Corruption is the fifth plague, equally commonplace in the ghetto and unbelievably widespread, simply ubiquitous in all spheres of public life. Cash will buy you a Kennkarte,87 a Meldekarte, and an Arbeitskarte. You can buy a job and a “badge” in the police force, a position in the Judenrat, a work record, an assignment of housing, an allotment of wood, of food, along with an exemption from a camp list.88 A bribe will reduce your fee, tribute, or contribution. It will get you released from prison or jail. It will discontinue an investigation. It will guarantee that you do not end up in a camp as a result of a round-up. It will guarantee that they neither requisition your flat, nor delouse it, nor close the gate, nor detain you due to an unpaid contribution, tribute, or fee. This plague has mostly hit the poor—just like everything in the ghetto, for that matter. Those without money end up in camps or have to perform forced labour, leave their flat, pay, and [. . .] corruption is a rule which [. . .] operates in public life and especially [. . .] the authorities (the police, treasury clerks, [. . .] [employees of] telephone [exchanges], waterworks,89 etc.) are one thing [. . .]. [. . .] The same pertains to smuggling—the immoral business that, nevertheless, maintains the whole ghetto. And the poor, unable to avail of the benefits of smuggling and corruption, have to slowly [. . .] Hence, this immorality is doubly immoral because it hits not only the honest, but also the poor.
[6] Just like everything else, corruption flourishes mostly on the street: people have to buy themselves out of street round-ups; smugglers, merchants, and stall owners offer bribes on the street, and the same pertains to walking in or out of locked-up buildings, etc.
Moral shamelessness is the sixth plague, visible and reigning supreme on the street. Beggars and paupers relieve themselves on the street: if not on Leszno Street, then on Orla Street, if not on Karmelicka Street, then in the alleys. You often see women, young or old, spread their legs, lift their skirt, and relieve themselves, shamelessly looking into the eyes of embarrassed pedestrians. Children do it very often and in a cynical way, provided that children can be cynical at all. The sight of the naked intimate body parts of
