to allocate flats to Jews without a roof over their heads. In the beginning, the
housing department was located in a special room in the gmina building in
Południowa Street, where there was also a branch of the 5th police station
tasked with confirming the allocated flat by signing and stamping the housing
allocation form. The housing department was soon moved to Lutomierska
Street 13 in Bałuty (where there was a bus station before the war), because
a larger space was needed owing to the increasing number of applications for
housing. The number of Jews expelled grew bigger by the day. In the first days,
all those evicted were brought to the housing department by gendarmes. Later
the Jews came by themselves, with a certificate from the housing commissioner
confirming that they had been expelled from their flats. The number
of expellees grew and a great scramble for flats ensued. Every day was a story
in itself in the life of the expellees, who told us about the savage behaviour
of the Hitlerite thugs.
Meanwhile, on 9 February 1940, the creation of a ghetto was announced
in the Polish-German press, with a detailed plan and time frame for beginning
the allocation of flats to those who would have to leave the city. According
to this plan, the Geyer neighbourhood³¹⁶ was to begin the resettlement and
was to be the first to be cleared of its Jews and settled by Christians, who voluntarily moved to the southern district with all their belongings. The Jews,
however, were only allowed to take one piece of hand luggage and a rucksack.
A little later they were also allowed to take a couple of beds.
In accordance with the plan, the housing department established
branches at various locations in Bałuty, where it posted officials who received
the first transports of people resettled from the city. The Geyer neighbourhood
was divided [3] into blocks. Every day, the various Jewish residents of
a block were assembled in the courtyard and taken by gendarmes, SS and
SA, as well as Jewish gmina officials, to the transit points in Bałuty, where
they were allocated flats after registration. They were given flats in a block
of houses in Bałuty which had earlier been vacated by Christians. The Jewish
gmina officials from the housing department were regarded by the German
316 A reference to the southern part of the city, where the factory owned by Ludwik Geyer (1805–1869) was located, occupying a vast area. Geyer belonged to the first and most powerful entrepreneurs who took advantage of the favourable conditions created by the authorities of the Polish Kingdom. Geyer’s company developed in the 1930s. See Doc. 12.
