that generates a fixed income. Frauds cheat in various ways. They double-deal, take advantage of people’s ignorance, spread panic (“Watch out, a car from Pawiak is coming!”81 or “Der Ziander geyt”),82 or spread rumours (“Hundred zloty bills are invalid from today on,” “The price of coupon bread has gone up,” “Registration of knitwear”). Such fraudulent [. . .] are, of course, aimed at theft. For when panic spreads among merchants, they often abandon their merchandise or do not notice an act of theft. And it’s a piece of pie to steal a wallet or to empty a [merchant’s] pocket in the press of a crowd. Organised gangs prowl mostly near the corner of Leszno and Solna streets, near the corner of Smocza, Pawia, and Dzielna streets, and on Leszno and Okopowa streets. These thieves have no qualms. The Jewish Police are no saints either, and even though the thieves steal everything from paupers, dooming them to beggary and death by starvation; even though they further depress the terrorized population [. . .] round-ups, executions, and finally, even though their acts of fraud deprive Jews of the rest of the moral credit they still enjoy outside the ghetto [they remain unpunished]. To the outside world these louses are clear proof that Jews are thieves and frauds. Making matters worse, their number is increasing wherever people are at a work detail, nor is there any shortage of them in public institutions. Yet some cheats are more original and ingenious than others. They falsify [well-known] companies on the market, selling trash under recognized brand names. There are thousands of such cheats in every sphere, [. . .] they falsify coupons, Judenrat vouchers, orders. [. . .] They take advantage of [their] contacts [. . .] to cheat, swindle, and play people for the fool. [. . .] [. . .] The whole street steals and cheats, [. . .]. This means that all frequenters [. . .], the unemployed [4] aimlessly roaming about the streets, the merchants, and the salesmen are all bent on fraud and theft. But not all of them, because some simply do not have a knack for it. Anyway, most beg only because they cannot do anything else, neither steal nor cheat. Finally, many living off and on the street are simply too decent to steal or cheat. But the number of such moral individuals is steadily decreasing. I am referring to the professional, as it were, street beggars. They have their spots
