large amounts of capital because there was nothing to do with the money.
In the second half of November a change took place. The city council summoned
all the banks (except the German ones) [. . .] to the city hall the following
day. In addition, the banks had to report their cash assets and balances
to the Reichskreditkasse (state bank)¹⁶⁹ on the day of the meeting. These consisted
entirely of the amounts in the blocked accounts, because there were
no other transactions. All the banks that had been summoned attended the
meeting. The mayor explained that the municipality was unable to cover all
its expenses, as taxes brought in very little. For that reason, the municipality
required a loan from the banks. According to [. . .], the banks held 12 million
in the blocked accounts. Half of it, i.e. 6 million, had to be paid over as
a loan. The amount of the loan was to be covered by half of the capital of each
bank. In three days, each bank had to withdraw the corresponding amount
and pay it in. A week later, another meeting was convened at which the banks
signed loan declarations and were issued receipts. The term of the loan was
2 years. At that time, a decree was issued assigning commissioners to all the
banks, except the German ones. The loan obligations were signed by the commissioners and the banks. After that, another meeting of all banks with the
exception of the German ones was called. At the same time, their cash assets
and balances had to be submitted to the Reichsbank on the day of the meeting.
The meeting was formal in nature. Some twenty representatives of banks
sat down at a round table. Then the mayor entered, together with his deputy,
representatives of the SS, and a director of the Reichsbank. Opening the meeting,
the mayor stated quite clearly: ‘I have summoned you for consultation,
and not to discuss everything I say to you. You may only state what technical
measures you intend to adopt in order to put what I tell you into effect.’
He brought up two matters:
I. Exchange of zlotys for marks. The representative of the Reichsbank
proposed a two [. . .] said the time limit of 2 weeks was too [. . .] money from
zlotys to marks [. . .] the money was exchanged. [2] The exchange operation
was to be carried out after a declaration had been filled in with name, address
and amount.
169 (German) The Reich Credit Union Bank. It took over the infrastructure of the Bank of Poland Joint-Stock Company (Bank Polski Spółka Akcyjna).
