered in his flat with the clerk. In case of a day-time inspection, the tenant provides personal details about such fictitious residents, and even if the inspection takes place at night, he still can explain their absence. When such duties were performed by supply delegates, who were working on a voluntary basis, it was customary to pay them a small tribute in the form of vouchers. Night inspections were carried out by special Jewish policemen who for 10–20 zlotys found everything to be in perfect order. Inspectors are less corrupt, but among them are also those who do not sneeze at a few cards. Others recognise the significance of one’s “backing”. Some simply tolerate a small amount of dead vouchers in the belief that “the registration clerk also has to make a living”. In some cases, [6] clerks cooperate with the head of the Supply District536 , and in return for tribute on a permanent basis, are protected from inspection. Each head of the district has arrangements of this kind through one [of] the clerks, who is known to “have access to him”. Such an arrangement, however, is cost-effective only when there is a large number of dead vouchers available, because the heads of the district are very demanding. Clerks also pay a fixed tribute to most administrators, and to almost all the caretakers. The Naj family paid a total of 7 ration cards to caretakers, 4 cards to administrators, 5 cards to tenants (collaborations), and 5 cards to the head of the Supply District in which they have 15 cards.
